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3.77 AVERAGE

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

F*ing brilliant. Loved the concept, the characters, the pacing. Can't believe that a story where the main character has synesthesia had descriptions of settings and objects that I really enjoyed as someone with aphantasia, but happily surprised! 
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Yep, that sure was a book that I just read.

It was fine, I guess? I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I don't really have any strong feelings on it in any direction. It was there.
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this was the oldest book in my physical tbr and i finally decided to pick it up! thaniel steepleton works as a telegrapher and one day comes into possession of a pocket watch that saves him from a bombing in scotland yard. interested in tracking down the source of the watch, he comes across keita mori, a prominent watchmaker in the area. their relationship evolves from there & i loved their story! the romantic aspect between these two was quite the slow burn but it was very wholesome & satisfying to read
my main qualm with this book is the entire character that is grace carrow lmao. i found myself annoyed by her pretty much the entire time. i'm also a lady scientist and it was nice having that aspect of her become such a large part of the story, but when her plot crosses paths with thaniel's plot, i found myself constantly bugged by the things she would say & the things she would do
, especially leading up to/after her marriage to thaniel, i just felt like she was being bothersome the entire time instead of confronting thaniel about his relationship with mori
. i understand her role in the story, but she aggravated me nonetheless lol 
i also felt like it was difficult for me to conjure any of the descriptive language in my brain, and i found myself rereading certain passages and descriptions in order to understand what the author was trying to describe. i enjoyed our main characters a lot though, and found them incredibly charming. although i'm giving 3.5/5 stars, i did already purchase the sequel to this story! and am looking forward to reading it :) 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

Splendid. Lyrical. Beautifully written and a wonderful use of the language. Won't say I followed everything that happened and all the motivations but I think it all came together in the end. This isn't my normal genre but the title and cover blurb caught my attention and I'm so glad I did. A bit Steampunk-Sci Fi. A bit romance. A bit homage to Japanese culture and mores.

I really enjoyed this book and immediately downloaded the next in the series. I listened to the audible version and the narration was fantastic. Each character was surprisingly interesting and I enjoyed spending time with them. They’re some of my favorites literary characters of all time. The plot wasn’t quite flawless, but it was incredibly inventive and even thought provoking at times. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am sad it’s over.

This is a difficult book to define, and in some respects, difficult to read. There were enough time shifts to make the book challenging to read, which required some degree of concentration from the reader, and it did mean that you had to pay attention to not only where you were being taken, but when. In many respects, I am still not sure what to make of the book. I certainly have question marks in my mind as to how the ending played out, and dare I suggest that the ending was a tad rushed, particularly as to the characterisation of Grace Carrow and her motivation for her actions. The relationship between Mori and Thaniel is delicately portrayed and while there is surprises as to how it develops, it somehow at the same time, not unexpected. All in all, a good read for a winter's afternoon in front of the fire, but I will probably not drift to another book by the same author.
funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Just incredible. No words. Ok, some words. Pulley weaves in such magnificent world-building into these wonderfully witty and flawed characters, and I’m in love with it all. Funnier than I expected, and enormously satisfying ending. 

“He lived his life like clockwork, until he met the watchmaker” this is written on the back of the book and refers to the main character called thaniel who meets mori the watchmaker and his clockwork octopus Katsu. Other characters appear, there’s a bombing at Scotland Yard and the twist and turns start to unravel with the characters starting to be interconnected. Katsu I have to say was very endearing and although he wasn’t in the book much I enjoyed it when he was, it’s a shame he didn’t appear more often. I liked the plot of the book and it was good conclusion but I sometimes felt some turn of phrases were too modern for the time era it was supposed to be set in and also certain parts were a bit jarring, there was no flow to the narrative. That being said overall it didn’t detract from the general enjoyment of the story and I would read another book by this author.

alexclc's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 80%

Story became too convoluted 

I really loved this book- it was beautiful and sad and interesting and sweet, with a great friendship and flawed, human characters but still lots of magical whimsy and cool clockwork. (Not steampunk but more than reality).