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I’m not going to be ambitious with this like I was last year. This year, I have a threefold goal with my reading habit in 2019.
1. Finish at least 12 books.
2. Read books from my TBR collection on my Kindle.
3. Write reviews for each book I complete on Goodreads and here on FM. Maybe also on my Dreamwidth account.
And that’s it. I’ll update this post with books I’ve completed as I finish them and post the reviews in responses to this post.
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Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
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Member since 1998.
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Look me up on Wattpad for some of my books!TITLE: Raventower and Merriweather 1: Secrets
GENRE: Fantasy, Steampunk
AUTHOR: Lazette Gifford
FORMAT: Kindle Book
ALSO AVAILABLE IN: Nook, Paperback, PDF
COVER COPY:
Lord Micalus Raventower is a genius at creating clockwork creatures and tinkering with steampunk engines, but that doesn’t explain why Atiran assassins are suddenly intent on killing him. Lt. Merriweather is assigned to protect Lord Raventower, a role she initially resents since it takes her away from the castle and any chance of advancement to the King’s Guard.
Trouble is brewing for the city of Kamere. Atrian warships stand off the coast, and there are enemies even within the ranks of the nobility itself. Merriweather and the eccentric young lord will have quite a job keeping him alive as well as hiding his more unusual secrets. She soon learns there may be very good reasons for the Atrians to want Lord Raventower dead.
RATING: ★★★★★
MY REVIEW:
The first time I read this book, it was over a number of months from December 2018, I think, through maybe February of the following year, mostly due to life events interrupting my reading. At the time when I finished it, I was unable to write a review. Upon my decision to write a review, I realized my memories of this book had blurred into the events of book 2, which I more recently finished, and decided to completely reread book 1 to clarify things for myself, and managed to finish the book within a few days.
It proved just as compelling and riveting as I found it whenever I had an opportunity to pick it up the first time I read it.
Mica’s eccentric obsession with clockworks resides at the center of this book. He has no real idea how he came to have this ability, and presumes it descends from his mother’s side of the family due to the fact her line has been known to produce the odd Gifted person in generations past. Regardless, this enables him to work with a magical metal that comes from the sea to create clockworks which, so long as their gears and springs remain unbroken, perpetually work.
Gifford creates a finely-crafted and detailed world for Micalis Raventower and his story. Her adeptness with description paints vivid scenes without superfluous words, and the characters inhabit it without any incongruity. She also develops the various relationships Mica has and shapes with his elder brother and sister, and Merriweather deftness, and shows Mica growing from a reclusive inventor into a man engaged with his world and the people who inhabit it—those not only within his home, but also outside of it.
As Mica’s horizons broaden, so does the plot, which follows Mica as he learns about his father while seeking information to aid his country in the young invasion of a longtime enemy’s force. Nobody Mica knows can figure out why the Atrians are interested in him, but it’s clear the invaders have a marked interest in him, and they pursue him even to their deaths in mountain ravines as he searches for answers to the secrets his father left behind.
One of the things I especially enjoyed in this book was the political intrigue, which sets off in the first chapter. There are several levels to this—not just Mica’s status as a Lord of Sedina and his relation to a general. Merriweather’s presence also brings some intrigue. And then there’s the war, with the Atrians and the traitor who brought them to the capitol city of Sedina. One of the things Zette does so well in this book is tie all the little intrigues into a detailed whole that adds depth and complexity not only to the book, but also the world she’s created in it and the society that gives that world its structure.
The book has a definite open ending, without leaving it a cliffhanger. It ties nearly everything up quite neatly, while leaving plenty of questions to be answered in book two.
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Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~
Look me up on Wattpad for some of my books!
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