Pretty Waiter Girls

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, thank you. All opinions are my own.

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.

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.

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.

This is the first book I have read in the A Helena Brandywine Adventure Series. I found it to be quite enjoyable and would be interested in reading more. It follows Helena as she is looking for a missing girl and friend though the dark streets of San Francisco.

The main character, Helena, is a strong independent woman. I though she was written pretty well, but wished she was a little more flushed out as a character. That is my opinion though and as this is a mystery series, I know that slowing the character’s arc is essential in keeping the series going.

For the plot, there were a few times were I was confused as to what was going on. I felt like the book should have been longer in order to give more detail in the location the character visited, especial as this is steampunk—a genre that is mostly about world building.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and give it a 3.5/5. Be sure to check it out!

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.

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.

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.

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..

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).

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

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.