Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook

If you're a real nerd, there's something so infinitely romantic and appealing about steampunk.

Yeah.  I'm a real nerd.

Happily, I'm not the only one who likes steampunk.  Steampunk has made its way out of science fiction novels and wormed its way into pop culture.  It's been featured on television series like NCIS and Castle, and it's made its way into other genre of books like the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger that I've previously reviewed and the new, romance novel Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook.

Steampunk, for the uninitiated, started as a sub-genre of science fiction novels, and it's a little like an analog, mechanical alternate version of the world.  This alternate version centers around the Victorian era and develops as if inventors and scientists had worked toward creating all the cool technology of today built solely with metal and gears and without ever having plastics or sleek circuitry. (Check out this awesome picture of a steampunk interpretation of the proton packs from Ghostbusters.)  It's an interesting intersection of hard, practical science and the sweet hope of endless possibilities.

Meljean Brook has a standing series of romances that features angels and demons and vampires (and I could have sworn I reviewed one of those books, but I couldn't find it in the blog history.  Huh.)  The Iron Seas series sets aside the supernatural for the invention and science of steampunk.  The background story is fairly complicated with a Mongol Horde invasion, nanoagent infections and zombies.  The author has thoughtfully provided a basic guide to the world of the Iron Seas. She first introduced this world in a novella in the anthology Burning Up.  (The main characters of Heart of Steel made appearances in the previous installations of the Iron Seas series. I'm pretty sure you can jump into Heart of Steel without any dire consequences, but it might be easier to get into the story if you've read The Iron Duke.)

Yasmeen is the captain of the airship, Lady Corsair, and Archimedes Fox is an adventurer and treasure-hunter.  Their paths have crossed before, but this time they need to combine their wits instead of matching them while they try to uncover enough lost treasure to fund their ultimate goals--repayment of an old debt of Archimedes' and retribution for Yasmeen's lost crew and airship.  This story has enough assassins, mercenaries, rebels, zombies, gliders, airships, and war machines to make for a full adventure and fast-moving plot.  Even if Yasmeen and Archimedes were only friends this story would still be a worthwhile read, but there's more to this story as Yasmeen and Archimedes fall for each other in an infinitely appealing and romantic way that matches the steampunk genre.  It's the hope of endless possibilities that allows for a tough mercenary airship captain to fall for a man after so many have betrayed her.  It's the nerdy obsession of a adventurer and travel hunter that leads to his love for his unconventional lady.

Heart of Steel  is an escapist romp for your inner nerd and closet romantic.