The Strange Case of Finley Jayne

The Steampunk Chronicles #0.5

by Kady Cross

Finley Jayne knows she's not 'normal'. Normal girls don't lose time, or have something inside them that makes them capable of remarkably violent things. Her behavior has already cost her one job, so when she's offered the lofty position of companion to Phoebe, a debutante recently engaged to Lord Vincent, she accepts, despite having no experience. Lord Vincent is a man of science with his automatons and inventions, but Finley is suspicious of his motives where Phoebe is concerned. She will do anything to protect her new friend, but what she discovers is even more monstrous than anything she could have imagined.

Genres: Steampunk, Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical

83 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Kady Cross is a pseudonym for USA Today bestselling author Kathryn Smith. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and a pride of cats. She likes singing with Rock Band on the 360, British guys, Vietnamese food, and makeup (she’s hopelessly addicted to YouTube makeup tutorials!). When she’s not writing Kady likes to catch up on her favorite TV shows, read a good book or make her own cosmetics.

Reviews

[Navessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little novella was slipped into the beginning of my copy of The Girl in the Steel Corset, and somehow I didn’t realize it until I got to the end. Shaddup, I haven’t had enough coffee this morning.

If there was one word I could use to sum this up, it would be FUN. I enjoyed ever single moment of this. It was filled with the type of witty banter that some of my favorite historical romance authors excel at, the seamless world building reminded me of what I expect to find in urban fantasy, and the heroine proved to be the rare strong, self-sufficient type that some of the few young adult books I’ve enjoyed contain.

I AM EXCITE.

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You're the very spawn of Satan and I'll not have you darken this door ever again.”

And so we are introduced to Finley Jayne :)

Really enjoyed this, Finley is a fun and very interesting character... it'd easy to connect with and root for her. She's kickass and loyal, someone I would be glad to have on my side :).

Her abilities aren't really explained here but left mysterious, Finley still getting the hang of things herself and doesn't understand why she is the way she is.
Makes me wonder if it comes from her father's side somehow perhaps, hmm..

Didn't see much of steampunk in here but the things that were mentioned were very interesting.

Loved Phoebe and her mother, I hope we see more of them (and that her father falls down a deep dark hole) :).

Plot: 3.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Writing: 3.5 stars

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! It's a new genre called steampunk, which I find interesting. I've read a book by Cassandra Clare, don't remember the name, but I think it may also be classified as steampunk. At any rate, I'm fascinated by how a new genre comes into being. Steampunk (the way I understand it) combines science and magic and usually steam engines or clockworks and often (tho maybe not always) a Victorian setting. I'm still trying to figure it out. In this story by Kady Cross, Finley Jayne has just been fired from her job (apparently as a maid) because she socks the governess in the jaw because the governess hit the young master Fenton for taking another biscuit from the tea tray. The governess loses a few teeth and the reader learns that Finley Jayne has more strength than the ordinary girl. That's going to come in handy at her next job as companion to Phoebe Morton. Phoebe's engaged to Lord Vincent. Phoebe's father has arranged for his daughter's marriage to Lord Vincent in exchange for Vincent's promise to pay off his gambling debts. Lord Vincent is a much older aristocrat who's wife died in an unfortunate accident. Phoebe bears an amazing resemblance to the late Lady Vincent. Lord Vincent is a mad scientist kind of guy, who builds his own servant automatons as well as brass automaton horses that draw his carriage, but what other kind of experiments might he conduct? Intriguing, eh? Finley Jayne has a few other 'gifts' besides increased strength and as she calls it, 'a darker side. Cross does a good job with the plot and characterizations. I find that she fleshes out her secondary characters to create another element of interest in this short story, 78 pages. Cross packs a lot in!

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was blown away by the character development in this short-story, especially considering it was free. I guess it's proof that every now and then a little gem does pop up on the freebie list.

The story has some pretty crazy Frankensteinish elements to it, which may not appeal to everyone, but I thought it was fun. The plot was fast-paced, and Finley was a thoroughly interesting heroine.

I've been riding the fence when it came to reading The Girl in the Steel Corset, mainly because I'm burned out on the whole steampunk genre.
At first it was different, and then it started looking like sci-fi's dorky cousin. Instead of a cool futuristic gadget like, say, a teleporter...you end up with a steam-powered jet-pack!
Oh.
You've got a jet-pack.
And it's powered by...steam.

See what I mean? Dorky. Cousin.

At any rate, this book managed to make me forget that it's not my preferred genre, and sucked me right into Finley's world. I can honestly say that I'm now looking forward to finding out more about her (and her strange abilities) in the next full-length book.

[ℓуηη_σƒ_νєℓαяιѕ · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I really enjoyed this. I might've even enjoyed it more than The Girl in the Steel Corset. Definitely an easy from me.

Lady Morton and her daughter Phoebe are quite lovable characters, and you love them all the more for accepting Finley as she is, not fearing her or wanting to reject her. I really hope to see them again later in the series. Dear sweet people. And how can you not love Finley? She's as badass as they come, and is protective of Phoebe and her mother. Busting up automotons, knocking out teeth, jumping from 2nd story windows, and a bit of breaking & entering, all mashed into this short novella. Love it. And the irony of Silas' choice of book to give Finley to read when they sent her off is quite hilarious. The author has quite the sense of humor. Definitely worth reading if you have an interest in the series.

[Wendy Darling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, well, well. This short story, which is billed as a prequel to The Girl in the Steel Corset, is probably technically better than the actual book, if only because it feels more complete and is much tauter and better plotted. The mechanical wizardry is still a little nuts, but somehow it's in a more enjoyable way here--it's almost what you'd expect from a film that's been MST3K'd.

There weren't quite as many threads connecting it to the main story as you might hope, aside from a few near-miss encounters with Griffin, but overall it's kind of a fun novella. This is actually quite a bit longer than I expected (maybe a tad longer than it needs to be?), but anyone who enjoys Steel Corset will probably also enjoy this one.

This book is currently still available as a freebie for Kindle and for Nook, although you may certainly download to read on your computer as well.

My full review of The Girl in the Steel Corset may be found in The Midnight Garden.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne is a quick, fun prequel to a book I haven't yet read, The Girl in the Steel Corset. It works reasonably well on its own, without having to infodump. If you're used to steampunky worlds, it isn't that different, at least at first glance.



It's not very subtle or very deep, but then, it is a short story/novella (not sure how many words it has and which exactly it qualifies as). Basically, it introduces the character of Finley Jayne, who is rapidly realising that she's very different to everyone else.



There's enough detail about the characters/situations to get me interested, and I'll be reading The Girl in the Steel Corset for some light fun, but it didn't bowl me over or anything like that.

[Vanessa J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5 stars

I don't normally read novellas. I don't think I've read more than five of them, but I decided to try this one because it was said it is better than the series. And it was true.

This less than a hundred pages novella was much more fun than the series. In first place, Finley is better developed... in less than a hundred pages. In the series, she's boring, while in this book, she's more kick-ass, which is what I wanted from the series.

In second place, this is much more fast-paced. Yes, I know, it's a novella. It had to go right to the point, but in the series nothing happened. It was completely boring, while this one was very funny. Really enjoyable, actually.

But even when I enjoyed this book, I cannot rate it more than 2.5 stars. It's not bad, it's that I had many issues with it, and those things always ruin my experience while reading. You see, there are very few books I consider utterly perfect. I've rated some books five stars, but I have complaints (even if they're small) for most of them.

Let's start with the bad things, then...

· The references to classic books aka references to Frankenstein. Really, Ms. Cross, you could have gone to Wikipedia to get the right summary for that book.

· It felt silly at some points. Like, some unnecessary things happened and they felt laughable.

Those are my two major complaints. They are not so big, but they bothered me a lot, especially the first one. Still, I enjoyed this book. It was a lot of fun. This one I recommend. The series I don't.

[Michelle Kenneth - PerfectionistWannabe.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those looking for a quick read, this little novella is only 84 pages. It is the prequel to The Steampunk Chronicles.

What I loved about this book is that Finley Jayne is a bit of a kickass, no nonsense woman. She is a great daughter and friend. She protects the innocent and is smart enough to trust her instincts when things seem awry. She investigates questionable people even before she's asked to do it. She is the one saving the day, even before she knows it.

Some superheroes are heroes because it is the right thing to do. Finley Jayne is a hero because it is who she is. She is not trying to be a hero. She just is.

Great story. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[AH · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne is the prequel to The Girl in the Steel Corset. I picked up this short novella as a free download from Kobo books. The title and the cover were attractive and its relatively short length encouraged me to read it. I'll admit that while I liked the story, I just wasn't wowed.

It seems to me that a lot of authors are jumping on the steampunk bandwagon. I enjoy the genre; I love the contraptions and gadgets. This story had all sorts of cool gadgets, from simple flush commodes to battery operated lights, to brass automatons and mechanical carts. There was even a Dr. Frankenstein-styled laboratory with some strange items in tanks.

I really can't pinpoint why the story did not wow me. I liked Finley's character, but we are never told what she is. I enjoyed her "spider-monkey" skills. I giggled at a description of Finley's riding costume, which suffered from "eggplantishness." Yes, "eggplantishness."

While I am curious to learn more about Finley, I think I'll wait until the book is available at the library.

[Veronica Morfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love prequels! You can get a pretty good idea about the real thing from them. And I think I'm going to love these series.

Finley Jayne is not normal. She can see and hear better than anyone and is stronger than any guy is knows. Finley has a new job as a "freind" of a girl her age, Phoebe, who just got engaged. Phoebe's mother is worried about the man her daughter is to marry and hires Finley to find out his secrets, which are darker than she could ever imagine.

This the first Steampunk book I've ever read. I love a world working on steam power, it's fascinating. I also loved Finley. She is a typical case of Dr.Jekyl-Mr.Hyde. Her dark side takes over when it cans and makes her do things she wouldn't otherwise. But Finley herself has a strong personality, a great sense of justice and would do anything for her friends and family. She is amazing!

I can't wait to get my hands on the first book of the series! :D

[Nicole(thereadingrebel) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finley Jayne has always been different. When she is fired for punching a governess for hitting a child,she isn't sure how she is going to find another job without a reference. When Lady Morton walks into her stepfather's bookshop and offers her a job as a companion to her daughter Phoebe,Finley jumps at the chance.

I love Finley. She is a such a great heroine.She is intelligent,stubborn,brave,unique,and stands up for the weak. This is one if not the best prequel novella I have ever read. This novella has great character development, plot and doesn't try to do too much in it's 90 some pages. I loved how the author blended history and fantasy together. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

[Kate Copeseeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three words that have stuck in my head since reading this short story/ novella: lackluster, disappointing, and uncertain.

I haven't read Kady Cross before, but I bought "The Girl in the Steel Corset" and thought, since this little prequel was free on Kindle, that I'd pick it up and read it as well. The three words I used previous to describe it, highlight each of the three issues I found with this story.

First of all, steampunk is one of the most exciting genres to catch on in YA fiction thus far. It has the potential to be as big as dystopian fiction. Steampunk, for those who do NOT know, is most commonly set in the Victorian period of history and follows closely the society, culture, fashion, and social morays of the period. It also combines a sci-fi element of the authors and thinkers of the period: HG Welles, Jules Verne, etc. So, as an example, it might have robots in it, which are a futuristic element, but they would be more artistic in design and would be called automatons.

The joy of steampunk, to me, is the wonder those authors, thinkers, and artists imagined of the future. The delicious cogs, brass decorations, and delightful machines serve as elements to draw us into the strange and wonderful universe that is steampunk. I say this story is lackluster, because even though Cross does include elements of the steampunk genre, she does nothing to highlight the wonder it has to offer. Instead, the machines and language of the period fall short of all they could convey.

I say the story is disappointing because even though it was obvious the author did a lot of research on the time period, there were two things she failed at: slang and dialog. Words like icky, racy, pissed, and ruckus, not only do not hale from the time period, they are AMERICAN slang and have nothing to do with English high society. The dialog is also so modern as to be distracting.

I also found it insulting, as a YA fiction reader, to read language that was so simplistic a jr. higher could read it. I know that Kathryn Smith (the writer using Kady Cross as alias) writes adult romances, but I have to ask, does she read YA fiction AT ALL??? How can anyone take her seriously when her characters think and talk much younger than they are purported to be?

I say the story is uncertain, because in my opinion, it should never have been a short story, it should have been a novel. If it was a novel, perhaps Cross could have taken more time to flesh out her characters, build a proper world and really draw the reader into the story. Perhaps she does that in her other story featuring Finley Jayne -who has the potential to be a wonderful character, if given the proper attention. I hope so.

[Kate McMurry · Rating 5 out of 5]

An action-packed, short-story prequel to the YA steampunk novel, The Girl in the Steel Corset

As an appetizer for The Girl in the Steel Corset, this short story works really well. It gives a tantalizing glimpse into the life of sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne before the events of The Steampunk Chronicles series.

Finley lives in an alternate-universe Victorian England where familiar, modern-day technology exists, but with a brass-and-steam twist in keeping with the actual technology of the real Victorian times. She has known since puberty that she is not a normal girl. When she gets angry, a strange power inside her kicks in that has super strength. Though it feels great at the time when she can defend herself against attack, the milder side of Finley is afraid of her wild side. What if she loses control and harms an innocent person?

Lady Morton is not afraid of Finley's wild side. On the contrary, she is grateful for it, because Finley will make the perfect secret bodyguard for her daughter Phoebe. Lady Morton gives Finley a beautiful room, lovely clothes, and an excellent salary, and Finley attends balls and other society functions with Phoebe while pretending to be Phoebe's distant relation.

Finley is surprised and worried for sweet, gentle Phoebe when she learns that the person Phoebe needs defending from is her much older fiancé, Lord Vincent. Finley's wild side thrusts her into a dangerous investigation to discover what Lord Vincent, an obsessed scientist, is up to. Finley agrees with Phoebe's mother it can't be anything good.

This short story is very well written and filled with action and adventure. It is a great introduction to Finley, who is an exciting heroine. She is strong, determined, honorable and loyal. Her struggles to keep her wild side under control and her desire to protect Phoebe at any cost make her a very sympathetic character.

This is also an excellent teaser for the steampunk universe of robotic horses, steam-driven carriages, and all manner of entertainingly odd, anachronistic technology.

Since reading this I've had the opportunity to read The Girl in the Steel Corset, and though it isn't necessary to read this short story before reading the book, I am grateful I didn't miss out on it. The book definitely lives up to the promise of this story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story was actually at the beginning of the ebook The Girl in the Steel Corset, and I have to say I like Finley more in this story than in the actual book. I really liked the book, but the girl in the short story is more daring and in control. I was a little sad to finish this and then move to the book where she's less feisty.

After being fired from her position as a maid for hitting the governess after she made one of the small children cry Finley is worried that she won't be able to find a new job, and that her darker side is coming out more often. She's much stronger and faster than she should be, she can also hear and see better than a normal person, and all her unusual abilities are more pronounced when her dark side comes out. She's worried that she's possessed by a devil.

So she's extremely surprised when Lady Morton shows up at her step-father's business asking to hire her, at a very high salary, as a companion for her daughter Phoebe, a position she is much too lowly to be offered. She's suspicious but needs the work and doesn't want to be a burden to her parents, so she agrees.

When she gets to the job Phoebe seems like a very sweet person and she's treated much better than she ever expected. The evening of her arrival the family is going to a ball, and Finley is told she is being passed off as the country cousin of the family (though no explanation for the deception is given). At the ball she's introduced to Lord Vincent, Phoebe's fiance, who is much too old for Phoebe. When she goes into a room to get some air away from the crowds she sees a picture of Lord Vincent and his first wife, a woman who could be Phoebe's twin. So Finley decides to figure out why this older man is looking to replace a long dead wife with someone who could be her copy, after all her darker side is looking forward to the idea of sneaking around and dodging Lord Vincent's robot servants.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella was included as part of the ebook The Girl in the Steel Corset. It is a prequel told in first person, where Finley Jayne is employed as a companion for a wealthy young lady engaged to be married to a devious man with a dangerous plan - the lady's mother has heard of Finley's unusual strength and her penchant to fight for what is right, and as the mother hopes, Finley is suspicious of the fiance and takes it upon herself to discover his real plan.

The novella was a such a great introduction that I found I couldn't enjoy The Girl in the Steel Corset as much. I think a big part of that is because in this novella, Finley is plenty comfortable using her strength and basically comes across as a superhero who was raised poor and now finds herself in high society, while in the novel Finley is much more unsure of her power. Both the novella and Steel Corset reference Frankenstein, this was in a much more literal way. I would highly recommend anyone interested in The Girl in the Steel Corset to read this novella first.

[Donadee's Corner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miss Finley has lost her job all due to her defending an helpless child, so home to mom it is. But that is not all, she has another problem and she fears that it will be the fall of her. She has no one to turn to. She needs another job but as odd as it seems that was not hard as the job offer came looking for her!

She was offered a position to be a companion to Miss Phoebe but she can not believe her ears, how can this be? She accepts the offer and her whole life is changed! Phoebe is such a remarkable young lady what is there not to like. It seems though that mama did not explain all to Finley as to the requirements of the position.

One thing not told to her is Miss Phoebe is engaged to Lord Vincent and he is not all that he seems nor are his intentions all that forthright. Here's where our story gets interesting ! ! !

Finley learns a lot about herself during this time, she also finds hers and Miss Phoebes lives in danger! The most important thing that she learned is no matter what your station in life is, family is the most important thing of all. If you are interested in intriguing mystery, thrilling action and danger then this is the book for you.

5/8/12

[Joanna Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I never thought it would be this good!

The strange case of Finley Jayne is her supernatural strengths. She may not be able to control her temper sometimes but she (so far) uses this in a good way especially when protecting the people she serves or her loved ones. And in this new job, she protects her new companion, Lady Phoebe from the mad scientist/mechanic Lord Vincent and him marrying her.

The setting is in London which is a perfect lovely setting for this historical yet robotic era of automatons, mechanical horses against bright pastel ball gowns and finely cut suits of Ladies and Lords, Counts and Countesses.

I could imagine Cinder along the lines of metal and brass while Tris of Divergent with Finley's curious mind and strength given that she's only sixteen to knock out armed men or even mechanical inventions. Finley, even not a prodigy nor a genius is likable for her smartness and the devil inside her actually does no harm.

But this is just the start. I reckon there's more action as the main event starts! Whew! :)

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quick read. As such, the author didn't take very much time giving much plausible reasoning/justification for a lot of what happened. It just happened that way and those people did those things, deal with it.

There is enough background/introduction to make it alright as a stand-alone story; I didn't feel like I was missing anything substatial, but it was obvious that it was part of a series and Finley Jayne was more developed elsewhere. At least I hope it's part of a series, or else I might consider it a much worse story.

The plot itself was straight-forward and oh-so-convenient to a point of being blunt and nearly unbelievable. The aforementioned lack of depth didn't help with that at all. Despite it being that simple, Finley Jayne took way way way longer than necessary to figure out what was going on. I mean it was really obvious from the get-go.

Besides all that as far as the quality of the plot/story goes, it was still a fine read as long as I didn't expect much.

[Chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keen to start the actual series!

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this prequel novella for the Steampunk Chronicles five years ago, didn't particularly care for it at the time and thus never followed up on reading the rest of the series. Having since developed a lot more interest and liking for the genre and been sorely tempted by seeing the whole trilogy beckoning me from my local library's shelves lately, I figured I might as well give it another try - and this time around, the experience was much different. The story hooked me from the first page, and where I didn't find either plot or characters particularly interesting back then, I really liked Finley and her world on the second read. Just goes to show that sometimes, you need to wait for the right time to read a book - and apparently for me for this series, that time is now. The Girl in the Steel Corset, here I come!

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story which is a prequel introduction to a series. I found it enjoyable. Finley was an interesting and pretty likeable character, but I found the plot a bit silly. As far as "Steampunk", I'm not sure I would quite classify it as such. There are automatons, etc. But the Victorian atmosphere was very thin. I may read the next (officially first) book in this series, but was not inspired to want to do so right away.

[Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read the three full stories in this series I found The Strange Case of Finley Jayne a bit of character regurgita. However, it has been a while since I read them so I also found it interesting.

A short, rather poorly edited, preclude on the life of Finley Jayne a kick butt girl who can take out a grown man without breaking a sweat.

It's cute, in an overly sweet cupcake sort of way, but fun to play around before the story a bit.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love and hate prequels! I love them because they whet the appetite for a new series, I hate them because they are a big tease!

to be cont...

[Christine Kirchoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne is absolutely a must read! Review: http://thetbrpile.weebly.com/reviews/...

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Funny and simple read with a badass main character. I quite liked it and I will start the girl in the steel corset soon!

[Moony (Captain Mischief) MeowPoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a quick and fun read! i really liked to get to know Finley!
She`s badass, smart, intruiging and beautiful c:

[Fabienne Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it so much!!!

[Jewlsbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking a twist on Frankenstein, Cross has written a fun read! I thought Finley was pretty self sufficient for a sixteen year old, but it was her mysteriously strong other half that made her unexplainably interesting.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen this series floating around in the Internet as well as the love I already have for Kady Cross under her other names. I can not wait to continue if a novella is this great I can't wait to see what The Girl in the Steel Corset holds.