Lumiere By: Jacqueline E. Garlick ARC Review

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazemo Books for allowing me to read and review Lumiere by Jacqueline E. Garlick.

Lumiere started off very promising. The prologue and opening chapter did it's job properly. It drew me in immediately and made me want to read more. However, after that it was mostly downhill for me. I found the world to be completely annoying. I did not like that the men are better than the women. I also did not like that if anyone shows signs of madness (like seizures) they are sent to the madhouse. Even the word Wickedry (magic) got on my nerves. All of these things I felt like could have been okay, but I just didn't like how it was done. Maybe because these things were stated over and OVER again. Okay thanks, I get it. Stop telling me that if people find out Eyelet has seizures she will be put in the madhouse!!!

I will say the one thing I did like (and I liked this a lot) was the steampunk elements. I liked the elephant in the beginning, the illuminator, and the vapours. I enjoyed the setting a lot more than I did the story or most of the characters. I haven't read a lot of steampunk books so that may be why I still found the setting so enjoyable. The steampunk parts were fun and different.

I found the overall story could use some work though. I thought it was confusing, not well written, and boring. For some of it I couldn't keep up very well with what was happening. Near the end I didn't even care. Even Eyelet got on my nerves! She was so bratty and ungrateful to Urlick at first. That made me dislike her character quite a bit since he was just trying to help her. I didn't really like Urlick either. I liked the villain, Smrt, better than anyone else in the book. His character was developed the best in my opinion.

I feel like Lumiere could have been a great novel, but the story just didn't connect with me at all. Some parts were interesting, and some parts were dreadfully dull. Personally, I won't be reading the second of the series. Even though this one wasn't ALL bad.

I would recommend this to die hard steampunk fans because the steampunk stuff is worth checking out, but you have to look past the plot.


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