Book of the Month - Nov Review

Title: Secrets in the Mist - Skyworld Book 1

Author: Morgan L. Busse

Steampunk has always fascinated me, and this book, in my opinion, is a good representation of that genre. Not only that, but to add a dystopian society as well…Just perfect!

Morgan L. Busse does a phenomenal job at painting a picture of people trying to survive after a terrible war that has caused an ever encroaching, deadly mist to spread across the world. The only safe zones are either on top of the highest mountains or on floating islands (loved the floating islands!). It is a constant struggle to control the population as the mist continues to spread towards what is remaining of humanity. Did I mention that the mist turns people into human-eating zombies - or at least that is what the non-zombie people believe…

The backdrop of the story is great, but so are the characters. One of the main characters, Cass, is orphaned at fourteen due to her family being taken away by a purging - “removal” (throwing them into the mist) of people that live in the lower levels to help deal with overpopulation. She finds her way onto Daedulus, a popular skyship, and is welcomed in as a new crew member. Specifically a crew member who dives into the mist and risks her life to find valuable lost items. Not only does she find missing artifacts but she also finds her family in the crew (corny I know but still lovely) and it is all sunshine and rainbows - well as it much as it can be with living in a world with a sea of dealy mist - until they are commissioned to find a long lost family heirloom. That is when she meets our second main character, Theodore Winchester - heir to one of the Five Families. Essentially a super rich and powerful dude going through a “I failed the world” complex and he is doing all he can to fix the mistakes of his predecessors. Together Theo and Cass work together to find a potential cure to the terrible mist that plagues humanity…dun_dun_ dun!

Yes I do love the suspenseful dive scenes into the mist filled with zombies (and do I want more…uh yeah!), but I also really appreciate the character development that happens between both Cass and Theo. It’s great to have Cass really push the idea of being an independent woman who can take care of herself, but it is also nice to see a light go off in her head that she can’t do everything alone and that it has nothing to do with being a woman…its just about being human. Everyone needs help sometimes. And who doesn’t love a rich kid finding out that being rich can sometimes hide you from the truth beyond your fancy floating island.

My only critique is that I want to know way more about the war that caused the mist, how the Five Families go into power, and why no one truly wants to stop the mist - especially when it seems to be about to take over the entire world…but I suppose if Morgan L. Busse did answer all those questions then I might not read the next book. Touche Morgan!

The big question is would I recommend this book?

If you are a fan of steampunk…read this book!

If you enjoy high action and a bit of romance squeaked in…read this book!

If you like books where two main characters come from completely different backgrounds and yet seem to have a thing for each other!

And finally if you enjoy mist that is trying to turn the whole world into human eating zombies…read this book!…read this book!

So let’s rank it! Remember my ratings are feathers - based on the Polish golden eagle (I would like to add that my rating in no way means the book was bad…it more states that it just wasn’t my type of book but others should still try it out). One feather probably won't be read again and five feathers mean that this will be a book I read every year.

Secrets of the Mist: 4.5/5 feathers!

The suspense was amazing! It's been a while since a book has kept me reading, and reading, and reading…I found myself so enthralled in the story that I just couldn’t put it down until I got to the end.

Have you read Secrets of the Mist? What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them and possibly share them here with everyone. And if you haven’t read it, please do give it a try!

Like I always say -

GOTTA READ EM ALL!