Blog Tour Audio Book Review: Power of Five (Power of Five #1)

Release Date: May 29, 2018
Author: Alex Lidell
Narrator: Victoria Mei
Publisher: Alex Lidell
Length: 226 pages/ 5 hrs. & 27 mins.
Source: Audible Audio Book Provided for Review

Four elite fae warriors. One mortal female. A magical bond they can’t allow—or resist.

Orphaned and sold to a harsh master, Lera’s life is about mucking stalls, avoiding her master’s advances, and steering clear of the mystical forest separating the mortal and fae worlds. Only fools venture into the immortal realms, and only dark rumors come out... Until four powerful fae warriors appear at Lera’s barn.

River, Coal, Tye, and Shade have waited a decade for their new fifth to be chosen, the wounds from their quint brother’s loss still raw. But the magic has played a cruel trick, bonding the four immortal warriors to... a female. A mortal female.

Distractingly beautiful and dangerously frail, Lera can only be one thing—a mistake. Yet as the males bring Lera back to the fae lands to sever the bond, they discover that she holds more power over their souls than is safe for anyone... especially for Lera herself.

Power of Five is a full-length reverse-harem fantasy novel.

    

Content Warning: This is a New Adult book and does contain explicit sexual scenes, read at your own discretion.

Review:

Protagonist: Lera, a mortal girl living as an indentured servant to a harsh and forward master, finds herself somehow linked in a Fae Quint, an elite team of fae warriors, and travels into the Fae lands to sever the obviously mistaken bond. On the whole, I didn't hate Lera, but there was never really anything that set her apart as a protagonist. She's stubborn, like most fantasy female protagonists, she'll do what she wants, damning the consequences, and that's all well and good, but I really wish there was something more to her. If I'm being honest there's nothing special about her, I mean, I'm sure there's something "special" about her, a reason she was bonded to this Quint, but other than the fact that she's the main character, there wasn't really anything about her that made me care for her as a character.

Romance: So, this is my first Harem story, Reverse or otherwise, and going into it I didn't quite know what to expect. Is it a love triangle, just there are more love interests? Is it going to be a polyamorous relationship? I knew if I wanted to experience a Harem story that it should come from an author who I've enjoyed in the past and who I know can write romance. Here's the thing though, I felt like there was very little actual romance in this story. Sure, there's lust, there's a hell of a lot of lust, but I never felt invested in Lera's romantic or sexual bond with any of the fae males, mainly because with either bond there's no development. From near the very start, it's clear that even if one of the guys doesn't act like they want Lera around, that isn't true, they care about her from practically the beginning of the story and of course since she's described as gorgeous they're also all horned up for her too. Any "development" on the "romance" front is more Lera getting said male to admit they want her around.

World Building: Where I felt the romance and Lera's character was lacking quite a bit, I actually really enjoyed the fantasy aspect of this Reverse-Harem Fantasy, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if there was more of it. Most of this book is dedicated to solidifying Lera's bond with certain characters, or at least I believe that was the point, in actuality all it did for me was let me get to know the males who've fallen for Lera, and while that's not a bad thing, there are four of them and this is a rather short book. So, while I was interested in learning more about the Quint bond, the Faerie Lands, and why Lera was drawn into this bond in the first place, there isn't a whole lot of development with any of that. The book is not boring, far from it, in fact, I LOVE all of the main plot progression that we got, even if I did feel there wasn't a whole lot.

Predictability: I was not prepared for the number of tropes this book had. Okay, I'm not totally serious, though there were a few times when something would be revealed and I would mumble to myself an exasperated "of course," but as I said, that only happened a few times. On the whole, there wasn't a whole lot I could predict about this book, mostly because as I acknowledged in the previous section, this is a pretty short book and a good chunk of it is devoted to fleshing out the love interests. That being said, while I wasn't surprised by some of the twists that happened, I didn't exactly call them either.

Ending: So... the ending to this book is a bit weird to talk about. First off there's the final climax... at least where the main story and action are concerned, which was fantastic and how the characters decide to handle the aftermath actually got a chuckle out of me. There was a lot of tension in the final climax and even though I never really grew to care for Lera as more than just the protagonist, I admit, I kind of got swept away with the scene and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. Then there's everything that comes after that final climax, and after all of the main story bits are taken care of, well the story ends in a place I've never seen a story end before. It's not quite a cliffhanger, but it's not a plateaued ending either.

Audio Book Notes: Obligatory preface: As I've said in past Audio Book Reviews, I'm still getting used to reviewing audio books and I probably won't be able to fully articulate my feelings for this audio book, please bear with me. So, I really enjoyed the performance here, I mean, the narrator does distinct accents for each of the fae males, and a few other characters as well, and she really puts her all into this performance. She doesn't just read the words she'll act them out and those inflections in her voice, really add a whole new layer to this story.

Rating:

So, even though I did give this book a hard time, I did really enjoy it, while I wasn't so happy with the fact that Lera isn't very special, I did like the fae males, River, Coal, Tye, and Shade who do have a good deal of backstory and characterization, I also LOVED the main plot aspects dealing with the Quint Bond and the Fae world, and I'm excited to see what comes next, and even though I wasn't invested in the romance elements that much I am not so secretly hoping that as the series progresses it gets better, since I have read great romance from this author in the past.

About the Author:

Alex Lidell is the author of Amazon bestsellers AIR AND ASH and WAR AND WIND (Danger Bearing Press, 2017) and an Amazon Breakout Novel Awards finalist author of THE CADET OF TILDOR (Penguin, 2013). She is an avid horseback rider, a (bad) hockey player, and an ice-cream addict. Born in Russia, Alex learned English in elementary school, where a thoughtful librarian placed a copy of Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA in Alex’s hands. In addition to becoming the first English book Alex read for fun, ALANNA started Alex’s lifelong love for YA fantasy books.

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Blog Tour Audio Book Review: The Flames (The Feud Trilogy #2) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: January 18, 2018
Author: Kyle Prue
Narrator: Jon Eric Preston
Publisher: Cartwright Publishing
Length: 434 pages/12 hrs. & 16 mins.
Source: Audio Book Review Copy

To survive incredible odds, one teen may have to trust both his former enemies and his fire-forged destiny…

Neil Vapros is one of the last free warriors of the great city of Altryon. He and his brother’s only chance of staying alive involves trusting an uneasy alliance with their former enemies. But in the world beyond his city’s walls, Neil’s life is much more dangerous than he ever imagined possible…

The Emperor has hired a ruthless madman and a vicious pack of assassins to hunt down the last supernatural survivors. As the allies attempt to hide from their enemies, the leader of a rebellion singles out Neil as the answer to a prophecy. Neil isn’t sure he believes he’s been “chosen,” but he knows one thing for sure: their only chance for survival lies in sticking together. While treachery and pain wait around every corner, Neil and his allies may win the day, but victory without casualties could prove impossible…

The Flames is the second book in the award-winning Epic Feud trilogy of young adult fantasy novels. If you like rich fantasy settings, imaginative supernatural abilities, and tough-as-nails characters, then you’ll love Kyle Prue’s electrifying adventure.

    

Review:

Protagonists: After being nearly hunted to extinction the last of the Lightborns from the city of Altryon have escaped into the outside world, a world they were once taught was a wasteland filled with savages, but is, in fact, full of thriving civilizations. With their hurt still fresh they aren't ready to fight back against the Empire, but sometimes the fight will come to you whether you want it or not. While Neil is arguably the main character of this book, and of this series, I really loved that all of our main characters have really well developed and defined character arcs in this book. I never really felt that one character was more important than the other, even when Neil starts to get pulled into a "Chosen One" storyline, I never felt that he became the focus of the story. Each character has a great deal of character development in this book, and what I found interesting was that the author definitely made it clear what it was that each character had to learn over the course of this book, but their character development still felt very natural and not like it was being shoved down my throat, which is usually how it is when the "lesson" our protagonist(s) has to learn is made obvious.

Romance: I wasn't sure if I was going to comment on this as the romance in this book is definitely on the lighter side for a YA novel, which is great honestly as I've kind of gotten a little romanced out lately. In fact, at first, I wasn't sure what to think about the lack of romance in this book, especially when the feelings between characters were growing a tad too fast for my liking, though with the time jump between this book and the previous one, on top of the fact that what we know about what transpired during that time jump is limited. Anyway, there are actually multiple romances in this book and I have to say I really enjoyed them both. Again, they weren't touched on a whole lot, and they never felt like anything more than a small subplot, but I felt it was handled well, and the little we do see makes an impact.

World Building: Woah, once we left the city of Altryon this world got a whole lot bigger. In fact, not that much of this book, if any, takes place within the Industrial City. There is so much of this world to still learn about and the complexities of this outside world are an interesting place to start. I was rather shocked going into the outside and just seeing how much story potential there is for these characters as they explore the world beyond the city. There's so much world building to talk about, from new villains to new discoveries surrounding the Lightborns, but unfortunately, I don't want to give too much away. I will say this though, it doesn't take too long in this book for things to get interesting and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Even after the phenomenal expansion to the story and the world that this book is there's still more I want to know, and if the next book is even half as story and world dense as this one I know I won't be disappointed.

Predictability: Like I said, this book doesn't take long for the story to get interesting and what better way than with a twist or to from left field. I mean, I'm thinking back on this book and trying to figure out if I was able to predict any twists, in a reasonable amount of time before they actually happen, and I can't really think of any. There are a couple that I got before the actual reveal, but within a second or two doesn't count. The twists and turns this story has are phenomenal, there wasn't a single one that I wasn't invested in, and while they aren't all good, in fact, I feel there are very few that were good for our heroes, they were still masterfully executed.

Ending: Going into the end of this story, and with it being the penultimate installment, I knew things were going to get good, and they sure did. The final climax, or honestly climaxes as we got different climactic events from different points of view, was amazing. It was a fantastic way to wrap up this adventure, while still leaving a great deal open for the next installment, or installments as this story opened this world up a lot and I could see more than one installment following this one. Anyway, the final climaxes were amazing, full of excitement and tension and I truly felt there was a lot at stake. While the very end of this book wasn't as game-changing as the previous one, that doesn't mean that it isn't as impactful, as a few things are revealed after the dust has settled and let me just say I'm happy it has taken me a while to get to this installment because that cliffhanger is just plain evil!

Audio Book Notes: As I've said ad nauseam, I'm not very well versed in reviewing the presentation of audio books. That being said though if you're going to pick up an audio book, this series definitely has some fantastic ones. While this audio book doesn't have a lot of production value put into it (ambient sound, background music, etc.) the narrator puts his all into presenting a thoroughly invigorating performance. It's hard not to get swept up into this world with such a masterful storyteller conveying the tale, every emotion the characters had I could feel in the narrator's performance, and at the end of the day, that really makes an audio book stand out.

Rating:

I'm quite surprised with how much I fell into this story and couldn't get out. This world is so rich and dense, the characters are phenomenal, and the story is way too easy to get swept away in. While I did greatly enjoy the first book, this installment was everything I was looking for in this series and I (literally) cannot wait until the second installment.

About the Author:

Kyle Prue is an award-winning author, actor, and comedian. Kyle wrote The Sparks: Book 1 of the Feud Trilogy when he was just 16 years old. Kyle has spent the past year on a national book tour visiting over 80 middle and high schools and meeting over 60,000 students. Kyle is now a freshman at the University of Michigan, studying acting and creative writing. He still visits schools and is a keynote speaker for conferences.

Kyle is the founder of Sparking Literacy, a non-profit dedicated to lowering the high school dropout rate by inspiring teens to read, write and follow their dreams.  The Sparks has won numerous national awards including Best YA Fiction awards from: The Florida Authors and Publisher’s Association, the Florida Book Festival, New England Book Festival, Midwest Book Festival, Southern California Book Festival, and the International London Book Festival. Kyle also won an International Moonbeam Award and IndieFab Award for Best Young Author.

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About the Narrator:

Jon Eric Preston received his Theatre degree from Florida State University after returning from the London program. He earned top honors narrating in the Dramatic Interpretation category on the Speech and Debate team, and performed professionally in Children’s Theatre companies and did National Tours of A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, and Othello.

Giveaway!

The Flames Giveaway: Kindle Fire

Disclosure:

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Kyle Prue. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Blog Tour Audio Book Review: Air and Ash (TIDES #1)

Release Date: September 8, 2017
Author: Alex Lidell
Narrator: Kaitlin Bellamy
Publisher: Danger Bearing Press
Length: 6 hours & 57 minutes
Source: Review Copy for Tour

Master and Commander meets Tamora Pierce in a seafaring adventure of duty, love, magic, and a princess’s quest to protect her kingdom on her own terms.

After a lifetime of training, seventeen-year-old Princess Nile Greysik, a lieutenant on the prestigious Ashing navy flagship, sails into battle with one vital mission—and fails.

Barred from the sea and facing a political marriage, Nile masquerades as a common sailor on the first ship she can find. With a cowardly captain, incompetent crew, and a cruel, too-handsome first officer intent on making her life a living hell, Nile must hide her identity while trying to turn the sorry frigate battleworthy. Worse, a terrifying and forbidden magic now tingles in Nile’s blood. If anyone catches wind of who Nile is or what she can do, her life is over.

But when disaster threatens the ship, Nile may have no choice but to unleash the truth that will curse her future.

AIR AND ASH is the thrilling first installment of the TIDES series. Recommended for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Tamora Pierce, and Naomi Novik.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Nile has spent most of her life on the water and loves nearly every minute of it, but after an important mission goes awry she's barred from the ocean and pushed toward a political marriage. Stealing away she enlists as a member of the first crew that will take her on. However, this crew is far different than her previous one and since (nearly) no one is aware who she is she cannot lean on her years of experience to outrank anyone. Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of Nile. I sort of felt as though she is a bit too paragon for really any story. It almost always felt that she was right while everyone else was wrong and the only real adversity she faces is either because of the newly discovered magic she holds or proud or bigoted people not taking her seriously. I wish Nile was more flawed, that it would feel she has a lesson to learn here. I did feel as though sometimes the author would have Nile begin to learn something new or feel she was wrong, but I never felt that followed through.

Romance: There honestly isn't all that much romance in this story, which is just fine, though there is a bit of a forbidden romance element here as there isn't supposed to be romantic fraternization among crew members, but again since there isn't much that romance that isn't much of a problem for me, at least not yet. I did really enjoy the romance between Nile and her suitor, it's slow burning and there were quite a few times I really found myself rooting for them and wondering how the whole romance thing would play out, I'm interested in continuing the journey.

World Building: So, this part of the story is probably my biggest disappointment. I mean, sure there are a lot of great section to the book that flesh out the world and really give you a sense of understanding as to what goes on in the world and who thinks and believes what based on where they're from and that's all great, but the story itself just feels adrift. I wish I had a better handle on the heading for this story, by the end of this book there are so many different ways this story could go and I just wish I had some understanding of the true end goal of this series and Nile's journey, but as of now things just seem a little chaotic and lost.

Predictability: Since I never had a full understanding of where the story would go, other than Nile's immediate need to be free and discover more about the forbidden magic of this world, I never had a great idea for where things were heading other than the vaguest of notions. That being said it did help have some fantastic twists and turns in this story. There were some fantastic moments that really took me by surprise and captivated me.

Ending: So the final climax of this book is really well thought out and honestly quite intense. I instantly felt the weight of what was going on and the severity of the situation while I greatly admired. As the final climax came to a head I felt extremely invested in the outcome and the consequences. The cooldown period was nice though I do wish there was more attention paid to the world building and less on the romance, and the cliffhanger of this book, which isn't a huge one by any means, felt underwhelming.

Audio Book Notes: The audio book for this story is fantastic. Like I've said in previous audio book reviews I'm not great at articulating how enjoyable an audio book is unless there's something really special about it, such as an outstanding narrator, ambient sound that mixes with the story, etc. Here, the narrator was the standout. She delivers a captivating performance and her distinct voices and range of accents were a joy to behold. Bellamy brings this world to life and it was near impossible to stop listening to her masterful performance.

Rating:

If I was rating the story alone, I would give it 3 stars or maybe less, but Bellamy's performance was superb and I had to hike it up to 3.5. Don't get me wrong this story has a lot of promise and I hope to eventually continue with the story and I am interested to see where this story goes.

About the Author:

Alex Lidell is the author of Amazon bestsellers AIR AND ASH and WAR AND WIND (Danger Bearing Press, 2017) and an Amazon Breakout Novel Awards finalist author of THE CADET OF TILDOR (Penguin, 2013). She is an avid horseback rider, a (bad) hockey player, and an ice-cream addict. Born in Russia, Alex learned English in elementary school, where a thoughtful librarian placed a copy of Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA in Alex’s hands. In addition to becoming the first English book Alex read for fun, ALANNA started Alex’s lifelong love for YA fantasy books.

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About the Narrator:

​Kaitlin Bellamy is a freelance performer and acting coach residing in Central Florida, with a theatrical history spanning more than twenty-five years.

Since relocating to Orlando in 2012, she has worked at multiple theme parks and various theatrical venues, in a career style she calls “Buffet Performing:” or, the idea of keeping several jobs active at any given time, so she may pick and choose where to work, and life never gets boring. Her specialties include Shakespeare, Voice Acting, and Puppetry. But above all, she is passionate about the performing arts, and all they stand for.

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Book Review: Mean Girls: A Novel

Release Date: September 12, 2017
Author: Micol Ostow
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Length: 304 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

You know the story--or do you?

Cady Heron grew up homeschooled in Africa with scientist parents as her teachers, monkeys as her classmates and the African plains as her playground. But when her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, she finds herself a stranger in a strange land: high school.

With no prior research to guide her, Cady's forced to figure out North Shore High all on her own. Suddenly she finds herself sucked into Girl World as a new member of the social elite dubbed "The Plastics." Cady discovers that unlike the wild, Girl World doesn't have any rules--especially when you maybe, possibly, okay definitely, have a giant crush on their ruthless leader's ex-boyfriend. Turns out, life in high school might be even more brutal than a showdown on the Savannah.

Based on the screenplay by Tina Fey, this retelling of the cult classic film includes tons of extra, never-before-seen bonus content.

    

Review:

Reviewer's Note: So, it's obvious that this isn't an original work of fiction. The movie this novel is based on is a cult classic film and I have yet to meet a person who hasn't seen it. Because of that, I won't be reviewing the story in this book, but more of a look at how well the story was adapted for this novel.

"Behind the Scenes" Extras: This book is riddled with North Shore Announcements, School Newspaper Articles, text messages between characters and other random extra little bits. At first, it felt a bit awkward because it mostly felt like a way for the author to inject forced easter eggs into the story, however later I came to really enjoy them as they started to feel more like a peek behind the curtain and showing a wider look at the larger story and the bits of the story that we might not have seen watching the movie.

General Adaptation Notes: Okay, so this is mostly a faithful novelization of the movie, however, there are minor changes and additions to the movie. The minor changes didn't bother me that much, only really one time during the first 3-way calling attack where a now infamous line is changed to make more sense. However, it was the additions to the tale that really got me in the end. There aren't too many and really only one that stuck with me, the fact that we actually see what happens after Cady visits Regina after her bus accident, and it really felt like it could have been in the movie, there's even a line that made me seriously crack up.

Audiobook Notes: So, even though Scholastic generously provided me with a physical review copy, I decided to listen to the audiobook through my local library and honestly I wish I hadn't. The performance wasn't so bad that I would have stopped listening to it, obviously, but it seriously felt that either the narrator hadn't ever seen the movie, or that she was trying to put her own spin on the characters which seriously rubbed me the wrong way. The characters sounded nothing like their movie counterparts and at times they sounded too similar to each other and if I hadn't seen the movie about a hundred times I might have gotten confused on who was talking. The audiobook won't factor into my overall rating, but I thought I'd let you know my experience with it.

Rating:

Sorry for such a short review but without reviewing the actual story there wasn't all that much to talk about. I did like all the little extras and while there were a few moments that rubbed me the wrong way in the text, I don't really fault the author for trying to make a narrative choice. The additions felt seamless and the characters really felt like the ones from the movie. Overall, if you're a fan of the movie this book is definitely a fun and interesting ride.

Audiobook Review: The Sparks (Feud #1)

Release Date: January 31, 2017/February 24, 2017
Author: Kyle Prue
Narrator: Jon Eric Preston
Publisher: Cartwright Publishing
Length: 300 pages/9 hrs. 14 mins.
Source: Audiobook Received for Review

HONOR DOES NOT BEND. A WILL OF IRON DOES NOT BREAK
VICTORY LIES WITHIN THE ASHES.

The Vapros, the Taurlum, and the Celerius: three dynasties bound by an ancient promise, and given superhuman abilities to protect the city of Altryon from the dangerous world beyond its walls. The Vapros have the ability to teleport and turn their enemies to ash, the Celerius have super speed and the ability to heal from any wound, the Taurlum have skin like steel and godlike strength. Centuries of petty infighting, have turned the families against each other, resulting in a secret war. A powerful emperor now rules over all as the families have been weakened by massive casualties.

16-year-old, Neil Vapros, desperately wants to become an assassin in order to please his overbearing father. After failing his first mission, Neil learns that a new sinister threat has awakened. This mysterious new power threatens to shatter the established order and the lives of everyone in Altryon – regardless of their family name or allegiance.

    

Review:

Protagonists: While a majority of this story is told from the point of view of Neil Vapros, a boy who wants nothing more than the respect of his family, this story has many points of view and while not all of them are the protagonists of this story, a great deal of them are. What I love about all of the protagonists is that they aren't these paragons of goodness that you can easily take the side of, they are flawed and their logic of this ridiculous feud between their families is warped beyond comprehension. Each of the protagonists grows in some way or another over the course of this story, it's a growth that's easily seen but not in your face and obvious. I really liked each character who has a POV in this story, while not all the POV characters are good, they are still well layered and it's easy to see their logic, even if it's not something I personally agree with.

World Building: One of my biggest problems with this story, I almost feel too embarrassed to share. This book takes a long time to get fully set up, and while, once it's done, it's a really fantastic world that I'm totally sucked into now and I can't wait to see what happens in it, it was hard to get into at first because there was still a lot of set up. However, once a certain event occurs things speed up and kick into high gear. There's a lot to this world, and while it takes a while to set up it's quite a sight to behold. I mean the synopsis for the story sets it up a bit, but as you dive into this story the backstory for not only the characters but the families as well are incredible. Even after all this story has to offer in terms of set up there are still mysteries it hides and I just want to know more and to follow these characters as they hopefully discover more about the world they live in and the feud between their families that has consumed their entire lives.

Predictability: Other than one very large twist that I was able to figure out from the synopsis alone, this book does a spectacular job at keeping the twists of this book under wraps. If you're worried about reading the synopsis and getting spoiled on something big, don't worry there's enough foreshadowing for that twist that even without the synopsis you'd still see it coming a long time before it's actually revealed. As for the other twists in this story, I'm sure there might have been some foreshadowing for the larger twists, but I can't seem to remember all that much. For the smaller stuff, there wasn't all that much that felt like and intentional twist, but more like a part of the plot to move things along.

Ending: If I didn't know this book was part of a series going in, I would have known it by that ending. While this story doesn't end with a heart stopping cliffhanger or game changing twist, there is a lot that happens towards the end of this story. There are still a great many mysteries in this world and I just loved that the author used what I like to refer to as the "cooldown" period of this book, after the final climax, to remind readers that there's still more that won't be revealed until at least the sequel. The actual final climax of this story was incredible. Since there are multiple perspectives we got to see what was going down from multiple angles and through the lenses of different characters.

Audiobook Notes: As I've said in past Audiobook Reviews, I don't really have a great talent for articulating my thoughts about an audiobook unless it's something special and the creators and producers go above and beyond or the narration was so monotonously boring that I couldn't help but shut it off. While there wasn't anything in the production of the audiobook, such as ambient sounds, music, etc. that heightened the experience, the narrator does a spectacular job at bringing the characters in this story to life. His narration is anything but boring as he does good voices, and really adds a lot of great depth and emotion into his performance. When characters cry it really sounds like the narrator is crying, or when characters have to cover their mouths while talking in a certain scene, that comes through in the narration. Overall, this was a spectacular book to listen to.

Rating:

While this story does take quite a while to get fully set up, and the story can seem to drag in certain parts until then, once things start going they don't stop and I can't wait to find out what happens next in this intricately designed fantasy world.

Blog Tour Audiobook Review: Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1)

Release Date: November 8, 2016/February 14, 2017
Author: Tara Sim
Narrator: Gary Furlong
Publisher: Sky Pony Press/Forever Young Audiobooks
Length: 414 pages/8 hrs. 48 mins.
Source: Audiobook Received for Tour Review

Two o’clock was missing.

In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors.

And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems. Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve.

But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Danny Hart is a clock mechanic, one of a group of people that can put a clock tower back together after it's been damaged. Danny wants nothing more than to save his father from being trapped in a town where time has stopped, but because of his severe emotional attachment to the project, his superiors believe that his talents would be put to better use in the town of Enfield. I felt that the author of this story does a fantastic job with Danny's characterization. It's very easy to get emotionally invested in his hopes and dreams, and feel bad for him when those dreams don't work out as he planned, while still understanding where, as was the case with the lead mechanic keeping him off the job of rescuing the Stopped town his father is in, others are coming from. There are never times when Danny's actions didn't make sense or that there was never anything to justify his actions. While deeply flawed in many ways, Danny has a well-plotted development over the course of this story, while still feeling like a real, imperfect protagonist by the end.

Romance: Honestly, if there was one thing to turn me off going into this story it would have been the forbidden love aspect, but since everything else sounded so interesting I thought I'd give it a try anyway, and I wasn't let down. First off, this isn't a cliche and trope-filled forbidden romance. There are many times in this book where I wasn't sure what would happen in the romance, where I genuinely wondered whether or not Danny and Colton, the spirit of Enfield's clock tower, will end up together. I'm still not sure if they will or not, since it's a series, and that level of not knowing is so refreshing, I mean, in most forbidden romances the romance is viewed as this beautiful and perfect love, but the characters always seem to fall in love too hard too fast and have an unhealthy attachment to one another that is passed off as romantic. In this story, however, Danny and Colton learn about each other, they make mistakes and fight, and while they grow very fond of each other and will fight to stay in each other's lives they never cross that line towards manic and obsessed which I was ecstatic about.

World Building: One of the first things to draw me to this story was the fact that time is controlled by clock towers and that if the clock tower is damaged, then so is time itself. What I never expected though, was just how intricately the world building would go into this phenomenon. There are chapters in this book that detail the mythology of this world, and shine a light on how time works in this world. While these chapters are short, few, and far between, they add an addictive layer to this world that I couldn't help but be drawn to. Most of this book takes place in London is a sort of steampunk world with automatons and cars with no seat belts. Everything has a bit of an old-fashioned feel to it and the world comes alive in each chapter. Even with how much there is to learn about in this world, there's still so much more that I want to know, such as clocks in other parts of the world, which I think we're getting in book 2, and more about the mythology attached to time and the clock towers.

Predictability: For the most part this story is very unpredictable. While there is a good amount of foreshadowing here and there, a lot of it is very subtle and very rarely does the author write something that will clue the reader in on a big, or even medium, twist. One of the best twists in this story doesn't have ANY foreshadowing, at least not until a few minutes before the twist is revealed. It's something that completely changes the game and does so in such a satisfying and shocking way that I can't stop gushing about it. Looking back I can't remember many moments where I knew something was going to happen or whodunnit a significant amount of time before it was revealed.

Ending: If you're looking for a good first book in a series that doesn't try to drag you off a cliff with it's ending then you've come to the right place. As the story moves into its final climax, and what a fantastic and invigorating final climax it is, I was waiting for the twist that would prolong this story more than it needed to so that this could be a trilogy (I swear I'm really an optimist at heart,) but then the main story concluded and we were given a really nice cooldown with just a little twist that speaks to more stories within this world. There wasn't a huge cliffhanger or a feeling that, at least for the moment, things aren't resolved. While I am highly anticipating the release of Chainbreaker, the second book in this series, I can honestly say that I won't mind waiting a bit.

Audiobook Notes: So, I suck at reviewing Audio Books, which is why I rarely comment on narration and production if I listen to a book on audio unless it's extremely well done and stands out above other audiobooks, i.e. having ambient and background sound and music, or a full voice cast. However, this book has no extra effort put into the Audio Book, and that's not a bad thing. In fact, added features would have distracted from the overall story and the tension that builds during certain scenes, a full voice cast would have been nice, but the narrator does a perfectly wonderful job at narrating, although I would have preferred more distinct voices for certain characters. Overall, the Audio Book was great, the narrator did a fine job telling the story and it was put together very well.

Rating:

If you couldn't tell by how much I gushed about this book I loved it. The world is stunning and unique, and the characters are so perfectly imperfect. I can't wait to read on and see what will happen next!

About the Author:

Tara Sim is the author of Timekeeper (Sky Pony Press) and can typically be found wandering the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not chasing cats or lurking in bookstores, she writes books about magic, clocks, and explosives. Follow her on Twitter at @EachStarAWorld, and check out her website at tarasim.com.

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About the Narrator:

Gary Furlong grew up in Wexford, Ireland. Throughout his life he has worn many a hat: He has worked as a teacher in Niigata, Japan; a puppeteer in Prague; an improv artist in Memphis, Tennessee; and as a singer and actor all over Ireland. He started narrating audiobooks in late 2015 and hasn't looked back.

Gary made his acting debut in the musical Godspell as a student. Since then he has pursued acting both on the amateur and professional circuits. Notable roles include Tom Collins in Bare Cheek's production of Rent in 2010.

Over the course of his five years in Japan, he was an actor, director, and audio producer. It was during this time that he discovered his interest in audiobooks and voice-over.

He now works full-time as an audiobook narrator and voice actor from his home in Ireland.

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Giveaways:

Giveaway 1:

Timekeeper Giveaway #1

Giveaway 2:

Timekeeper Giveaway #2