Review: this ship set sail... it neither sunk nor flew
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2011
Things I like about this book:1. Relationship: This was essentially a Pygmalion effect, where Melba is the lost princess (kidnapped and placed in a poor man's employ at 3 years of age) when she is 17, then she then is found by Turk (spymaster for a brotherhood religious order) and he trains her to be presented for a reward to the king. This was a romance with fantasy elements... magic handling in the way of jinns or star spirits in things.2. The POV: It was alternating 1st p POV between Melba and Turk. This was mainly their love story.3. The world was moderately novel with their magic systems. Essentially they lived on an island with rings, like a medieval city... the outer ring held the poorest people and the inner circle was the king's castle.4. The pace was good. Never anywhere too long.Things I didn't like about the book.1. The evil doer, her cousin, was somewhat boring and predictable.2. The last forty percent was them getting kidnapped, tortured, and then escaping. Hit repeat three times. Yawn.3. The gadgets were not very inspiring in their originality.4. I don't like the Victorian description in the synopsis. This felt more like a ton era or even medieval fantasy. Since the steampunk elements were lacking, read this as a Romance Fantasy.This book was entertaining at first, but then I felt it fell apart with the introduction of the evil doer cousin.