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Saturday, October 26, 2013

The Twins on Thursday: Steel Lily by Megan Curd


"The Twins on Thursday" is reserved for the Twins' joint reviews. It is a special feature of our blog that discusses books that we either both like, dislike, or have mixed feelings about. This is also the day where we post reviews for books (and ARCs/Galleys) that have been sent to us by authors/galley sites/publishing houses. And because we don't believe much in uniformity, we'll be trying to mix things up a bit by adding random stuff in relation to our review (well, mostly for books we purchased anyway).


Title: Steel Lily
Author: Megan Curd
Format Acquired: PDF
Publication Date: August 12, 2013
ISBN: 9781492135494
Source of Copy: Sent by Author

Summary:

Avery Pike is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She's a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She  creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued. But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn't any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are hidden better.

...Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything...including the fate of your world.


(Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

Avery knows she's a victim of an unfortunate tragedy, but Dome Four seems to claim otherwise. Especially when she's the strongest elementalist who supplies more than her share of steam in the Dome. Avery might get a better lifestyle than the others, but she isn't treated differently as opposed to a machine. She dreams of a better life, of life outside the Dome and when an opportunity actually rises up and with it a chance of a different life, Avery thinks that it might not as bad as the treatment she gets from the Dome. But this dome that gathers gifted individuals might have an ulterior motive in mind.

Truthfully, we're not exactly sure what to think about Steel Lily. It's like your typical dystopian - a world in ruins, run by an overbearing government. But we're not exactly sure what's going on. It's got fantasy and steampunk - sort of - and an amalgam of other things with romance and a love triangle thrown in for added spice.

We're not much of a fan of the characters and there's not much to say about the cast. Avery, the main character, is just your typical YA heroine, spunky, smart, pretty and somehow more powerful than the rest of the plebes. Jaxon, the male lead, is a bit of a jerk, but that's because his mood is dictated by how his father treats him most of the time. He was a bit of a weird one at first, but Jaxon's snark grows on you, and that's what happened with us.

The world-building, while inspired, does lack a bit of convincing. There are domes, sure, but we did find it quite hard to believe that Avery's dome didn't seem to have plans of getting her back. She provides more than her own share of steam for the dome, so why would they just let someone tht important slip through their fingers? Avery is an exceptional asset who could probably be enough to wage war over!

While Steel Lily does fall short on some areas, it does have an interesting promise. Fans of dystopian worlds might want to give this one a go.


Rating:

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