October Indies

Being an indie author is both bloody amazing and bloody hard. So, to help support fellow authors, I’ve put a few new things in motion. I started doing Indie Author interviews (you can find them here) and this post is going to be the beginning of my monthly “Indie Authors I’ve read” reviews.

I hope you’ll support me in supporting some of these authors 🙂

All books were bought by me and I have not been paid or gifted anything for these reviews.

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This October I read two indie books, both from authors I’ve never read before. The first one was A Rose of Steel and the other Something Wicked.

A Rose of Steel is a fairytale retold. The author Katherine Macdonald have taken the original Beauty and the beast, and twisted it around and into something new. There’s no damsel in distress, no Stockholm syndrome, and I love it.

Instead there is an intriguing steampunk world, complex characters and a twisted world with lies and secrets that just drew me right in. I was supposed to ‘save’ it as my weekend read, but ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting, because once I started I just couldn’t stop again.

Dr Asami Thorne lives in a world where most of the planet is a toxic wasteland. Cities only exist inside domes, functioning on clockworks and gears. She’s a scientist, and her hopes is that she can somehow, some day help humanity become better. To that end, she’s left her sister and parent’s behind and moved far away to another city. But not everything is at it seems in her domed city, and soon she’s on the run, her life on the line. She gets help from the disfigured soldier Beaumont ‘Beau’ Bestiel – also known as Beast – who lives in the forgotten tunnels under the city (and I know this is a beauty and the beast retelling, but that specific part gives me total phantom of the opera vibes). Together they have to choose what they want to do about the knowledge they are suddenly in possession of.

My only ‘complain’ about the book is that it’s the first in a series of four – Mechanical Kingdoms Quartet – and the ending was rather open as the story will go on in book two. Normally, I prefer stand alone novels, but while the ending was open, it still tied off enough ends that I didn’t feel like I HAD to read book two to enjoy this book (though I’m totally gonna read book two when it’s published)

Something Wicked is a cosy mystery with a bit of romance and a supernatural twist. I found the book through twitter by pure accident (someone had retweeted a tweet about it) and I thought it looked interesting.

Katrina Davenport is running. Away from her life? Away from her past? Well, she doesn’t quite seem sure herself. She’s inherited an old cottage, that once was the home of the notorious witch Magik Meg, a witch killed in the small village, and now used as a tourist attraction.

In fact, the locals seems to be happy to tell her about how the cottage she’s now living in, is haunted by the ghost of Magik Meg. Especially the local, handsome Detective Inspector Buckley. Katrina, though, is more down to earth and refuse to believe such silly superstition. That is, until strange things starts happening around her. But is it really the work of a ghost, or is something more sinister going on around her?

I very much enjoyed this book, and it only took a couple of days to read it. The twists and turns are interesting and I admit I had not seen the ending coming at all, but once I read it, it made total sense.

My only complaint (and why I only gave the book four stars) is two things – a few times Katrina’s reactions just seemed a bit off, and at times she seems a bit like a teenager in her reactions. She’s supposedly a grown woman, but instead of talking things out, she runs away, hoping the people around her will come looking for her.

That said, I very much enjoyed this book.