The Convent of the Pure

Convent of the Pure's elevator pitch (or at least what I assume it's elevator pitch would be) seems like little more than a bunch of popular genre elements all tossed into the same pot: “In a steampunk world, a half-angel demon hunter and her ghostly lover must fight against corruption and betrayal.”

The story itself is a lot more than that, though. All those elements are present, but the story is written well enough that it feels fresh and original in its telling.

My only issue with the book is that it could stand to be longer - because it's a novella and not a full novel, it felt like once it got started, it never slowed down to catch its breath and really explore the ideas that were both in the text and implied by them. It's the first part in a trilogy, though, so I'll have to see if the later parts deal with that before passing judgment.