Showing posts with label steampunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label steampunk. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2014

Winners of Iron Pendulum and a Freebie

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I have the winners from my Rafflecopter giveaway and announcement of a freebie for you all. Get strapped into that chair and let's get going!

First up, the winners!

Each of these lovelies win an e-copy of Iron Pendulum by Megan Curd.

Alana M.
Wendy P.

Bummed you didn't win? Well, you kind of did! Why?

Steel Lily, book one of the Periodic Series, is FREE right now!

Information about the book:

Title: Steel Lily
Author: Megan Curd
Genre: YA Dystopian with hints of Steampunk
Length (print): 314 pages
Links to Purchase: Amazon—FREE Kindle  B&N—$0.99 Nook

Synopsis:
AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She's a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued. But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn't any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better.

...Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything...including the fate of your world.

Link to my review of Steel Lily: http://jomichaels.blogspot.com/2013/12/book-review-steel-lily.html

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend of reading! Go get that book now and start your journey into the future.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Friday, August 29, 2014

Book Review - Iron Pendulum

Happy Friday, everyone! Today, I'm bringing you a book review and a giveaway (because I loved this book that much). If you recall, I did a little giveaway of my five star reads for the year a couple of weeks ago on my birthday. Happy birthday to all of you! *grin* This time, I'm giving away two Kindle copies because I wanna. No special reason other than I think you'll enjoy this book immensely.

A little about the book up for review:

Title: Iron Pendulum (Book Two of The Periodic Series)
Author: Megan Curd
Genre: Young Adult Steampunk Dystopian
Length (print): about 335 pages

Buy Links: Amazon Kindle $2.99

Synopsis:
Six months ago, Avery thought the world ended outside Dome Four. Thought she was one of the few of her kind. Thought the war that brought the human race to the brink of extinction was over.

But six months can change everything.

After fighting to escape a tyranny she didn't even know existed, Avery has had to come to grips with all the secrets she's uncovered. But more secrets continue to come to light, revealing how little of her world she truly knew. When evidence starts to show that Dome Four might be under siege, Avery knows what she must do.

Returning to the dome she longed to escape is a challenge for Avery, but now she knows there’s corruption lurking in the shadows. A massive steam shortage leaves half the dome without power, and people are falling ill. Dying.

And they’re blaming Avery.

Six months can change everything. Another month could wipe out all of Dome Four. The clock is ticking.

***Will not appear in review elsewhere: Wow at the cover for this book. I love the monochromatic color scheme. It makes me want to squeal and happy dance. Love what the designer did with the cogs, too. Steel Lily was yellowish, and I imagine Copper Phoenix (book three) will be orange tinted. Keep an eye out for that one, too! If you're curious, I wrote a review for Steel Lily on the blog last year. You can check that review out here.***

Onward and upward!

If you read my review of Steel Lily, you'll know I had mixed feelings about it. There were some errors in the writing that threw me out of the story, and left me sad. But, I wanted to give the author, Megan Curd, another chance to win me over because I was very fond of the story, the characters, and the steampunk world she'd built. I bought Iron Pendulum the day after it went on sale because I was so eager to find out what happened next. Well, I wasn't disappointed! Let's get to the review.

From a Reader's Perspective:
Twists and turns and revelations, oh my! So much was explained in this story that was left dangling in the last one. I was caught by surprise a number of times as the tale unfolded on the page (not an easy thing to do with me because I can see most twists coming). Avery redeemed herself more with every page I turned. Middle of the trilogy blahs can't be found in this novel. You get action, reaction, and scenes that will leave you needing a hankie after you read them. Curd outdid herself with the emotion she threw into the story. Pacing is awesome, and I found myself totally engrossed in the story. If you don't like cliffhangers, beware! There's a big one at the end of this book. Of course, that leaves me frothing at the mouth to get hold of the next installment. If you haven't read Steel Lily, I suggest you do so before picking up this book. There are a few things that tell you the history, but you need to immerse yourself fully in the world so you have that connection with the characters that can only be built over time. Chills and thrills await you!

From an Editor's Perspective:
Nowhere near the issues of the first one. A misplaced pronoun here and there, but that's to be expected. Nothing that pulled me out of the story, and nothing that contradicted the first book. Nicely done.

Rating:
1 Star for clearing up the love triangle I hated in the first book
1 Star for world building
1 Star for ripping my heart out of my chest
1 Star for pacing
1 Star for lack of errors
Overall 5 out of 5 stars! You'll enjoy this book if you love clean young adult novels that keep you guessing.

See that five star rating? Yeah, now you know why I'm doing the giveaway. Get your fingers ready to do some clicking!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What do you think? Will you check this book out?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo 

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Book Review Steel Lily

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I have another book review for you all. I know you've seen Ms. Megan Curd's book, Steel Lily, on the sidebar of the blog for the last week and a half. Well that's the book on the chopping block for today! I bet you've been wavering on whether or not you should pick up a copy, too, eh? I hope this review will help you make that decision.

First, as always, I'm gonna give the book blurb before moving on to the review.

Title: Steel Lily
Author: Megan Curd
Genre: Dystopian with hints of Steampunk
Length (print): 314 pages
Links to Purchase: Amazon—$0.99 Kindle  B&N—$0.99 Nook  Kobo—$0.99

Synopsis:
AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She's a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued. But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn't any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better.

...Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything...including the fate of your world.

I just love love love the cover for this book. It really encompasses the story within the pages. Rust, gears, and beautiful type! How could you go wrong?

Let's get to the juicy!

I picked up a copy of Steel Lily on Amazon not too long after I got my interviewee list for the UtopYA Con authors. They signed up and I snagged a couple of their books to read (wasn't planning to write reviews at all). But some of them were so good, I just haven't been able to help myself. Besides, it's a nice surprise for the authors when they find their shiny new review. Enough of my babbling, let's get to it!

From a reader's perspective:
I found the characters to be well rounded and full of life. Avery's struggle to contain the instant attraction she felt toward Jax had me laughing at times. It shows her strong will and how much she's been hurt in the past. But she also judged him by his arrogant attitude at first, which gives me insight into what kind of person she is. I connected with her in this way. I loved that there were no infodumps in the book. I know this is the first book in a series and that leaves the open-ended things a good plot idea. It makes me want to read the next book. I got completely pulled into the world Curd created and it was easy to picture in my head. It's a great YA story many will enjoy. I simply adored the twist in the end of the book. That's just good stuff right there. I didn't like the hits at the relationship with Legs. There's never any indication that he's interested in Avery romantically until Jax shows up. I could've used a bit more lead-in with that whole triangle of fun and tension. I was thrown out of the fantasy a couple of times by errors I noticed. Which leads me to...

From an editor's perspective:
As I read on my Kindle app, I highlight errors (my editor brain works all the time). I find it easy to open the book up and hit the notes to see how many booboos a book had without having to remember them all. I found a slew of them in this book. One, the dates go all wrong from page 34 to page 56. I also found a large number of errors in sentence construction, grammar use, and word use. I don't usually give heavy weighting to editing errors (limiting them to 1 star overall in my rating scale), but the date error was a booboo from a story perspective so it bled over a hair.

Rating:
+1 Star for giving me characters I could see and identify with
+1 Star for excellent world-building
+1 Star for great pacing and an awesome twist
-.5 Star for the sudden use of a character in a love triangle that wasn't led up to in any way
-1.5 Stars for errors in both timeline keeping and general writing
Overall, 3 out of 5 stars. Recommended for anyone who's looking for a good, clean, YA read.

I hope you enjoyed that review! I had a great time reading the book. I do hope you'll scoot on over to the platform of your choice and get your own copy. Links are above the book.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo