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take back the skiesWhat: Take Back the Skies (Take Back the Skies #1) by Lucy Saxon

Who: Bloomsbury (UK & ANZ)

When: June 5th 2014

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Bloomsbury Australia in exchange an honest review.

Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official on the island of Anglya. She’s one of the privileged – she has luxurious clothes, plenty to eat, and is protected from the Collections which have ravaged families throughout the land. But Catherine longs to escape the confines of her life, before her dad can marry her off to a government brat and trap her forever.
So Catherine becomes Cat, pretends to be a kid escaping the Collections, and stows away on the skyship Stormdancer. As they leave Anglya behind and brave the storms that fill the skies around the islands of Tellus, Cat’s world becomes more turbulent than she could ever have imagined, and dangerous secrets unravel her old life once and for all . . .

2.5B

 

Oh, boy. I’m going to write this review on a kind of timeline, because I think that would best describe my feelings and how they changed throughout the course of this novel.

I received this book from the lovely people at Bloomsbury. I hadn’t heard of it, but as soon as I read the blurb, I was keen. I love steampunk and I love fantasy, and the author was a teenager (which is awesome).

Then I started to see some reviews … some not-so-great reviews. I generally don’t let reviews sway me. I mean, a lot of the time my opinion of a book is different from most everybody else. So I don’t take too much notice of a review, if I am intending to read a novel anyway.

And then I started Take Back the Skies. I liked it. I thought the main character was sassy and cute, I liked the world, and I liked the inclusion of the airships and the Collection and all those other world-building-esque type things.

The writing style was simplistic, but it almost felt like it was singing a lullaby to me as I read. In the best way possible. It was like sliding into a warm bath whenever I started reading. It was effortless to immerse myself in the story and the character arcs. I was actually kind of in love with it.

There were a few too many perfect ties. And by that I mean too many problems were tied up easily and perfectly. I don’t think every problem needs an easy solution, and they certainly don’t have them every single time. I would have liked some conflict around the problems, some actions that weren’t straightforward and weren’t easy for everyone to agree with. Problems are just that – problems, and they can last a very long time, and they can’t always be solved with one action.

The romance was quite cute, and a little predictable. There was the original conflict regarding truth and lies, the witty and snarky banter, and then the inevitable culmination of the romance and feelings the two characters had for one another. This culmination was kind of a bit odd (SPOILER: it happens with a dead body RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. END SPOILER), so I wasn’t really into it. I also felt like after this admission + kiss, their relationship moved a little too quickly. It takes time to be relaxed and confident enough to steal kisses from someone on a frequent basis, and there wasn’t any of this time. The two characters just slid into numerous PDAs almost immediately.

Regardless of some problems, I was readying myself to rate Take Back the Skies three and a half balloons. I liked the writing style, the story was pretty cool, and I knew I’d read the next book in the series.

These thoughts kind of hit the fan when the last few chapters came (and the epilogue). This event happens and the main character’s (Cat’s) reaction was completely unbelievable. And then another character comes in and says some incredibly insensitive things (considering what had just occurred), and I was left thinking: what the heck just happened? I was actually laughing, and unfortunately it was not a laughing matter (or at least, it wasn’t supposed to be). I couldn’t believe that I had spent the better part of 350 pages getting to know a character and their story and shipping them and looking forward to a future for them, only to have that thrown in my face. I just couldn’t believe it, and I couldn’t forgive it, either.

The epilogue was not enjoyable. Cat had done almost a complete 180 in terms of her character and the things she believed in … and I just felt very unimpressed by the whole thing.

Due to the ending, this book was therefore rated two and a half balloons. The ending was simply not okay, in so many ways. It also makes me wonder how there is going to be a sequel, because of the perfect bows I mentioned before, and also the epilogue. I’ll probably read it, simply to see where the author takes the story.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

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Posted on: June 2, 2014 • By: Chiara

15 Responses to Review: Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon

  1. I’m sorry you didn’t love this, Chiara. I actually saw this in Big W on Friday and was going to pick it up, but decided not to thankfully. Yours is the third review I’ve seen that gives this book a rating of less than three stars, so I don’t think I will bother reading it.

  2. Shannelle C. says:

    Well that sucks. I’ve also heard other people not liking the book, one of them ever since the beginning. I first heard of the book when I saw the author interacting with another author, and then I saw her Twitter profile. I thought it was cool that she was such a cosplayer and also an author at such a young age, but I guess that’s not really remarkable since a lot of people didn’t like the book at all.

    The cover was very pretty too and that synopsis was pretty promising. But gah, that ending. That ending sounds horrible. I’d ask you to spoil me since I probably won’t be reading it at all after your review. As much as I’m willing to give a chance to bad books, I’m not going to put up with chapters and chapter of this and the last bits being absolutely different.

    • Chiara says:

      It does. D: I think it’s awesome that she’s young and such a geek. Her author picture in the back of the novel is her in the Captain America uniform, which is awesome.

      I was a fan of pretty much everything until the ending. It was so out of the blue. I don’t want to spoil you because someone might read it in this comment, but it was a disappointing ending. :(

  3. God, that’s so annoying. I think I might call this type of thing How I Met Your Mother Syndrome – everything turned around in the worst possible way. I won’t be reading this one, I don’t think.

  4. Woah, for you to do a complete 360 when it came to the ending, that must have been a pretty bad one. I have to read it now because I want to find out why!

  5. Ellie M. says:

    Uhh I hate when the ending ruins the whole book! Sorry you didn’t love this one but great review!

  6. I got this for review too and im starting it today. I’ve read a lot of reviews about the insta – love, why oh why does this happen :( sorry to hear you didn’t like it, at least there were some good aspects too, great review :)

    • Chiara says:

      There were definitely some great aspects that I really enjoyed! The insta-love is kind of forgivable since the MC is only 14 (and when I was 14 I was crushing over a different boy every month, haha!). Thanks! I hope you like it :)

  7. Eeehhhh, I don’t know how to feel anymore. I’ve seen so many different reviews. I have a feeling that I’m also gonna full into the “didn’t like” section of people though because I can’t deal with unreasonable characters. Unreasonable endings are even worse. I’ll still read it though, just to see what happens. :D

  8. I had the exact same problems as you did. I liked the world, but that ending made me not like Cat even more. She completely contradicts herself, AND at the same time, makes us believe even more that the world supposedly revolves around her. URGH! OMG, I saw the actual book in the shop the other day, the cover is sooooooo pretty. I had to go up and stroke it *cue weird looks*
    I heard that the rest of the series will be a story for each country. Kind of sounds like it’s going for a These Broken Stars series vibe…

    • Chiara says:

      Yes, I was pretty disappointed in the ending as a whole, unfortunately. :( I didn’t quite understand why she had to give up her own happiness ….
      My ARC cover is also really pretty! I just love all the pinks and blues :D
      Oooo – I think that will be good. I wanted to know more about the other countries as I read this book.
      Eep – I still haven’t read These Broken Stars >.<

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