Teaser Tuesday + Review: Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:






Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two "teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

This week my teaser comes from an exciting little steampunk novella, Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris, the first book in The Steam and Steel Chronicles by Cameron Chapman, and published by Untime Press. From page 14:

It was a bad idea to take her, Stig knew that. He'd been a solo operator for years. But if there was an attack coming, there was a good chance she'd be killed in it. Arguing about it was only wasting time.

My Thoughts:

When a friend passed along a review request from the author, I thought, well, that title is quite a mouthful, but I like steampunk, so I'll give it a try. I ended up being pleasantly surprised! I really enjoyed this novella introducing Chapman's Steam and Steel Chronicles. Set in an alternative Victorian-era Europe on the brink of war, the story revolves around Isabelle, a high-born street urchin, and Stig, a rugged airship captain, and what happens when the two of them are thrown together and given a mysterious, and ultimately dangerous, cargo to deliver from Russia to Iceland.

I loved that Chapman lets the reader discover her storyworld as the plot develops. There are no background info dumps, and an element of mystery surrounds both Isabelle and Stig, who are both interesting and intriguing. The story is fast-paced and exciting with just the right amount of quiet moments interspersed in which Isabelle and Stig get to know each other. And as they're fighting for their lives, they're also fighting their growing attraction to each other. I devoured this little novella and the poignant ending left me hungry for more. Fortunately, the second installment was available for immediate download to my Nook!

My Rating:  4 Stars out of 5

*Please note: Though I received a digital copy from the author for review, these are my honest opinions and I was not compensated in any other way for this review.