Queen Victoria rules with an iron (and immortal) fist.

She rules over a Britain where the Aristocracy and ruling classes are made up of vampires and werewolves. A Britain where goblins literally live underground and mother’s know better than to let their little ones out after dark. It is a world where magic and technology live side by side.

It is 2012 and Pax Britannia reigns.

Alexandra Vardan is a member of the Royal Guard; an elite group whose purpose is to serve and protect the Aristocracy. When her younger sister goes missing however, Alexandra puts her life on hold to try and locate her. The search takes Alexandra down a path that causes her to question all that she knows and believes and eventually uncovers a secret that could topple the empire.

God Save the Queen is a perfect example of why one should never judge a book by its cover.

Head on over to Goodreads and you’ll see that there are two different covers to this book. One shows a saucy looking red-headed woman in a vaguely steampunk type outfit, the other shows a stylized skull and crown. The first cover I had come across in my local library and passed it by. I came across the second cover in a recent foray to the bookstore and I picked it up. It’s the same book from what I can tell, but I had to very different reactions.

All that aside, I found God Save the Queen to be quite enjoyable. While the book itself is touted as steampunk, I found it to be more of a fantasy type tale. Typically steampunk stories focus more on the technology where here it took a back seat to the characters. While mentions are made of the technology of the day, it is just that – mentions.

I had a few small qualms with God Save the Queen, but none of them are terribly major. I wasn’t terribly fond of the romantic subplot and thought the story could have done very well without it. I also found it a bit disconcerting that Alexandra felt it necessary to describe her clothing (albeit not in great detail, thankfully) whenever she dressed. I found it just disturbed the flow of the narrative and took me out of the story for that brief moment.

One the whole, I found God Save the Queen to be fairly enjoyable. Die hard steampunk fans will likely have trouble but the more casual fan – such as myself – should enjoy it. Don’t make my mistake and pay no attention to the cover; it is the story in side that counts.