A review by proudtobeabookaholic
The Girl in the Clockwork Tower by Lou Wilham

adventurous hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Persinette is a 24-year-old seer who lives in the kingdom of Daiwynn. She's an Enchanted and an asset for MOTHER, helping them Collecting other Enchanted with her visions. But Persi feels bad having to send people of her own kind to MOTHER's labor camps, and she dreams of freedom. When her handler, Gothel, tells her she will go out on the field on their next Collection, Persi first gets scared. Then she decides it's time to stand up and do whatever she can for the Enchanted. Without tippning MOTHER off...

Manu Kelii is the 26-year-old captain on the airship The Defiant Duchess. He does missions for the Uprising, with the goal of overthrowing MOTHER. But when he's assigned to work with Persi to obstruct the Collecting, Manu's in for a tough challenge...

This is a steampunk retelling of Rapunzel! I love the premise and the world building, and that there's a lot of different creatures, such as pixies, werewolves, unicorns, fairies, trolls and kelpies. But... I'm not that fond of the main characters. Persi and Manu mix chapters, and to begin with I enjoy the humorous tone.

"A shrill, angry noise broke the silence of the early morning, startling Persi and setting her heart racing once more. With narrowed eyes, she glared at the offending alarm clock on her bedside table."

Pretty soon I think that both Persi and Manu is behaving rather childish, considering their age. Persi is also very naive. After spending 16 years as a prisoner at MOTHER I would think she's learned a thing or two, but no. I also find it unrealistic that she never gets better when she's assigned physical training in preparation for field duty. After several weeks she still hasn't made ANY progress?! Agnes can't be a very good trainer, even though he's portraited as such. I also wish that someone told the author to delete a big chunk of Persi's "giggles"... Manu is acting kind of dandy-like and I'm having trouble seeing how he was chosen as captain. But I adore his closest man, Benard!

* I received a free copy of the book from BookSirens and I'm giving my honest review. *