A review by betwixt_the_pages
Crimson Sky by Amy Braun

4.0

They’re always watching. They’re always waiting. They’re always starving…

Ten years ago, the sky shattered and the Hellions emerged. No one was able to keep them from destroying the city of Westraven. Now that the bloodthirsty monsters rule the skies and have forced the few remaining humans underground, Claire Abernathy lives in a nightmare. She survives by using her skills as an engineer for a ruthless tyrant connected to her mother and father’s past failure.

Then Claire’s world is torn apart when her sister Abby is kidnapped by the Hellions, and Claire herself is taken by dangerous sky pirates known as marauders. But Claire will not be intimidated by them while her sister’s life hangs by a thread, and so she strikes a deal with them: If they help rescue Abby, she will fix their ship and give them the chance to take the revenge they desperately seek.

As Claire fights for her sister’s life, she begins to realize that the Hellions are not the only dangers she’ll face. Burdensome secrets and devastating betrayals threaten her at every turn, and if she loses herself to them, it won’t just be her life that is destroyed…

Rating: 4/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: vampires versus pirates!; steamy, sexy romance turned into icky love triangle--what?!; I mean really, these characters are STUBBORN!; lots of snark and sass, especially between our main duo; interesting, though slightly confusing, world-building; steampunk stacked on horror; special snowflake MC

HUGE thanks to Amy Braun and Giselle @ Xpresso Book Tours for sending me a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review! This in no way altered my read of or opinions on this book.

My heart pinched in my chest. I absorbed the pain, pushed it away, and glanced at the shadows Sawyer had disappeared into.

Where my fear blinded my rage, the opposite was true for Sawyer. Whatever--or whoever--he lost to the Hellions had pushed him beyond the point of pain.

So, if you look above to my "quick reasons" blurb, you'll note that this book had three things that GREATLY intrigued me throughout: vampires, pirates, and steampunk/dystopian. It sounds like an odd mix, doesn't it? A little bit off-the-wall, perhaps a LOT weird? Well, rest assured, dear penguins: it was all of that, and more...and it was BRILLIANT.

Let me just get this out of the way right quick: this book? is not the easiest of things to read. There are a LOT of grammatical errors/missing words. It didn't make the book any more difficult to read--it was pretty easy to fill in the blanks and figure out which words were meant to be where, etc....but it did get a bit frustrating, hence the slightly lower rating than I would have otherwise given it. Like I said: not really a hindrance to the read, but an annoyance. Alas, such is how things go, right?!

"Well?" snapped Sawyer.

I shot him a piercing glare. "Give me a minute."

"I don't have enough bullets to buy you minutes," he snapped back. "You have seconds."

But let's put grammatical issues aside and focus on the things that REALLY count, shall we? This story is SUCH an entertaining, horrifying, interesting read! While I was slightly disappointed with the world-building (like...we know almost nothing about the Hellions, save they came through some sort of gap in space/time and are, at least in my opinion, rather a lot like giant mosquitoes--no, seriously, that's what I imagined throughout the entire book!), the read itself is fast-paced and easy to fall into. So while some of the finer details slipped through the cracks...in the end, I could NOT put this book down or stop reading to save my life. I was just too interested in finding out what happened next!

The characters are just as vibrant and unique as the rest of the story--with their own mixed bag of secrets and pressure points. I almost immediately jumped on the Sawyer/Claire ship...only to be HUGELY disappointed and full of rage, only to jump back on it...only to be even MORE disappointed and full of rage. These two characters are going to be the end of me, I swear it--seriously, guys, stop being stubborn and let things happeeeeeen! The snark and sass flung between them is electrifying (and not always in a good way); they push each other, they help each other grow... I just. OY with the poodles already!

Every survivor believed in the impossible to stay alive. Hopes and dreams were too often crushed by the harsh reality of our world and lives.

Yet as I stood in the clouds under the moon, feeling the cool wind caress my face and hair, whispering of freedom and adventure, I knew I wouldn't give up. I was determined to risk the impossible.

Raging love-triangle hormones aside, I had a TON of fun reading this and cannot wait to dive into book two (which is conveniently waiting for me patiently--yay, ARCs!) The characters are bright and individualized, the plot is entertaining (if a bit confusing on the world-building front), and the snark is enough to detonate at least a hundred Hellion airships. This is steampunk/dystopian goodness at it's best...with pirates and vampires thrown in for good measure. I definitely recommend to lovers of...pretty much anything I said above! Seriously, if this review piques your interest at all, you should let the book speak for itself--you're bound to love the journey!