Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Dishonest Miss Take by Faye Murphy on June 18, 2024
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 294
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Clara Blakely has left her days as Miss Take, the notorious villain of Victorian London, behind her. She is a reformed, law-abiding citizen using the superpower given to her by industrial pollution to pay her debt to society. Or that’s what she would have the authorities believe. Clara has no intention of helping anyone but herself, and the last thing she wants is to be dragged into a fight against a new and murderous evil that’s stalking the streets.
Yet, despite the Hero Brigade thwarting her every move, she must take on the city’s powerful and corrupt elite by joining forces with a cheat, her hapless landlord, and a trio of trained killers, including an assassin whose skill with a knife is matched only by their skill at creeping into Clara’s heart. With stakes so high, Clara must become what no one, least of all herself, a hero.
The Dishonest Miss Take is the first book written by Faye Murphy and the beginning of a new series. This is a blend of what is supposed to be Victorian England, steampunk and superhero/villain. Our heroine is doing community service for her past bad deeds when she ends up getting pulled into a bigger mystery of who assassinated her boss and why along with what is killing random people on the streets of London.
Clara is a functional, someone with special powers, brought on by all the chemicals, pollution etc floating around in the air in London. She is pretty well known due to who her parents were and the life of crime they led. She is trying to live on the straight and narrow and doing her time with the Hero’s Brigade, protecting the streets, as part of her community service. She didn’t expect to get thrown into trying to track down the assassin who killed her boss to get a lead on who would want him dead. She didn’t expect that the assassin would turn out to be someone she wanted to spend time with and work with to clear her name.
Clara’s investigation takes her down some strange roads and puts her in the path of a seemingly separate mystery of who or what, since it seems like it is a Dirt Monster, that is killing some of the innocents in London. With a little help for Morgan, the assassin and a few other people from the Assassin finishing school they will try to get to the bottom of a few mysteries.
This has an interesting premise, but I don’t think I’m the age demographic that is really going to enjoy this. For one, anytime you are in Victorian England, I expect some certain types of dialogue and turns of phrase instead of feeling like it is a big more modern in the language. But if I was younger and hadn’t cut my teeth on so many historical romances I probably wouldn’t have cared. That said it seemed like the book couldn’t decide if it was going to be a sci-fi murder mystery or a romance. I wasn’t really completely on board with the romance aspect of it so I wanted more in the who done it side of the story. Clara and Morgan were both a little hard to like as they swindled or murdered people for a living without any remorse and maybe didn’t deserve it.
Overall, I think this is going to play better with younger readers in their YA or NA years. This is definitely a first novel and as such there are some areas that could flow a bit better or transition better but I think that will come with time for Faye Murphy as she hones her craft. Solid first book and if you enjoy steampunk and F/F romances this might be something that will work for you.
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I would def struggle with this one.
Yeah. I sometimes struggle a little with F/F romances as well if I don’t have a history with the characters.
But the language is what really gets me.
Good to know it might be more for a younger person or someone who isn’t expecting certain things in this type of historical story.