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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Pump Up Your Book Presents: The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr


  • The Diabolical Miss Hyde
  • Author:  Viola Carr
  • Series:  Electric Empire Series, #1
  • File Size: 1018 KB
  • Print Length: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Voyager (February 10, 2015)
  • Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Rating:  4 1/2 Stars

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received this book for review from Pump Up Your Book and the author.  I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own.  I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255:  "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising".

Book Description:
In an electric-powered Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator, hunting killers with inventive new technological gadgets. Now, a new killer is splattering London in blood, drugging beautiful women and slicing off their limbs. Catching The Slicer will make Eliza’s career – or get her burned. Because Eliza has a dark secret. A seductive second self, set free by her father’s forbidden magical elixir: wild, impulsive Lizzie Hyde.

When the Royal Society send their Enforcer, the mercurial Captain Lafayette, to prove she’s a sorcerer, Eliza must resist the elixir with all her power. But as the Slicer case draws her into London’s luminous magical underworld, Eliza will need all the help she can get. Even if it means getting close to Lafayette, who harbors an evil curse of his own. Even if it means risking everything and setting vengeful Lizzie free …


Buy Links:
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Make sure you don’t skip a page just to get to the first chapter.  Otherwise, you’ll miss something special that the author has created.

My Thoughts:
As you start to read, the interesting part will be figuring out who’s narrating the story – Ms. Carr has grabbed my attention.  Eliza Jekyll has an interesting job for the times and one I would never want.  And this is why I don’t know that this is a story you want to be eating while reading.  Some of the descriptions can seem to be a little disturbing as to how accurate they sound.  In a way it makes me think of what CSI would be back in the day.

Captain Remy Lafayette is a great foil for Eliza.  He makes her sit up and take notice.  But he’s not everything that you see on the surface.  What I love about this author is that nothing gets revealed until almost the very end.  It leaves you with no choice but to get comfortable, sit back, and relax because you are going to find that this book is very hard to put down.  If you’re in my neck of the woods, and are getting snowed in, what a great choice of reading material to have on hand when you can’t go anywhere.

I’ve seen several forms of the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but I think that this is my favorite.  My favorite actress to play Ms. Jekyll/Hyde would be Helen Bonham-Carter.  I could also picture Tim Burton having a hand in bringing this book to life.  And if he cast Helen then Johnny Depp would have to be there too.  But I see him more as Hippocrates.


Steampunk is a fascinating genre.  It’s one where anything is possible but it’s done with a historical perspective.  Machines can have lives but not like what’s being invented today.  Our author has made Eliza to be a very intelligent woman who just happens to have another side to her.  Yet having all these gadgets doesn’t seem to faze her. The ending left me wanting more – so I was very happy to see that another book titled Tenfold More Wicked will be coming out later this year.


Viola Carr Bio:
Viola Carr was born in Australia, but wandered into darkest London one foggy October evening and never found her way out. She now devours countless history books and dictates fantastical novels by gaslight, accompanied by classical music and the snoring of her slumbering cat. She loves history, and pops down to London’s many historical sites whenever she gets the chance.  She likes steampunk, and thought it would be cool to investigate wacky crimes with crazy gadgets…just so long as her heroine was the creator of said wacky gadgets: a tinkerer, edgy, with a dash of mad scientist. Readers can follow her on twitter at @viola_carr  and online at http://www.violacarr.com.

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