Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Raven by Pauline Creeden

Title: Raven
Series: Chronicles of Steele #1
Author: Pauline Creeden
Format: Kindle Edition, 249 pages
Release date: October 28th 2014
Publisher: AltWit Press

Book Description:

This is the complete Steampunk Fantasy novel - all four parts of the serial in one volume! Also includes bonus features not found in the episodes ~

Human life has value.
The poor living in the gutter are as valuable as the rich living in a manor.
The scoundrel is no less valuable than the saint.
Because of this, every life a reaper takes must be redeemed.

Raven has lived by this first tenet since she was trained by her father to become a reaper. But since his death, she’s been spending years redeeming the lives she’s taken. By her count, she’s even and it’s time for that life to end. If she settles down and becomes a wife, she might just feel human again. But on the way to the life she thinks she wants, the baron of New Haven asks her to complete a task which she cannot ignore… Just when Raven decides to give up on her life as an assassin, she’s pulled right back in.



Buy it here:

Amazon | BN

About the Author:

In simple language, Pauline Creeden creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long. Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.
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Review:

★★★★

I'll let you all in on a secret: I love steampunk novels. But, because I love them so much, I tend to be a little bit more picky with this genre than other ones that I read, so I rarely get a steampunk book that I truly enjoy. I'm happy to say that Raven, while not a perfect score for me, was definitely an enjoyable read overall.

I really enjoyed the writing detail of all of the characters involved. Characters make or break a book for me, and in this book, even the characters that you are going to hate (and you will) are at the very least well written. I liked that Raven was a strong and independent character without being harsh about it in the process (a personal trend I've been seeing lately in young adult books, but I digress). She might be tough but she has a different, more approachable side to her as well, and I liked that.

The pacing of this book is on point, and makes for a book that's easy to complete in one sitting. I didn't read this book in its original serial novella form, but I can totally see where if I didn't have the complete story in front of me, I'd be left clamoring for more. There is a lot of action and hardly a dull moment in this book, which I always love.

The world-building was also pretty detailed and it was easy to get lost in this steampunk world that Creeden has created for her characters. My only real complaint is that sometimes it felt like aspects of this world were added just for the sake of making it steampunk-ier, which was a bit of an annoyance but not anything that hindered my reading too much.

I think this is a book young adult fans of steampunk will really enjoy, and if you haven't read a steampunk book before, this one is a great book to introduce you to the genre. Thanks to the author and IFB Tours for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Check out the rest of the tour here!

Giveaway:

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