So full disclosure: I was PMSing bad when I read Kiss of Steel and I was riding the Feels train pretty damn hard (also to the dude who stumbled here by mistake looking for a book review and got an update on my menstrual cycle–Welcome to the Bitchery. Yeah, we talk about periods but there are cookies. And orca sex reviews) so some of my thoughts on this book might be due to highly amplified emotions. But I also think McMaster is just a really good writer.

So this review was almost: “And she’s all alone because the vampire aristocracy murdered her family–SNIFF–and her brother is sick and she doesn’t eat enough because she wants her siblings to be full–SNIFF–and for being a murdering vampire criminal he’s really sweet to her–SNIFF–and he bought her a pork pie and she was so hungry–SOBS” but thankfully I have my shit together now.

McMaster’s London Steampunk series is everything I want a steampunk world–richly imagined, gritty and dark, and full of hot heroes and hot sex. Yes, the sex in this book is utterly delicious. Feel free to stop reading this now and order the book. Also, the hero is a cockney-accented, leather-clad, bad-boy vampire, so if Spike from Buffy gave you tingles? Yeah, go buy this book.

This steampunk world is more paranormal than clockwork, though. Normally I’m not all about the vampire/werewolf (can they EVER be friends?!?!) paranormals, but it totally worked for me here.

In McMaster’s world, England is run by seven noble houses known as the Echelon. The Echelon are made up Blue Bloods, a sort of pre-vampire. Vampirism is caused by the Craving Virus. The infected require blood to survive and possess supernatural speed, strength and healing. They can withstand sunlight and don’t have pointy fangs. At some point during their exceptionally long lives, Blue Bloods go through a process called The Fade where they become actual vampires. We’re talking hairless, bat-like, corpse-stinky, killing machines here. Vampires are almost impossible to kill and a Blue Blood is “humanely” executed before he can fully turn.

The Blue Bloods are not awesome rulers. Humans are withering under their oppression–taxes (both blood and monetary) have driven many to starvation. They carefully regulate who can be infected and granted with supernatural powers and long life (no women, no commonfolk, etc) since they don’t want an uprising on their hands.

Honoria Todd used to move among the Echelon. Now after her father’s murder, she and her siblings are hiding in the rookeries under assumed names. Honoria’s father betrayed the Echelon while working on a vaccine for the Craving Virus:

Vickers had been commissioned with finding a vaccine, a way to prevent the Echelon’s servants, thralls, and women from accidental infections. It had been proposed that any boy denied the blood rites in his fifteenth year would also receive the vaccine. A way for the Echelon to control a man’s place in the world, after several families had sought to elevate their sons’ status by illegally infecting their children. To become a blue blood was to become an elite, and there would be no mistakes tolerated.

It also served her father’s purposes. Vaccinate enough of the uninfected aristocracy and their children, and the blue bloods would slowly die out, her father claimed. The Echelon would never stoop to offering blood rites to anyone low born. It was a devious way to limit their numbers if a cure couldn’t be found.

When the book opens Honoria has a shitload of problems:

1. Her brother, Charlie, was accidentally infected and is turning. If anyone finds out, he’ll be killed.

2. She and her siblings are dirt poor, living a hand-to-mouth existence as they hide from the Echelon.

3. The aforementioned Vickers is a duke, a powerful Blue Blood, and he’s got a personal vendetta against Honoria and her family. If he finds them, he’s going to torture and kill them. He especially wants Honoria who previously spurned his advances.

4. There is a nasty vampire on the loose in Whitechapel and it’s eating people.

5. In order to stay safely in the rookeries, Honoria needs to pledge her loyalty to Blade, the criminal who runs Whitechapel.

Blade was turned by Vickers, who thought it would be funny to turn a rat from the rookeries and bet against him in a fighting ring. Blade broke free and retreated to the rookeries where he took a stand against the Echelon and their metal soldiers. To date he’s the only person who has managed to beat the Blue Bloods, and he rules the rookeries.

Honoria needs Blade’s help, especially as Charlie gets worse and she is unable to provide for him and her sister. She doesn’t trust Blade, though. In her mind anyone infected with the Craving Virus turns into a sadistic monster like Vickers.

Blade isn’t quite an anti-hero, but he’s close. He’s a cockney accented (the dialect may bother some readers who hate that sort of thing, btw) criminal who runs the streets ruthlessly. He’s fair to the people who live in the rookeries, and generally well-liked, but he’s also feared. He and his gang don’t take shit from anyone.

Honoria doesn’t want to trust Blade, and she doesn’t want to pay for his help, but she has to (with blood and elocution lessons of all things). She especially doesn’t want the intense attraction she feels for him, and she rejects his kindness. Pretty soon though, she and Blade have to work together to defeat the vampire, save Charlie and escape Vickers. The push and pull of their attraction is excellent. Both Honoria and Blade grit their teeth and struggle through their need for each other, even as they are forced to trust each other to overcome the other obstacles in their path.

There’s a lot of excellent build up and action in this book, too. It’s four-hundred plus pages that breezed by due to excellent pacing.

I also loved Honoria and Blade. Honoria is tough and stubborn, but doesn’t veer into TSTL territory with her obstinacy. Blade is just delicious. I had a major thing for Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so when you give me a cockney-accented vampire in leather pants, I’m going drool all over that.

Honoria and Blade’s story is just the first in McMaster’s series and I’m already digging into the sequel Heart of Iron, featuring a Scottish werewolf. I know, it’s a sacrifice reading all these excellent books to review, but I do it for you guys.