Rate this book

Chasing The Star Garden (2013)

by Melanie Karsak(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0615878776 (ISBN13: 9780615878775)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Clockpunk Press

series

The Airship Racing Chronicles

review 1: I almost gave this two stars because the character building was so bad. An early S&M sex scene was simply out of place in terms of the overall personality of the main character, even with all her flaws. It felt gratuitous, puzzling and unnecessary. Other than the lead character no one else had any depth or interest whatsoever other than as props for the main character to play off of. That said the "travelogue" portions were nicely done and the artifact/quest was interesting enough that it had me looking stuff up - always a good sign. The quasi-religious overtones were a bit tiresome but then I am someone who wonders why we always have to fall back on standard mythologies instead of moving on to new ones. I do love steampunk but would rate this as only a fair effort from an... more immature writer with some good ideas.
review 2: I’m always eager to read a steampunk adventure and had high hopes for this one. I liked the story, but it didn’t quite meet all my expectations of what a steampunk adventure is. There was plenty of adventure, but the steampunk aspects of it, what there was of them, weren’t quite what I was looking for. I didn’t care much for the heroine, Lily Stargazer, at first. She didn’t seem all that likeable and between her opium use and sexual activities, I wasn’t too impressed with her as a person. As the tale went on and I learned more about Lily’s past, I understood her motivations and behavior better and felt more sympathy for her. The adventure was entertaining, with airship racing, various baddies attacking Lily, and a quest to recover an ancient statue, all while she tried to decide just what she wanted in life, a hedonistic lifestyle or to settle down with her true love. As for her two lovers, I wasn’t all that impressed with Lord Byron, he didn’t seem like the best influence for Lily, but did show he cared for her. Although Sal was a bit boring and quite a bit older than Lily, he cared deeply for Lily and seemed like a better choice for her. After all was said and done, by the end of the story I was rooting for Lily and Sal to have the ending they deserved. On the whole, I was happy I read it, and since I have the next book in the series, Chasing the Green Fairy, I’ll certainly give it a chance as well. less

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