Kiss of the Spindle Author: Nancy Campbell Allen
Genres: Speculative Romance
Format: Audio, eBook, Print
Pages: 352
Date: July 3, 2018
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Doctor Isla Cooper is cursed. Literally. Each night, at the stroke of midnight she falls into a death-like sleep from which she cannot be awakened for six hours. To make it worse, the curse has an expiration date—after a year, it becomes permanent. And the year is almost up.
In a desperate attempt to find Malette—the witch who cursed her—Isla blackmails her way onto Daniel Pickett’s private airship bound for the Caribbean, only to discover she’s traveling with three illegal shapeshifters and the despicable Nigel Crowe, a government official determined to hunt down and exterminate every shapeshifter in England. Isla and Daniel must work together to keep the identities of the shapeshifters hidden while coming to terms with their own hidden secrets, and their blossoming attraction to each other.
It is a race against the clock as Isla and Daniel try to hunt down the elusive Malette before Isla’s death-like sleep becomes permanent.
A steampunk Sleeping Beauty story from the author of Beauty and the Clockwork Beast.
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About Nancy Campbell Allen
Nancy Campbell Allen is the author of 14 published novels and several novellas, which encompass a variety of genres from contemporary romantic suspense to historical fiction. Nancy loves to read, write, travel and research, and enjoys spending time laughing with family and friends. She ives in Ogden, Utah with her husband, three children, and a very large Siberian Husky named Thor.
Wow. This is the first steampunk book I’ve ventured to read, and it was such a fun ride! It took me a little bit to get comfortable with the some of the terminology and concepts, but the story and characters immediately grabbed me and pulled me into the intriguing plot. I loved Isla’s grit, confidence, and determination. I loved Daniel’s strength, charisma, and protective nature. I loved the dynamics between the passengers on the airship, the race against time, and the mysterious spell that Isla is desperate to reverse. The friendship and romance between Isla and Daniel develops naturally but swiftly, and their chemistry was amazing! I appreciated that they allowed themselves to be vulnerable with each other; it instilled a foundation of trust in their relationship that made the quick timeline work for me. The adventure was epic and this book would make such a great movie! Highly recommend!
(I received a complimentary copy of the book; all opinions in this review are my own)
This is my second steampunk book and it was much easier to get into than the first one was because I knew more what to expect. A twist on Sleeping Beauty, there were many nods to the original story but the book does twists and turns and doesn’t follow cannon. It was kind of fun to see how many references I could find as I read. I kinda wished there was a list of them at the end of the book to see how many I missed.
The love story between Isla and Daniel is high energy and intense. Lots of sexual tension and some passionate kisses but not overly descriptive. Being turned on by her use of weapons was a little humorous but also disturbing. This book has shifters as the first book did but wasn’t really about that. We don’t get specific info on their shifting except when Isla is doing her empath thing.
The exception is the witch, Malette that has placed a curse (a variation of Sleeping Beauty style) on Isla and they must find her to break it before the curse becomes permanent. She does shift and this is the violent part of the book. Malette is evil as her name indicates, horribly abusive to her son and an all around nasty person.
While the first book was more about werewolves and ghosts, this book was about witches and curses. This book stands alone so you don’t have to read the first one but it is probably easier to understand the idea of someone being a shifter if you do read it first. I enjoyed the story overall and was glad to see that not everything (or everyone) was as they seemed by the end. And good triumphs over evil.
Sex: innuendo, kisses
Language: the book says someone cursed but there is no actual cursing in the text.
Violence: yes, the witch is violent and violence was used to bring her down.
I love fairy tale retellings, especially those that use a different genre than what we are used to! Taking Sleeping Beauty and turning it into a steampunk novel was an absolutely fabulous idea! I loved it