if you don't read this book you are the worst human ever.
Ok, not really, but come on! An alternate history, steampunk paranormal, seafaring, treasure hunting adventure?
An adventure that opens with our gal blowing a dude's brain meat across a wall? You need this book!
Yasmeen is a fearsome pirate queen on a mission to avenge her murdered crew. This chick can kick & she ain't got no time for the asses name's.
I was bred to be fast & strong. I was bred to be quiet. And I was bred to kill.
You want to protect me but in truth I will protect you. It was what I was made for.
You guys can't see it but I am fangirling really hard right now. You can't see it cause I peed my pants. Saying I like Yasmeen is like saying the Earth has some peeps on it.
I f*cking love her! She murders without thinking but gives her crew life & medical insurance. You know, like, the opposite of what America does.
Again, I f*cking love her. I honestly don't think I've ever read a heroine like her before.
Yasmeen teams up with Archimedes, a beta-tastic treasure hunter, for her revenge plotting.
Aside from having the best hero name ever, dude falls for with Yasmeen from jump! But our darling don't care, she's too busy being a goddess.
I could kiss you!
I'll bare my ass for your lips later.
Hehe! See? She's funny & sassy & witty...and a hero! Like, Yasmeen rescues Archimedes from 40 zombies using nothing but a brass suit & 2 machetes.
Holy crap! Oh yeah, did I mention that this book is Zombieland? Our OTP traipse all over the world hunting for loot & ax murdering monsters.
And the whole time our hero is rocking epic hearteyes for Yasmeen. The whole time!
Arc legit loves the fact that Yasmeen is more powerful than him. Like really, really, really loves it.
I would like to stand behind you. Not above you, not below you; to back you up, should you ever need it.
Oh boy. Never in my time have I needed this fan more! This hero is totally cool with an in-charge heroine...
And I am so damn here for that!
Boy even suggest that Yasmeen humiliate him in front of her crew just so she can maintain their respect. Wow!
If that ain't the most heroic deed ever that a hero has ever heroically done, I challenge you to find a better one!
He admires her strength & her wits, and he plays no macho man games.
Ark doesn't know if Dude X is Yasmeen's lover or her friend, & he don't care!
No hissy fits, no tirades, just him being in love. I am so smitten with his smitten-ness.
He tells our girl straight up that he is gonna fall in love with her, so you would think there's gonna be no sexual tension.
Well, you'd be wrong, bucko. For Ark insists on a No Kiss policy until he is absolutely in love with her.
I will not even kiss you until my heart is so full of longing that I cannot help myself!
And if you initiate a kiss, I will consider that a sign you have fallen madly in love with me too.
AW! Blessings upon his beard! Ya pair his lovey-dovey butt with their chemistry and...um...
That bath scene! Guys! I swooned into infinity & beyond! And I'm not exaggerating.
So many fangirl feels that scene did cue, my friends.
Basically it was hot & I was hot & the room was hot. Hmm-mmm, umm-hmmm.
Did I mention it was hot? But despite my fangirling I do have some itty-bitty grumps of complaint.
The book's expansive universe & plot doesn't leave much room for character stuff.
Alas sometimes the world building gets, well, confusing. Cause there's a lot of it.
Yes, we get giant steam powered, robot mech horses with ass-blasting canons!
We get epic zombie hoards & seafaring adventures, and all of that was cool & fun. It really was.
But the consequence is that the romance feels more of like a background element.
Don't doubt, you will buy this OTP & their emotional beats. Oh boy, those emotional beats.
Archimedes stared up at the ceiling finally visable in the predawn light through the porthole...
And tried to think of anything, anything, that had been more exciting, more dangerous, more incredible than Yasmeen unleashing herself upon him.
There was nothing. She'd probably ruined him for treasure hunts. Zombies wouldn't even raise his pulse.
Hell, meeting Leonardo da Vinci in heaven surrounded by nude signing virgins & endless hits of opium couldn't compare to the bliss of 1 kiss.
Sir, you herotastic hero!
I don't think there are any words or sounds that I could make that could encapsulate? Capsu-illustrate? Demonstrate my feelings!
I can't even do words to explain it! So you see, there's feels, there are, they're just kind of fleeting.
And so are the sex scenes. They're honestly a bit rushed but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Those moments kind of fit the story because it was so immersive.
At the end of the day, if you want a book that you can sink your teeth into, this is it.
This author knows her shit when it comes to external conflict.
While I prefer internal conflict, Brook gave her characters enough emotional depth that I was hooked.
Yes, there's running, gunning, blasting zombies but there's also a real weight to her people.
A debt has more weight than the coin that pays it.
Dude! Can we just all agree that Meljean Brook kicks butt at words?
This woman gets you deep inside a character's personality like I get deep inside a bag of chips!
If I did rankings or stars or thumbs up, Heart of Steel would get all of them!
It kicks ass with a cool heroine & it's "so here for her" hero made the book absolute crack. I need more!
*Fart noise*
It's really surprisingly Meljean was able to make this book work for me.
Cause it's like hella, hella external conflict & you all know my thoughts about the outside, bang-bang shoot 'em up-
Don't think those words made logical sense. Point is, I actually enjoyed it.
When an author can make me care about battle scenes & fight moments, you bet your ass that author's talented.
I just realized that glass on plastic makes noise, so if this was distracting through the video I'm very sorry.
I should really plan out my wardrobes better than I do, but that's never going to happen.
Maybe the video was too fangirly & now that I'm thinking about how I filmed it it might've been too fangirly
But I don't care, guys; it deserves all of my obnoxious weirdness. God damn I love Meljean.
I think I need to go before I get any more weird on the woman. Nobody does weird like me! *Ding!*
