The Strange Case of Finley Jayne

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne by Kady Cross

        (prequel to The Steampunk Chronicles) 

Firstly, I just have to say, could her name get any cooler?

It just sort of runs off of your tongue like hot chocolate.

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne follows the life of (who else?) Finley Jayne of course. She’s a young girl simply trying to make her own way through 19^th century London but she’s by no means your ordinary girl. She harbors deep anger management issues and possesses superhuman powers that even she herself can’t understand. When one of her outbursts gets her fired from her job, she is sent back home and suddenly finds herself in the company of a rich aristocrat named Lady Morton. She is offered a position in Lady Morton’s luxurious home in exchange for providing companionship to her young daughter, Phoebe. Finley soon learns that Phoebe is recently engaged to Lord Vincent, a wealthy inventor with a mysterious, tragedy strewn past, and not only was Finley hired as a companion but also as a protector to soothe suspicions Lady Morton has been having recently. As the story unfolds Finley learns that almost everyone involved is concealing some kind of secret, false pretense, or hidden motive, but that some are more deadly than others.  

I loved this story almost from the second I began reading it. Finley Jayne is such a lively character. She’s bold and unforgiving unlike most of the simpering, spoiled, ball-gown-wearing, damsels in distress we encounter in so many old-century based books. This story surprised me by being less gruesome but somehow much darker than I expected. I wasn’t entirely sure that was possible. I read this story shortly after completing the Xbox 360 game Alice: Madness Returns and they blended together almost seamlessly, complimenting each other so well that it was almost scary. It really solidified the entire experience for me. I’m a new fan to the old Steampunk Era (how’s that for a contradiction?) and this story definitely left me wanting more.