Cato’s descriptive writing made it incredibly easy to taste the dust of the war-torn world and feel the shadow from a dirigible floating overhead, yet her characters were bland and inconsistent. The unfortunate reality is that it felt flat. There’s betrayal and political intrigue, romance and adventure. Quick & Dirty: In theory, I should have liked everything about The Clockwork Dagger. Thank you, Orient, for steering me to this! :-) Sometimes a slow burn beats all those instant sparks! Nothing develops between them too quickly, and the story shows them earning each other’s trust and respect, not necessarily eagerly but because they have to rely on each other.

I also really enjoyed what appears to be a romance between Octavia and Alonzo. I already have it sitting on my to-read pile! I really hope to learn more about this mythology in the second (and only other! sob!) book in this duology. I’m especially intrigued by the religious aspect of this story, as Octavia’s powers come to her through “The Lady” and “The Tree,” both of which are real, but not easily understood - nothing is made too simplistic or obvious, and the Lady certainly doesn’t seem to be all-good. Octavia struggles with her abilities, and they contribute to some difficulties that kept the story firmly grounded in the personal even as the bigger picture of war-torn nations and misguided leadership emerged. I’ll admit that early on I rolled my eyes a bit at Octavia’s Speshul Snowflake status, as she’s the most powerful medician to live in just about forever, but as the story went on, that played out in more interesting ways than I expected. This was a really enjoyable book set in a well-developed world with a mixture of steampunk, religion, political intrigue, and personal entanglements that made for a fast and gripping read. I have to thank Orient for recommending this book to me (click her name to see her glowing review). But not everyone is so nice, as Octavia discovers that there may be a plot to kill her. But sometimes the journey is what matters, and that’s the case here, as Octavia meets Alonzo, a handsome and perhaps overly helpful steward, and her roommate, Mrs. Octavia Leander is a gifted medician, so upon leaving school, she boards a dirigible for parts unfamiliar, where a terrible epidemic is reported to be raging.

The clockwork dagger