Under Different Stars; Amy A. Bartol

Kricket Hollowell never wished upon stars. She was too busy hiding in plain sight, eluding Chicago’s foster care system. As her eighteenth birthday approaches, she now eagerly anticipates the day she’ll stop running and finally find her place in the world.
That day comes when she meets a young Etharian soldier named Trey Allairis, who has been charged with coming to Earth to find Kricket and transport her to her true home. As danger draws close, he must protect her until she can wield the powers she cannot use on Earth…and he soon realizes that counting a galaxy of stars would be easier than losing this extraordinary girl.
Kyon Ensin knows the powerful depths of Kricket’s gifts—gifts he’ll control when he takes her for his tribe and leads the forces that will claim Ethar and destroy his enemies, starting with Trey Allairis. Now, Kricket faces the most difficult choice of her life: whether to wage a battle for survival, or a fight for love.

Title: Under Different Stars
Author: Amy A. Bartol
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
Published: December 9th, 2014

Rating

Hello Fellow Readers,

I thought I had found the book I needed, The book that perfectly balanced story with romance and brought just enough of character building and intrigue to capture my attention and keep it. I was sadly wrong. In the beginning Kricket showed how a female protagonist can be strong, smart, yet entirely not perfect. The slow build of Trey and Kricket was amazing taking a backstage to the actually story while not letting you forget about it. The world that Bartol started to build with Ethar was intriguing and new. We got to experience it all with Kricket, but halfway through it took a turn for the worse.

The push and pull of Kricket and Trey took center stage and so did the misogyny. Kricket went from being used a political pawn to suddenly everyone wanting to marry her and have her body. I kinda see what Bartol was trying to do with this, showing that Kricket can overcome it all despite her small woman body. I just got extremely frustrated at everything that would happen. I will read the second story now that it seems like it is taking a different turn, hopefully for the better. For as important and Bartol made Kricket seem the way everyone just seemed she was dismissed at every opportunity.

Also quick question is it bad that I kinda sympathized with Kyon? Yea, I thought so.

About The Author

Bartol lives in Michigan, with her extremely supportive family. With 3 series under her belt( Kricket, Premonition and Secondborn) and an unflattering writing uniform Choices Bartol knows what she is doing.

Website

Goodreads

Lady Mechanika Vol. 1; Joe Benitez

'Discover a beautifully illustrated steampunk world of airships, monsters, and one courageous but haunted heroine...

The tabloids dubbed her "Lady Mechanika," the sole survivor of a mad scientist's horrific experiments which left her with mechanical limbs. Having no memory of her captivity or her former life, Lady Mechanika eventually built a new life for herself as an adventurer and private investigator, using her unique abilities to solve cases the proper authorities couldn't or wouldn't handle. But she never stopped searching for the answers to her own past.

Set in a fictionalized steampunk Victorian England, a time when magic and superstition clashed with new scientific discoveries and inventions, Lady Mechanika chronicles a young woman's obsessive search for her identity as she investigates other mysteries involving science and the supernatural."

Hello Fellow Readers,

I've read some Lady Mechanika comics before, however I had to stop buying comics for a while due to space, so when I saw that Netgalley had both Vol. 1 and Vol 2 available for review I jumped at the chance. I am a avid comic book fan and I decided with this blog to review comic books, graphic novels and Manga as well. I will say that I am not a expert on art, however I have tons of it, so I am just a fan giving my ideas and opinions on things. If you don't agree that's completely okay, please even leave a comic on what you agree or disagree about. I love hearing from you all. I've decided to take a slightly different approach to these books as opposed to reviewing my regular books. Instead of a rating system I will simply say read or not read (that is the question isn't it?)

The Graphics/Artwork

I love the illustrations for Lady Mechanika Benitez did an amazing job of giving the characters life and color. Since the story takes place in 1800s in a steampunkish society Benitez allows his imagination to roar to life with inventions and gadgets that impressive and functional. His details are amazing yet they don't distract from the story which I like. Using the artwork can be a bit of a hit or miss for me, but Lady Mechanika was a total hit for me. While I am not sure how historically accurate the dressing is I can say I love them, Especially Lady Mechanika's wardrobe. They give her respectability while also making her look cool, and yes while they are tight clothing and there is even one image that draws attention to her boobs (they were talking about her necklace) they did not overly sexualize the character in my opinion. In fact I found a lot of her outfits pretty badass. Lady Mechanika is beautiful I will say and I can hardly fault Benitez in that sense. I have yet to see him throw her in a non-sensible outfit.

The Story

This is the beginning of comic series and we can see a boom in mechanics taking off yet, Lady Mechanika is already well know, she is a great fighter (and shooter) and her gadgets are to die for, while Benitez could have gone the origin route he didn't, this is because our Heroine is searching for her origins, we are learning with her why she was picked to become half Mechanics and half women. She is currently searching for who made her and why. While throughout the story we are fed bits and pieces of her life pre-series, I enjoy this as it doesn't take away from what's going on in 'present day', I'm not trying to process what happened to her while learning more information, Benitez poses the story like a puzzle a mystery we are tying to solve with the heroine to feel more connected to her. This makes you want to keep reading but like Lady Mechanika you start to feel a need to know what happened to her. Of course that's not the only thing going on especially with our heroine discovering other mechanical people like herself, oh ucky….

Our Heroine (Lady Mechanika)

Lady Mechanika is pretty badass, she has amazing gadgets, she's beautiful with Red eyes, Long dark black hair and creamy white skin with a complexion to die for. There is a overwhelming huge cloud of loneliness that I can see in her. She doesn't know why she was made, or who made her and since she is not quite human it's hard to bond with others because she will always be different. There's also a line which gives a clue to the fact that she may not be able to reproduce which gives a huge sadness as she will never have a family (I'm not saying that’s what makes a woman of anything like that, it's just with no siblings or parents around and not being able to have children it's just sad…) of her own. There's also a great compassion that she seems to keep hidden with her tough exterior, while Benitez allows us glimpses of, this tells us that or Heroine is a good person. Yes she does kill, and while I won't debate the merits of this, I can tell you in my opinion it's not she does off hand.

Overall

I really enjoyed Volume 1 of Lady Mechanika so much so that I immediately moved on to Volume 2, I know I will have to continue buying the comics as I know how more space (must buy all the books!). Lady Mechanika is a kickass female with a great story and gorgeous artwork, if that is something you are interested in you really need to read this.