Carol Goodman is as Oprah's Book Club as they come, I'm not surprised you're not enjoying yourself. Is Leviathan/etc. any better than Pretties/Uglies/Specials/Nouns/Words/Chairs/Lamps? Uglies was so heavy-handed I'm pretty sure it gave me a concussion, and I find Scott Westerfeld to be kind of a douche personally, but the cover of Leviathan keeps appealing to me. And I don't even like steampunk.