In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.
When Sal is named Successor to Mother Morevna, a powerful witch and leader of Elysium, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to the town. Ever since she was a kid, Sal has been plagued by false visions of rain, and though people think she's a liar, she knows she's a leader. Even the arrival of enigmatic outsider Asa-a human-obsessed demon in disguise-doesn't shake her confidence in her ability. Until a terrible mistake results in both Sal and Asa's exile into the Desert of Dust and Steel.
Face-to-face with a brutal, unforgiving landscape, Sal and Asa join a gang of girls headed by another Elysium exile-and young witch herself-Olivia Rosales. In order to atone for their mistake, they create a cavalry of magic powered, scrap metal horses to save Elysium from the coming apocalypse. But Sal, Asa, and Olivia must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium's favor-only by reinventing the rules can they beat the Life and Death at their own game.
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A huge thank you to the FFBC tours and the publisher for the eARC and the opportunity to be a part of this blog tour. Click on the tour banner above to view the tour schedule) (
US Giveaway at the end of the post)
SAY HELLO TO MY NEW FAVOURITE BOOK. The author takes some regular tropes tropes and turns them into something crazy spectacular and 200% unique and I'll just be over here rambling about the brilliance of this book so read on! I shall try to be coherent
~Hello to the most incredible setting/world of ever~
A walled city surrounded by the desert of sand and steel, watched by Life and Death. That would be an underrated and simplistic way of describing it. Elysium is the city the two sisters, Life and Death are betting over. They are betting over it's survival in the harshest conditions trying to tip the scales in their favour by using their wildcard.
The aesthetic of this world was just so unique, a kind of recycled metal technology along with magic. my favourite part were the horses (an example of which you see on the cover); made of metal scraps, held together by bolts and magic, brought to a type of life by magic. It's not quite steampunk meets magic and I AM SO HERE FOR IT. I get exactly why it's described as Mad Max: Fury road meets witches.
~Meet the Characters~
Kate Pentecost plays with tropes, teases us with the idea of cliche tropes but before we can groan about it,
BAM she reinvents the whole trope and gives us something unique. There is Sal, the orphaned MC who is something of an outsider within Elysium. There is Asa, the demon in human form, something of a chosen one, a wildcard who appears pretty much out of nowhere at the Elysium. There is so much chance this could have been orphan girl meets mysterious stranger boy and goes lovey eyed. Readers almost expect that to happen but the brilliant story teller that is Ms. Pentecost turns it all around.
”And it’s not like you, the strong, patient, ingenious girl I know, to bow before something as insignificant as fate.”
The non stilted romances
THAT WERE NOT THE FOCUS OF THE STORY were a
HUGE plus. The romance is there, the crushes are there but they are not all-encompassing or taking away from the plot. There is both a straight romance and a f/f pairing is all I'm going to say.
~Hello Plot Twists ~
I'm not saying I didn't at all see some of the plot twists coming; I did, BUT were they still awesome?
ABSOLUTELY. And when some plot twists were revealed, I could go back and see just how cleverly and subtly it had been foreshadowed. I like it when a book has
(a) Plot twists that shock me
(b) Plot twists that are not as shocking but are cleverly foreshadowed and utterly brilliant. this book has both these kinds of plot twists
~A Writing style to draw you In ~
The writing is amazing. This is probably the most well written debut book I have read so far. I loved how the authors puts everything in front of the readers in a simple but captivating manner. I read this book in pretty much one sitting. Even when we came to some points where the story itself was a bit slow, the writing was always there to keep me swiping through the pages.
~A unique, badass standalone novel where metal meets magic and strong willed characters fight for their own destinies and not bow to any predetermined fates ~
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Do you like steampunk books? Any recommendations? Tell me in the comments below!
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