#Review - Riwenne & the Mechanical Beasts by Kristen S. Walker #Teen #YA #Steampunk

Series: Divine Warriors # 1
Format: Kindle, 276 pages
Release Date:  January 24th 2018
Publisher: Kristen S. Walker
Source: Amazon
Genre: Teen, YA, Steampunk

Suggested Reading: 13-17

A clumsy school girl with the magic of a goddess. Mechanical beasts attacking her friends. Can she become a divine warrior and save the floating city?

Fifteen-year-old Riwenne is bad at school, chronically late, and lost in a daydream, but she has help from her best friend, Nexita—until the two of them get separated. During the mysterious test on Choosing Day, they both wanted to become priestesses, an important job in the sky city. But only Riwenne became a novice, and Nexita was chosen by the engineers. Now she’s on her own for the first time in her life.

When a talking bird tells her that her best friend is under attack, Riwenne faces her worst fear. She must become a divine warrior and save her best friend from mechanical beasts!

As she juggles warrior training and priestess duties, Riwenne can’t let herself get distracted. She must recruit other warriors and lead the quest to find out the mystery behind the mechanical beasts, but most of all, she must follow her heart.

If she trusts the wrong person, she’ll face the gods’ judgment.

Riwenne & the Mechanical Beasts is the first installment in author Kristen S. Walker's Divine Warriors series. In the floating city of Lyndamon are essentially raised by the state and don't know their parents. 15-year-old Riwenne is bad at school, chronically late, and lost in a daydream, but she has help from her best friend, Nexita—until the two of them get separated. During the mysterious test on Choosing Day, they both wanted to become priestesses, an important job in the sky city. 

But only Riwenne became a novice, and Nexita was chosen by the engineers. Now she’s on her own for the first time in her life. When a talking bird named Tika, from the sea goddess who has been invading her dreams, tells her that her best friend is under attack, Riwenne faces her worst fear. She must become a divine warrior and save her best friend from mechanical beasts! As she juggles warrior training and priestess duties, Riwenne can’t let herself get distracted. 

She must recruit other warriors and lead the quest to find out the mystery behind the mechanical beasts, but most of all, she must follow her heart. The book plays to the strength of the Magical Girl anime genre as the main character gathers her team of powerful girls with their customized outfits and powers. Riwenne becomes a leader of a group of divine warriors, each who have chosen a god or goddess of their own to enhance their abilities.

I am going to come out and say that this book is way too young for someone my age. Amazon says book is recommended for those 13-17. The books final chapters are the most exciting as well as action packed.  Riwenne also spends a whole lot of time in heat over her new roommate who has no uses for Riwenne's nonsense or Tika's constant presence in their room. That, of course, changes after they are forced to work together to fight off mechanical beasts who seem to target specific individuals. 

I do not recommend this to anyone over the age of 30. At times the dialogue is churlish, and it feels as though an actual 15 year old wrote the story. I won't be continuing the series at this point. 

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#Review - Rise of Knight and Sword by Miriam Wade #YA #Fantasy #Steampunk

Series: One Sword Saga # 1
Format: E-Book, 335 pages
Release Date: November 17th 2020
Publisher: Zenith Publishing
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Steampunk

Avalon, city of kings. Sky towers and airships dominate its skyline, dinosaurs roam freely throughout its parklands, and bounty hunters lurk in its shadows.

Guinevere has always lived on the outskirts of Avalon, working as an archivist in the central library. While corruption runs rampant throughout the city, her life is fairly mundane and predictable. That is, until she discovers the map to Excalibur and uncovers a plot to usurp the throne.

Finding herself on the run from these would-be king-slayers, Guinevere sets out to find the mythical sword. But with no one to trust and no where to hide, she must form an uneasy alliance with a pair of notorious bounty hunters."My future, and the future of Avalon are forward.

Miriam Wade's Rise of Knight and Sword is the first installment of the authors One Sword Saga. It reimagines Arthurian legend in a steampunk fantasy world at the height of the 1920's. Guinevere Cornwall has always lived on the outskirts of Avalon, working as an archivist in the central library. She studies manuscripts, preserves them, and translates them. One manuscript in a particular is of great importance to her. The location of the fabled Excalibur sword which is said to give the bearer right to choose the legitimate ruler of Camelot.

While corruption runs rampant throughout the city, her life is fairly mundane and predictable. That is, until she discovers the map to Excalibur and uncovers a plot to usurp the throne from the current King Uther. In her quest to retrieve Excalibur, Guinevere meets Mordred and Arthur, two bounty hunters on the very edge of the law who will tag along as she follows the map and tries to save Avalon from the hands of those who want to corrupt it. But hot on her trail are Rangers loyal to the corrupted Ranger's leader Gorlois who would do anything to hold Excalibur.

Arthur Pendragon is a former Ranger, and now partner with Mordred in their bounty hunting business. Finding herself on the run from these would-be king-slayers, Guinevere sets out to find the mythical sword. But with no one to trust and no where to hide, she must form an uneasy alliance with a pair of notorious bounty hunters. When Arthur discovers Guinevere onboard his ship the Hengroen, he finds himself not only stunned by her beauty, but intrigued at the possibility of finding the legendary Excalibur. 

After all, there is something definitely wrong in Camelot, and when the King is usurped from his throne, it means that a new King must be chosen. Arthur and Guinevere must face off against smugglers, wild dinosaurs, hidden motives, betrayal, mistrust, and a group of Knights whose names are Merlin, Lancelot, Gawain, and Galahad. All of these characters have been rewritten to fit into a steampunk world with dinosaurs roaming the wild, so the story felt completely different from other Arthurian legends, and I've read a ton of retellings over the past ten years.  

The reason for the rating is this: Insta-love. Arthur immediately falls for Guinevere even though every rich female in the land would love for him to choose them. The pacing is all over the place. The ending is absolutely predictable, and I have no clue what happened to Clash of Love and Realm which was supposed to be the sequel. With a little research, I've read the sequel "might" be released May 24, 2022. We'll see.

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#Review - The Brass Queen by Elizabeth Chatsworth #Historical #Steampunk #Fantasy

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Release Date: January 12, 2021
Publisher: CamCat Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Historical / Gaslamp

She knows a liar when she sees one. He knows a fraud when he meets one.

In a steam-powered world, Miss Constance Haltwhistle is the last in a line of blue-blooded rogues. Selling firearms under her alias, the “Brass Queen,” she has kept her baronial estate’s coffers full. But when US spy J. F. Trusdale saves her from assassins, she’s pulled into a search for a scientist with an invisibility serum. As royal foes create an invisible army to start a global war, Constance and Trusdale must learn to trust each other. If they don’t, the world as they know it will disappear before their eyes.

If you like the Parasol Protectorate or the Invisible Library series, you’ll love this gaslamp fantasy—a rambunctious romantic romp that will have you both laughing out loud and wishing you owned all of Miss Haltwhistle's armaments.

In 1897, a fiery British aristocrat and an inept US spy search for a stolen invisibility serum that could spark a global war.

 

The Brass Queen, by author Elizabeth Chatsworth, is a Gaslamp fantasy, alternate-history, Victorian England, romance mash-up. Debutante and secret weapons dealer, Lady Constance Haltwhistle, is the reclusive daughter of ‘a portal-tripping mad scientist’ who disappeared into an alternative world leaving his only daughter hunting to find a husband before she loses her family’s estate to an agenda driven relative. Since her father has been absent for an awfully long time, her uncle is threatening to seize the estate from under Constance’s bustle, if she can’t manage to snag a decent husband within the next week. 

While hosting a coming-out ball at Royal Steamwerks Exhibition Dome, an attempt is made on her life. Not the first, or second, or even third time this has happened. Not surprisingly since she's made a habit of making powerful enemies out of former clients. Meanwhile during the ensuing melee, 3 scientists, including Constance’s friend Dr. Maya Chauhan who is head of the Steamwerks lab, are kidnapped by invisible assailants and Constance's life is saved by a stranger. Said Stetson hat wearing stranger is an American cowboy turned spy named J.F. Trusdale who has a few secrets of his own including why he is here in Sheffield. Trusdale served in the US Army Military Intelligence Captain and is on the trail of a serum that makes a person invisible.

Constance and Trusdale must work together to fight off invisible assassins and a royal foe who wants to remove Queen Victoria from power and create a global war. While Constance and Trusdale are fighting each other’s quirks and personalities and feelings, several villains want to remove Constance. She keeps finding ways to escape every assassin sent after her which makes the villains even more eager to go the extra mile.

In many ways, this story reminds me of the Parasol Protectorate with the tongue-in-cheek humor, flamboyant main character, and the ridiculous situations the characters find themselves in, including a bloody polo match that will make you laugh. There are, however, no vampires or werewolves. If you are wondering about the title The Brass Queen, it's actually Constance's secret alias which she secretly sells steampunk firearms, exo-suits, and flamethrowers.

While the story itself has a beginning, a middle, and an ending, the author stated that she is eagerly writing the next adventure for Constance and Trusdale in Paris.

 

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#Review - The Skylark's Sacrifice by J.M. Frey #YA #Steampunk

Series: The Skylark Saga # 2
Format: Kindle, 364 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Publisher: REUTS Publications, LLC.
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Young Adult / Steampunk

Robin Arianhod is on the run. Trapped behind enemy lines, her only choice is to lose herself in the sprawling capital of Klonn. But hiding in the shadows is a disservice to the rocket pack she escaped with, and to the man she once considered foe. Instead, she’ll enact his plan, harness the incredible power of the pack, and stop the war from the inside.

Wanted posters stalk her every move as rumor fuels the Skylark’s rise, and her attempts at vigilantism attract the attention of more than just the city guards. Robin finds herself embroiled in the machinations of a mysterious underground rebellion—Klonnish citizens as tired of the war as she is.

But are they really her allies, or are they using the Skylark as bait? And can she really trust that her former archnemesis turned his coat? Or will the secret of his true identity lead Robin, and her newfound friends, to their deaths?

Rife with high-flying action, subterfuge, and deception, The Skylark’s Sacrifice is the explosive conclusion to the saga of war-torn Saskwya, and the one pilot who can change it all.

The Skylark's Sacrifice is the second installment in author J.M. Frey's The Skylark Saga. As a summary, Captain Robin Adrianhod grew up in the shadows of a decade-long war which tore her people from their homes and left them with little money and struggling to survive. As a Saskwyan flight mechanic with uncanny luck, she found herself as the first Sealie promoted to pilot of her own aeroplane after encountering the dreaded Coyote and flying her damaged ship home.

As a Saskwyan Air Patrol Officer, she completed many successful missions until she was shot down and captured by her nemesis, the Coyote who had been waiting for her. Robin ended up escaping thanks to a jet pack she named WINGS. In her hurray to escape, she left the man called Coyote behind to his own devices. A man who she never knew who he really was or why he was so enamored with her. As the story opens, it has been two months since Robin escaped.

She's now deep in enemy territory in the capital of Klonn been doing her best to stay hidden while also trying to take out enemy munitions and factory's and airfields that the enemy uses to attack her home. After all, with WINGS at her back, she can accomplish remarkable feats. But, is it enough to change the outcome of the war which she desperately wants to end? Is it enough for Klonn to order a cease fire and end the decades old war? With wanted posters bearing her image and an obscene amount of money offered for her alive, Robin needs to find friends.

After meeting a woman calling herself Rose, Robin finds herself embroiled in the machinations of a mysterious underground rebellion—Klonnish citizens as tired of the war as she is. The adage of the enemy of my enemy is my friend as long as we have the same goals are in evidence in this story. For a while, Robin considers becoming one of the nowhere folk who have no place to live but has the ability to go anywhere they want. But what she never counted on was the appearance of Coyote now calling himself Velph.

Robin, who has dark skin, and shocking white hair after her crash in the previous installment, isn't exactly invincible. She needs to come up with a new name (Skylark), she needs to come up with a new disguise, she needs to learn how to trust others like Rose, Taddeus, and yes, even Velph if she is going to remain free from a determined enemy who will do anything to capture her. Under a new name, Skylark continues to hit strategic targets in the country. But, will anyone else help the rebellion? Are the so-called rebellion just playing a game because they can? Or, are they just gadflies who have no clue how to do anything to cause the war to come to an end?

But, what she never once counted on was falling in love with the man called Velph, or the secret that he has been carrying that will either crush Robin's spirit, or make her fight even harder to end the war even if it means her own life is sacrificed in the process. After all, it's not like she can go home. They would likely treat her as a traitor or a spy. I would say I have a lot to say about the ending, but I would be giving away huge, and I do mean, huge spoilers. The ending left me with so, so, so many questions. I understand that this is the final installment in the duology, but I'm kind of sad we don't learn what happens next. We are expected to open our minds and figure out what Robin will accomplish in the future.

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