The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross is a thrilling steampunk adventure full of action, romance, and unique characters. The story centers around Mila, a girl with a mechanical heart, who’s trying to figure out what it means to be human while navigating a world filled with danger. Meanwhile, the love story between Griffin and Finley reaches new heights as they face off against powerful enemies. The mix of Victorian-era settings with steampunk technology and supernatural elements makes this a must-read for fans of action-packed, imaginative fantasy!

This was such a good book, and a great ending to one of my favorite steampunk series! All of our favorite characters were back, although this installment focused mostly on Jack Dandy and Mila, and Finley and Griffin. I thought it tied up all the storylines quite well, and I can honestly say that I'm going to miss all of these fascinating and exciting characters!

5/5 stars.

I bought this series for my personal library and recently added it to my school library. Steam punk books that I truly truly love are hard to find. Something about the way the characters are written in the series appeals to me and I’ve been putting it in. The hands of kids have never heard of steam punk.

Although a moderately interested steampunk fan I found this title didn’t do anything for me. All the ingredients are here but just didn’t hang together in a way that challenged

I am not a huge reader of steampunk but this was great fun! I think Kady Cross is an excellent writer and she made this alternative-Victorian world come alive. I will definitely be reading more of her books.

I requested this one back in the day as I had every intention of reading it. However, its been years and I still haven't gotten around to it and while I feel guilty at not reviewing a book I think that I need to admit to myself that I won't be reading this one anytime soon....if at all.

Spoiler alert: there is no girl with a windup heart in The Girl With The Windup Heart – in fact, the word windup doesn’t appear anywhere in the entire book. Still loved the book though, it’s very much like The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, characters with extraordinary abilities in a steampunk Victorian setting, but with more couples and romantic couple-ly plotlines.

The Girl With The Windup Heart is the fourth book in The Steampunk Chronicles series, but the first and only book of the series I’ve read. The author does a fantastic job of catching the reader up on who’s who and what’s what so it didn’t take me long to orient myself in the unfolding story – well, stories. The Girl With The Windup Heart is actually two pretty much separate stories in one – Finley’s crusade to save her beloved from the Aether and Mila’s adventures as her and Jack go through some growing pains in their relationship – only touching briefly in the middle of the book and at the end. I almost wish the different storylines had been separated into two different books as the jumping back and forth between the two seemingly incongruent plots does slow down the pacing a little.

I loved loved loved the characters in this – especially since you know I love a strong female protagonist. Both Finley and Mila are strong women, literally with Finley inheriting superhuman strength as part of her genetics as the daughter of a Jekyll/Hyde-esque character and Mila being part ingenue and part machine. Both ladies are willing to kick some butt to protect their men and I love that kind of role reversal. The guys are interesting characters as well and act as two sides of the same coin – Griffen can manipulate Aether and is all about doing the right thing at all times and Jack can manipulate people’s minds and is more than willing to get his hands dirty to get things done, but really both are good men and honorable in their own right.

I was very surprised by how young the characters are supposed to be – I didn’t even realize it until a comment was thrown out about Finley being seventeen. I should have realized, I suppose, since the book is published by Harlequin Teen, but there really is no indication, outside the previously mentioned line, within the story. Griffen, Finley’s man who she’s willing to go to extremes to save, is a powerful Duke with whom she lives, while Jack Dandy, who Mila is a ward of, is a criminal mastermind and club owner. All the characters read as very adult with very adult problems and relationships, possibly a byproduct of all the things they’ve had to go through over the course of the series. And of course, being seventeen in Victorian times is not the same as being seventeen in modern times, so there is that to consider as well.

With its intriguing characters, interesting setting, and excellent world-building, I definitely recommend The Girl With The Windup Heart to lovers of steampunk and science fiction set in the Victorian era. I absolutely plan to read the other books in The Steampunk Chronicles – there’s a robo-man and his technopathic girlfriend, a cat girl, and a Flash-like American cowboy acting as secondary characters in this book who I’d love to get to know better.