Mist, Metal, and Ash by Gwendolyn Clare (Ink, Iron, and Glass book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Ink, Iron, and Glass, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

“In an alternate 19th-century Italy, Elsa has an incredible gift: she can craft new worlds with precise lines of script written in books. But political extremists have stolen the most dangerous book ever scribed―one that can rewrite the Earth itself.

Now Elsa must track down the friend who betrayed her and recover the book before its destructive power is unleashed. Can she handle the secrets she’ll uncover along the way―including the ones hiding in her own heart?” - taken from Goodreads.com

It didn’t take me long to get back into this story. Elsa and her new friends believe that Leo has betrayed them by returning to his father’s side. Unknowingly to them, Leo is trying to keep Elsa safe in the only way he knows how. A bit slow at times, the action picks up at the end. I can’t say that book two completely wraps up the story bust as of now, there is no word on whether there will be a third book.

Visit Gwendolyn Clare’s website.

Ink, Iron, and Glass by Gwendolyn Clare (Ink, Iron, and Glass book 1)

“Can she write a world gone wrong?

A certain pen, a certain book, and a certain person can craft entirely new worlds through a branch of science called scriptology. Elsa comes from one such world that was written into creation by her mother—a noted scriptologist.

But when her home is attacked and her mother abducted, Elsa must cross into the real world and use her own scriptology gifts to find her. In an alternative 19th-century Italy, Elsa finds a secret society of pazzerellones—young people with a gift for mechanics, alchemy or scriptology—and meets Leo, a gorgeous mechanist with a smart mouth and a tragic past. She recruits the help of these fellow geniuses just as an assassin arrives on their doorstep.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Ink, Iron, and Glass is a unique steampunk story with an alternative history twist. Elsa lives in the “scripted” world of Veldana with her mother Jumi. Both mother and daughter are scriptologists, but they and the world they live in are scripted by a man named Montaigne. When Jumi is kidnapped, Elsa is forced to go to the real world to find her. There she finds that Montaigne is dead, his house is on fire, and the worldbook that contains Veldana is missing.

Elsa discovers a group of young adults who are gifted like herself, scriptologists machinists, or Alchemists, who helped her begin to search for her mother. With a rich world building plot, a slow-burning romance, and shocking reveals, fans will be initially heartbroken but clamoring for the next book in the series.

Book two, Mist, Metal, and Ash, is due out February 19, 2019.

Visit Gwendolyn Clare’s website.

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

“Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized among them. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes – a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love, violating the fair folks’ ruthless Good Law. There's only one way to save both their lives, Isobel must drink from the Green Well, whose water will transform her into a fair one—at the cost of her Craft, for immortality is as stagnant as it is timeless.

Isobel has a choice: she can sacrifice her art for a future, or arm herself with paint and canvas against the ancient power of the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.” - taken from Goodreads.com

I don’t think that I would have necessarily picked up this book if it hadn’t been sent to me in a subscription box I receive. I loved Isobel’s story. She is a tenacious heroine who stands by her convictions in the face of death. The slow burn romance was also a treat. I loved how the story flowed and you never really guessed exactly how it was going to end. With surprises along the way, readers will race to finish this stand-alone novel.

Visit Margaret Rogerson’s website.