Copperhead

Today's post is on Copperhead by Tina Connolly. It is the second in her Ironskin trilogy. It is 316 pages long and is published by TOR. The cover has the main character on it with a iron mask in her hand looking at the reader. The intended reader is someone who has read the first book, likes steampunk, fae, and fast plots. Teens and adults would get the most out of this book. There is some mild language, no sex, and little violence. The story is told from the first person perspective of the main character. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Helen Huntingdon is beautiful- so beautiful she has to wear an iron mask.

Six months ago, her sister, Jane, uncovered a fey plot to take over the city. Too late for Helen, who opted for fey beauty- and now has to cover her face with iron so she won't be taken over, her personality erased by the bodiless fey.
Not that Helen would mind that some days. Stuck in a marriage with the wealthy and controlling Alistair, she lives at the edges of her life, secretly helping Jane remove the dangerous fey beauty from the wealthy society women who paid for it. But when the chancy procedure turns deadly, Jane goes missing- and is implicated in a murder.
Meanwhile, Alistair's influential clique Copperhead- whose emblem is the poisonous copperhead hydra- is out to restore humans to their 'rightful' place, even to the point of destroying the dwarvven who have always been allies.
Helen is determined to find her missing sister, as well as continue the good fight against the fey. But when that pits her against her own husband- and when she meets an enigmatic young revolutionary- she's pushed to discover how far she'll bend society's rules to do what's right. It may be more than her beauty at stake. It may her honor... and her heart.

Review- This is a fast-paced sequel to Ironskin. Helen was seen as only a silly and thoughtless woman gets to redeem herself. Helen has to do more character growth than Jane did. Helen has to learn that she has power, a voice, and a will to use them. There is some tense moments when Alistair is drunk and angry but Connolly uses them to make Helen grow. Helen wants to please but learns that she has to take care of herself and those in need. There is not much more world building in this one. We see more of the dwarvven world, more of the fey plots, and that is about it. Connolly gets into the darker human world where people might make their wives get new faces. And she dives into how that would make someone feel. The women in this novel are not taken seriously and they are mad about it. I like that Connolly is not afraid to talk about that. The dailog is not bad but it really is the world and the mystery that makes you keep reading.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.