Review of Nyssa Glass and the House of Mirrors by H L Burke

5 Stars all the way.

This was every bit as delightful as I had hoped and expected. A light read, despite some tense happenings. A bit on the predictable side, but there were a still a couple twists, and I certainly couldn't predict the pitfalls in the house of mirrors, or the fun inventions - the kinds of elements that draw me to the steampunk genre. 

I liked Nyssa as a resourceful, smart, and compassionate heroine. I very much look forward to reading more books about her - in fact I have already purchased the next two books, and will be reading them soon. 

I'd say more about the secondary characters, but I don't want to let any spoilers slip, so let's just say that they were all well drawn and delightful, too. 

Content rating would be PG-13, for some intense situations and a bit of violence, though it's not too graphic.

Review of Cogling by Jordan Elizabeth Mierek

What a delightful story! One thing I love about Steampunk is how creative the authors are. Just the concept alone, of clockwork children secretly replacing human children is fantastic. Add in hags and ogres and swamps and dragons, not to mention mechanical maids, spyder spies on the walls, woodland dwellers, and a plot to overthrow the kingdom, and I found this story fully entertaining.

The writing has come such a long way from the other book I read by Jordan Elizabeth (Escape from Witchwood Hollow), and the construction of the plot much more in depth and complete. Her skill has definitely grown. There were places that still felt a little stilted to me, and I can't quite put my finger on it. Things jumped around a little bit too much, too. I could understand at the end when the main event was going down, but at times things felt a little jumbled. Otherwise, I can't say I found much wrong with this one.

With no profanity or sex, this story rates as family friendly to me. It does get a bit dark with some fairly graphic violence at the end, but it is brief.

A solid 4.5 stars.
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.