Thank you K. Foxx and T G Grem for making me a part of the journey that is Death Of The Angler.
I was enticed by the steampunk world, the characters and the writing style of this story ever since I read a part of this published in the anthology IN RUIN.
Check out my views about In Ruin :
Death Of The Angler is a love story in a dystopian setting.
The Angler or Fredi is a rebel with a heart of gold and brain of a mechanical genius. The bane of her existence, and that of thousands of people in town is Lord Henry Cogswell. The cruel, self-absorbed and greedy heir to a rich and influential family is the brother of sweet, innocent Evangeline Cogswell. But the fraternal relation does not stop the so called ClockMaster from terrorizing and violating his sister while he plans to sell her off in marriage for a hefty dowry.
The Angler and the ClockMaster have a cat and mouse dynamic which involves violence, betrayal and a test of wills. But neither of them counted on Fredi and Evangeline falling for each other.
This is where the story takes a turn making their love story the centrepiece of the rebellion.
The weakest part of the entire story, in my opinion is the villain. Henry Cogswell, though depicted as a maniacal mastermind in the first half of the book, ended up feeling like just a maniac with little to no ingenuity, cunning or even a backup plan by the time the story reached its conclusion. Specifically, I did not feel that Cogswell deserved his nickname The ClockMaster. There was hardly any planning or machinations from his side depicted in the story.
On the other hand, Fredi's mechanical genius was something prominently and repeatedly mentioned throughout the story. But not even a hint of Fredi's inventions appeared in the story's climax.
Eventually the villain got his well-deserved fate, but then, the HEA seemed to undermine the dystopian theme of the story.
A community that has witnessed the murder of children cannot simply spring back to normalcy just with the death of one villain. The death of the villain would inevitably lead to his succession by someone in the power vacuum: someone who might not be as evil, but would not be an angel, either. Unless the story is seen simply as a love story with an HEA: story which began with a dark dystopian theme and ended up being a romance with some violence.
A well written story, worth a read for the love and passion it portrays in the face of unfathomable violence.
My rating does not take into account the typos, formatting and other errors which are inherent to most ARCs and will assuredly be dealt with before the final publishing.
Book Link: https://amzn.to/3CCpGfq