This blog tour is being hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. I actually received an early copy of this book from Keymaster Press themselves, and had to jump on the book tour when I got the opportunity!! Please check out some of the other guest blogs as well because there is a mix and match of author interviews, as well as reviews, excerpts etc. I am doing a review of the book – so without further ado:
The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova
Expected Publication: January 10th 2017 by Keymaster Press
Her vengeance. His vision.
Ari lost everything she once loved when the Five Guilds’ resistance fell to the Dragon King. Now, she uses her unparalleled gift for clockwork machinery in tandem with notoriously unscrupulous morals to contribute to a thriving underground organ market. There isn’t a place on Loom that is secure from the engineer turned thief, and her magical talents are sold to the highest bidder as long as the job defies their Dragon oppressors.
Cvareh would do anything to see his sister usurp the Dragon King and sit on the throne. His family’s house has endured the shame of being the lowest rung in the Dragons’ society for far too long. The Alchemist Guild, down on Loom, may just hold the key to putting his kin in power, if Cvareh can get to them before the Dragon King’s assassins.
When Ari stumbles upon a wounded Cvareh, she sees an opportunity to slaughter an enemy and make a profit off his corpse. But the Dragon sees an opportunity to navigate Loom with the best person to get him where he wants to go.
He offers her the one thing Ari can’t refuse: A wish of her greatest desire, if she brings him to the Alchemists of Loom.
Note: I received an ARC copy of this book from Keymaster Press in return for an honest review. This in no way influences my opinion.
I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I absolutely loved the Air Awakens series and I couldn’t wait to dive into this one. However, whilst I felt the plot was good, ultimately I had no feelings for the characters themselves, which meant that I didn’t really care what happened to them.
The plot itself kept me hooked in this book. The book was definitely more plot and world building based rather than character and characterisation based. There was never a boring moment where the plot was concerned and the action constantly had me on the edge of my seat. I loved the different action scenes and the skill set the each and every character used based on their guilds/race.
Ultimately, what ruined this book for me, was the fact that I didn’t feel anything for the characters. I didn’t feel connected to them in any way and I didn’t feel like I could relate to them or their struggles – which basically led me to not caring about what happened to them and whether or not they were going to make it out alive. It’s a shame because I was expecting more from this book after reading the AA series and absolutely loving it; and I feel that, if there had been that spark of connection with the characters themselves, this definitely could have been a really great book.
I did absolutely love the plot twist toward the end, because I did not see it coming! It was interesting watching the events unfold to what they were and who the characters really were. I was not expecting Arianna to be who she was and I think it could make for a really interesting storyline for future books!
All in all, whilst I really enjoyed the plot itself, I was hard done by the characters and the characterisation because I felt no link to them whatsoever. I didn’t really get to the point where I really cared what happened to them, which is a shame, because without this element, the book is lost. I gave this book 3/5 stars.
Giveaway:
There is a tour – wide giveaway going on (US/CAN) in which you can win:
- 1 signed Hardcover of The Alchemists of Loom
- 3 Hardcover pre orders of The Alchemists of Loom (Available through TBD)
- 5 swag packs
This giveaway is running through to January 9th! If you would like to participate, then click HERE
Elise is also giving away swag to people who pre order! If you would like to find out more, check out her website
Pre order links:
That is it for this post! Good luck to everyone who enters the giveaway and don’t forget to email Elise with your details for your pre order swag!!
Lauren's Page Turners 
Thanks for hosting today! Great review! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Great review for this book Lauren, the Air Awakens series is still on my to-read list. I’m hoping to get around to it in 2017, but maybe I should read this one first if you said it wasn’t as good. I guess that can happen sometimes if you have a series you have high expectations for. But still 3/5 is a good review and it seems like you enjoyed the book despite the issues you had connecting to the characters! 🙂
The plot itself was amazing, it was just the connection to the characters was not there for me!! Well, the series aren’t connected in anyway, so I guess it doesn’t really matter
That’s good to hear, and I guess if it had a lot to live up to as well it may have been hard for this book to reach your expectations in a way.
Great review! I agree that failing to connect with characters can break a series. Though I’m a sucker for good plot twists, so I might just check this out.
Do you know how many books will be in this series? I still need to check out the Air Awaken series :O
It definitely let it down a bit… but the plot was so good!! I don’t, but I do know there are definitely three planned 🙂 and :-O yes, yes you do!
Great review!
I’ll post mine on 22nd 😛 I think I’ll give it a higher rating thou,
I think he issues for me was failing to connect with the characters – that is a big part of the book for me because if I can’t connect to the characters, then they aren’t really “people” that I care about enough to know that they’re going to make it to the end of the series safely … but I will be sure to check out your blog on the 22nd 🙂