Heart of Steel

By: Meljean Brook

Narrated by: Faye Adele

Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Journey to New York Times best-selling author Meljean Brook's gritty, alluring world of the Iron Seas, and gear up for passionate steampunk adventure....

As the mercenary captain of the Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her crew. So when a man who once tried to seize her airship returns from the dead, Yasmeen will be damned if she gives him another opportunity to take control.

Treasure-hunter Archimedes Fox isn’t interested in the Lady Corsair - he wants her coldhearted captain and the valuable da Vinci sketch she stole from him. To reclaim it, Archimedes is determined to seduce the stubborn woman who once tossed him to a ravenous pack of zombies, but she’s no easy conquest.

When da Vinci’s sketch attracts a dangerous amount of attention, Yasmeen and Archimedes journey to Horde-occupied Morocco - and straight into their enemy’s hands. But as they fight to save themselves and a city on the brink of rebellion, the greatest peril Yasmeen faces is from the man who seeks to melt her icy heart....

©2011 Meljean Brook (P)2011 Penguin

this is good but...

I liked it but I'm not as inamored with the characters in this one as I was the first but it is a great plot and the characters were lively and interesting. I guess I liked the characters just not the romance as much. Still good.

Brilliant!

I thought the Iron Duke was amazing and thought it would be nearly impossible for the sequel to be as good. I was amazed by the Heart of Steel! It continued to have the same type of astonishing detail, action and love story but it different ways. I am very impressed with this author and hope to read or listen to more of her work. If you like paranormal romance and historical romance with some action on the side this story is for you!

Great characters!

I actually liked this better than the Iron Duke. I just love the main couple. They are wonderful together and I can totally see them arguing and having fun adventuring around the world.

So much love

This one is a reread for me. There's nothing like the love of a man who is strong enough to allow his woman to be what she is. Adore this world.

Outstanding

Luvluvluv everything about this audiobook, the characters, the narration. Meljean knocked it out of the park.

Great

Great as always. Adventure, interesting characters, steamy romance, and intrigue. What more could a girl want.

Liked this even better than the first book!

What made the experience of listening to Heart of Steel the most enjoyable?

Loved the interaction between the two main characters. Loved it so much that I often missed plot points and had to rewind and go back for them. :-D

Who was your favorite character and why?

Normally I would say the heroine because I identified with her, but in this case, I just really liked the pair of them *TOGETHER*. Wouldn't have liked either one as much without their interactions, their character development in relation to each other, etc.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not necessarily all in one sitting, but definitely wish I hadn't had so many distractions. Some books you can listen to while doing other stuff and you don't miss anything because the author beats you over the head with the important details every other chapter. NOT HERE. And there is enough politics, intrigue, mystery, well, plot really, that you need to pay attention if you don't want to get lost.

Any additional comments?

To be fair, I didn't read a description of this book in advance, nor did I read any of the reviews. I got it simply because I enjoyed the first book so much. I was pretty surprised to find I wasn't in London watching the Iron Duke and Mina work out stuff. Very pleasantly surprised!

Loved it!

A perfect story! Listened to it in one sitting cos I just couldn't stop. there was humor, wit, and everything that makes a story unputdownable.

Great fun!

Genre: Steampunk romance
I am really loving this world created by Meljean Brook. The intersection of adventure, romance, alternate history, and a bit of sci-fi is just fascinating to me. She is so consistent with details across books that you don't stop and say "huh?" at any scenes. Her mention of characters from previous stories set in this world are a nice touch without those characters overshadowing the action.
Speaking of action -- Archimedes Fox has figured, in a minor way, in the previous books as an adventurer whose stories are serialized in the newspaper. Something like "Archimedes Fox and the Zombies of Zanzibar", or a title to that effect. Yasmeen, also a minor character in previous stories, is the captain of the airship Lady Corsair, and a mercenary. Her last meeting with Archimedes did not end well, and she's worried that he may seek revenge, or at least ask for her to return the very valuable artifact she had claimed as payment for his passage then. But he has decided to fall in love with her. She wants nothing to do with that because men have always tried to undermine her authority, and she fears that a strong personality like Archimedes will try the same. So... She agrees to return his artifact for the previously agreed upon 50%, plus what he owed her. However, before this can occur, Lady Corsair is attacked, her crew murdered, the ship destroyed, and the artifact stolen. This book is about finding out who ordered the deed and to seek revenge, as well as find the artifact. Adventure ensues.
As I said before, I like the world inhabited by these characters. As for the characters, I like them too. Yasmeen is such a hard-ass, you almost wonder why Archimedes wants her. Archimedes has issues with his past that he deals with by affecting a devil-may-care attitude. But as the story progresses, we see behind the masks these two characters wear, and we see them grow, both as individuals as well as interpersonally. Secondary characters are interesting in that they are written as multidimensional. Antagonists are not all evil, and none of the characters is all good.
Narration by Faye Adele was competent. Her pacing was excellent, and differentiation of characters was good. However, differentiation of genders was not great. And then there were the accents... Some of the characters had Irish accents - sometimes. There was a lack if consistency in that area. But, overall, the narration was pretty average.

Carryon WOW..same narrator

Much like the first book but with another set of characters we met in the first book. A fairly predictable love story and again the narrator was ok but for some reason I did rewind a fair bit just to check I hadn't missed anything. In other words, she wasn't keeping my attention riveted and I wandered.

Still kept me interested enough to read the next book. Well worth the credit.