This was a fun steampunk novel. The atmosphere was great and the characters were lovable. I liked the pacing and the action. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Great blend of fantasy and steampunk and I LOVED the mystery element. I look forward to more from this author!

I chose this book because it was Steampunk and I love everything Steampunk but this story was lacking quite a bit. While I think the overall storyling had potential, the writing was hard to get through with the amount of errors and lack of proper world building. I found it a bit choppy but overall I found it had potential and with work it could be much better.

I'm not usually a fan of Steampunk, but I was in the mood for something a bit different and decided to give it a try. I had a hard time getting into it (it may just have been that it's not my preferred genre) and ended up being unable to finish it. The writing style was difficult to follow and I felt as though I was missing a large part of the story or that it simply hadn't been told to me.

I'm not familiar with this author or this book. I requested it on NetGalley because the synopsis sounded interesting. Unfortunately, I ended up not finishing this one. The writing was awkward and full of basic mistakes, including tense changes, missing words, and sometimes plain nonsensical. An example: "The fog cleared at this elevation, allowing a clear indication of where the sound of someone dreadfully trying to learn a violin version of ragtime clearly distinguished."

The dialogue is stilted and often used to explain what's happening. From what I read, the characters were two-dimensional and relied on stereotypes. The Chinese character we're introduced to spoke broken English and was saved by her (white) mistress "from most dishonorable life." I can't comment on the plot because I didn't get that far into it.

Overall, the manuscript could use a thorough round of revisions and someone entirely different to help polish it. I don't take pleasure in rating books so low, but I do want to be honest when I don't enjoy something and explain why.

Book Reviews - "Pretty Waiter Girls" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by Greg Alldredge (https://www.greg-alldredge.com). Mr. Alldredge has published three novels, with this being the first in his "Helena Brandywine Adventure" series.

I rI categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set in 1899 San Francisco. The primary character is young Helena Brandywine. 

Brandywine is a wealthy young woman who is educated and who has grown up protected somewhat from the seedier and more brutal side of life. Her step-father, the general, has been away for many years and she has been without her mother for most of her life. She has Sigmund and Lane to assist, guide, and protect her. 

Brandywine fancies herself as a detective after the popular stories she has read. When a friend approaches her about the disappearance of another young woman, Brandywine dives into the investigation. That investigation takes her to Chinatown and opens her eyes to what is really going on in the strata of society beneath her station. She also finds herself drawn to a San Francisco Police detective and encountering one dangerous situation after another. She also begins to learn much more about her parents. They are not exactly who she thought they were. 

I enjoyed the 5.5 hours I spent reading this 317 page steampunk mystery. I liked the characters in this novel, and the willingness of the author to see important characters be killed off. I was not expecting the supernatural thread, but I still enjoyed the novel. I will look forward to more novels in this series. I like the cover art. I give this novel a 4 out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

This was an interesting concept but I wish there had been some more building. The book feels unfinished and slapped together. The supernatural aspects and the steam punk do not flow together. I also felt like this was taking place in London not San Francisco. Helena was so naïve that it was unbelievable and hard to relate to. I think if there had been more time devoted to this in world building and character development this would have been interesting. I found it anti climatic and boring.

2.6

Helena Brandywine’s adventures take place in a semi-steampunk magical version of 1899 San Francisco. The story in this first entry follows a mystery plot in which Helena is trying to find her missing friend and ends up wrapped up in criminal happenings in the city.

For the most part, the book offers a structurally-decent mystery plot. There’s lots of trying and failing to uncover the answers Helena is looking for with conscious steps toward resolution that are met with only minimal revelation or setback. As well, the novel is a nice digestible length and could be finished in an afternoon, which I realize is a plus for a lot of people wanting to devour a quick mystery. It’s paced like a good mystery should be in this sense. Helena makes for an appropriate protagonist in that she’s young and inexperienced (allowing for a good lens to learn about the society) but committed and relatively intelligent (if a bit naïve at times), making her fairly proactive. I still found that she didn’t feel very likable or real as a person, but at least as far as carrying the plot, her characteristics fit that role well enough.

I was a bit confused on the world for a time. Much of the first half is fairly mundane as far as fantastical elements. Early on, there are a couple references that make the world sound steampunk-esque, but throughout the novel, these elements are almost nonexistent. About 99% of the time, I didn’t feel like I was reading a steampunk novel, despite the cover and description making me think I was. As well, I was a bit surprised when supernatural elements came in around halfway through the novel. While a twist like that can be done well, here it just felt like an oversight that might have made the first half more interesting. The reasoning I believe was that Helena and people in general don’t believe in the supernatural, but it just made for a strange unsatisfying setup. While I don’t think these elements are necessary for a good story by any means, I do feel like readers looking for that sort of adventure will probably be disappointed with this book overall. Granted, that may change as the series progresses and this revelation is out of the way.

My biggest complaint is that despite the try/fail cycles, the plot and the way it featured the world just wasn’t very interesting. There was lots of focus on the ethnic makeup of this time and place and how those factions interacted or were viewed by others, but there wasn’t much more development with any of those factions since the plot was trying to move along. It felt like the book was wanting to feature lots of period elements, playing to the historical side of a historical fantasy, but was trying to achieve plot and action in accordance with the fantasy side of that dynamic, which ended up serving neither very well. This issue ties in with my previous paragraph in that the plot didn’t really feel right until it got to the more action-based segment of the book. If the first half had been more consistent with this, I might’ve been willing to bump my rating up. That said, I am mildly interested in the sequel since the book cuts off in the middle of some action and revelations that are likely to be more gripping than some of the rest of this story was. I just can’t say I’m in a hurry to get there.

All in all, I just don’t think this book was for me. I don’t think it was bad exactly (though I think the prose could have used another edit), but I just didn’t really feel invested. If it were just based on my own enjoyment, I’d give this book more of a 2-star rating. I bumped it up a bit just to recognize that I could see it working for other people and don’t think it completely failed at what it was trying to achieve. What it was trying to achieve just wasn’t my thing.

I was provided a copy by NetGalley. All opinions herein are my own.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was weird and confused me profoundly. It did not follow its own rules and was very inconsisten. I found it a rollercoaster of exitement and emotion. The end was very good. I found the book to have too many elements of different genres in it to be less confusing. It was a mixture of steampunk, fantasy, detective and love story. As it ended in an immense cliuff hanger I really want to read the next book in the series, but I will have to sleep on that. If you enjoy weird but exiting and a bit confusing books then this might be the perfect fit fo you. If you are a stickler for consistency you might not enjoy it.

Trigger warning * What turned the book from a 3 to a 2 star was that is was very brutal at times and had elements of attempted rape.

Pretty Waiter Girls is an excellent steampunk adventure, with some fantasy elements mixed into a mystery plot. I love the steampunk setting and I really enjoyed the delightful protagonist, Helena Brandywine. Hopefully, there will be more of her adventures.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, thank you..

This was a fun setup with a perky heroine-protagonist that has the potential to become a very fun steampunkish mystery series. I am teetering between three and four stars though, and that teeter is what is keeping me from raving in my review... On one hand, it deserves four because I really liked the construct, the setup, and the characters. On the other, only three because frankly the book felt like it needed another serious edit to really maximize its potential. There were a number of places where things stopped and started up again in a slightly different direction or where a seemingly obvious but actually somewhat startling observation/connection/conclusion was made/reached/drawn. They didn't so much detract from the story as slow me down, and that slowing became more difficult to adjust for over the course of the book. There's a LOT going on here, and at times it felt like a plot dump, as though the author either had too many ideas for just one book OR was trying to set up things for future books. Both are great "problems" to have because they mean an abundance of possibilities, but they can also distract the reader from the main action and make things confusing and a little unfinished-feeling... Still, I really liked the odd match-up of Helena and Doyle - their personalities played well off of each other and there's just enough mystery behind each to keep me coming back for more.

Advance copy received for review purposes.

Pretty Waiter Girls is a satisfyingly pulpy Holmesian mystery set in an alternate, slightly steampunky California. The star, Helena Brandywine, is a privileged young woman with dreams of being a great detective. While investigating a friend's disappearance, she finds herself wrapped in a vast supernatural plot that she never imagined. The narrative style is witty and even occasionally laugh-out-load funny. The humor is charmingly odd without being off-color or offensive. That being said, it's a little forced at times, and the pacing flags a little in the middle.

Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. As an adult I greatly enjoyed the read, and I will be recommending it to students with a flair for history or logic, as a fun stepping-stone towards more advanced books on these subjects.

I enjoyed the overall story and the time period written about but it came off a bit too steampunk for me (my least favorite genre). I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fantasy steampunk mystery where the fantasy elements emerge without a lot of internal cohesion, the steampunk elements are so slight that it's easy to forget you're reading something steampunk, and the mystery lacks any real driving force. Our heroine, one Helena Brandywine, sets out to find a missing girl, meets an assortment of characters in Gilded Age San Francisco of various degrees of fantasticalness, and learns secrets from her family's past along the way. It's never entirely clear why Helena even really bothers searching for the missing girl, everyone she interacts with is so thinly-drawn that it's hard to care about them (and Helena herself is rather one-note), and the fantasy elements just sort of appear without any internal consistency, like the author got bored with explanations and just wanted to wave the magic authorial wand over his plot. (Also, there was a patina of sexualization overlaying everything that made me feel rather icky.)

I've read worse, but I won't bother with the sequel.

I did enjoy this book. I love steampunk. This book is mixture steampunk and mystery. I like the main character. I really like to read other Helena Brandywine adventures.

ARC provided by NetGalley. In Pretty Waiter Girls, I feel like we are a little mislead in the book cover. This is more of a murder mystery with steampunk elements rather than a straight up steampunk novel for me. That did make it a slightly lower rating for me in the end. It was a well written book for the most part. I do wish that it had traditional chapter breaks as opposed to the way they broke them up. It pulled me out of the story.
All in all, I did enjoy this book. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This book is part mystery with a mix of steampunk. Helena is working on figuring out why girls are going missing. Helena is a strong willed character who protects herself and those she cares about. She is a smart resourceful character who is not afraid to stand her ground. Helena works hard to solve this mystery and is dedicated to find the answer. You have some twists and turns along the way. While the mystery is resolved at the end of the book you are left on a bit of a cliffhanger that sets up the next book. This was an interesting read that held my interest. It was a good start to the series.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.