⋙ Read Chasing the Star Garden The Airship Racing Chronicles Volume 1 Melanie Karsak 9780615878775 Books

Chasing the Star Garden The Airship Racing Chronicles Volume 1 Melanie Karsak 9780615878775 Books

Download As PDF : Chasing the Star Garden The Airship Racing Chronicles Volume 1 Melanie Karsak 9780615878775 Books

Chasing the Star Garden The Airship Racing Chronicles Volume 1 Melanie Karsak 9780615878775 Books

This book begins with a suicide, opium addiction, absinthe, sex involving pain and drawing blood, a hangover complete with vomiting and yet another lover all in the first 3 chapters.
But if you can get past all that dark set-up the rest of the book gets better and better!
An unusual mix of steam punk, historical romance and mythology, this novel captured my attention and I read it all in one sitting. The romance part of the ending was a little rushed but all in all the book was satisfying and worth reading. I enjoyed it very much and though I didn't expect to like it so well as I did, I admit to being pleasantly surprised. Loved how the backstory explains so much of what is happening in the present and how the stories and characters all intertwined to come together into a fun read.


Tags : Chasing the Star Garden: The Airship Racing Chronicles (Volume 1) [Melanie Karsak] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div><b>Top 10 Finisher: Best Steampunk Novel of 2013, Preditors & Editors Reader's Poll </b></div><b><br /><span>Chasing the Star Garden is a B.R.A.G. Medallion® recipient for excellence in writing. </span></b><br /><br /> <span>"If you like your lofty steampunk sexy and adventurous,Melanie Karsak,Chasing the Star Garden: The Airship Racing Chronicles (Volume 1),Clockpunk Press,0615878776,FICTION Science Fiction Steampunk,Fiction - Science Fiction,Science Fiction - Steampunk,Science fiction

Chasing the Star Garden The Airship Racing Chronicles Volume 1 Melanie Karsak 9780615878775 Books Reviews

London, 1823. Lily Stargazer just lost another Airship Grand Prix to American Hank Cutter. A stranger, pursued by constables, gives her a kaleidoscope, tells her to go to Venice, and jumps to his death from her airship tower. Her lover Lord Byron encourages her to go to Venice and solve the mystery. So, with her crew (Angus and Jessup) and her other lover (Salvatore Colona), she flies to Venice.

I enjoyed the steampunk aesthetic, but got bored with the sex scenes. The Greek mythology was an interesting addition to the intrigue. The character of Lily was well developed with haunting memories of child abuse driving her to absinthe and opium addictions.

'Chasing the Star Garden' is a romantic steampunk adventure for mature audiences. Ultimately, too much on the romantic side for my taste.
*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com, at my request.

Lily comes in second in the airship race, but losses to the American's, again. She's disappointed. But then a harlequin races through the crowd to her. An assassin? But he grabs her and tells her to go to Venice and puts something down the front of her pants before jumping off the tower they stand on next to the airships, to his death. His body lay below with three points, the same shape that's in the symbol on her stargazer sail.

This story starts right off! The event of the race ends with a leap of faith.

There's drinking, drugs, swearing, and hot steamy moments. Lily has her debts and her loves of drinking, drugs, and hot steamy moments. Oh does she love the men. Since she uses her prize money to pay her debts, one of her lovers, Lord Byron, talks her into going to Venice. He gives her the money to make the trip reasoning she was specifically given the kaleidoscope for a reason.

This is another marvelous selection of voice to go with the story for Melanie Karsak. Libby is perfect for the characters and world. Libby is talented in accents. She has a British accent that fits the characters and thickens when need be for other characters. She even does Italian, Scottish, French and more accents. The way she speaks for each character is as she is the character. She differentiates many with tone, accent, and feeling in their voices. Outstanding job. Libby has intensified the character development through voice.

I love listening to the flight of the airship. Lily and her small crew is talented and the descriptions are of the visuals not the technical of how it's done. But the use of the air and storms is wonderful.

Do be prepared for fowl language, opium dens, and steamy sensual moments with Lily Stargazer. Melanie has taken us into a dark side of the world where drugs numb the senses and where woman are viewed as things. Melanie brings Lily through a dark past to a present that she can live with. But it's a journey that Lily has to make to come to grips with her past and be who she is. She has her friends around her to help. There's her crew for a time but most of all it's Sal, the Italian tinker, that helps her. She also finds a new friend in Celeste who helps guide them to find the statue her family is tied to.

Lily's past comes back, front and center for her. A past that she's long forgotten when she was abandoned at the orphanage. Then, a past that she keeps locked away with opium surfaces and is what draws her to help find the Aphrodite statue that is so treasured by it's strong following.

Yes, Aphrodite. Which also connects Venus and the sensual feeling of the book as a whole. This is an interesting blend of clockworks and steampunk elements with the height of love and steam. This all intersects with Lily and her life.

This story feels like a love story at it's core. A love of ones self and finding that the past does not define who they are now. Then, when they accept themselves they find love with another. Beautiful story and meaning mixed with a surrounding I love, clockworks, airships, adventure and fighting.
Setting London, Venice, Athens
Genre Steampunk adventure
When you hear "steampunk", you think Victorian, yeah? Well this is kinda confusing because it is set in 1823, and motor powered navigable balloons weren't in use until the 1870s, and weren't used for passengers. I know, it doesn't matter, because steampunk is kinda sorta retro sci-fi. But it's just weird to have references to King George rather than Queen Victoria. But I'm off topic here, which is a review of this very fine adventure. I'm waffling on the rating even as I write this.
Lily Stargazer is an airship jockey going whatever she can to earn enough money to care for and race her airship, The Stargazer. Strange, that. What came first? Her name or the ship's? Doesn't matter. Anyway, Lily is carrying all kind of crappy baggage from her childhood, which she treats with absinthe and opium. She stays sober enough to pilot her ship, so it's all good.
Lily has just, once again, come in second to the American ship in a race. She's getting congratulated by the air Marshall on board when a guy in disguise shoves something down her pants, tells her to go to Venice, then commits suicide by diving off her ship. It turns out to be a kaleidoscope that can lead to a statue of Venus. Lord Byron, her lover, encourages her to go. She asks Sal, an Italian tinker, to go with her. They pick up a devotee of a Venus-worshipping cult and they all go on an adventure.
The adventure is braided with the growing relationship between Lily and Sal, her drug addiction, and her flashbacks to her crappy childhood which includes a couple of rapey scenes. But those scenes are in flashback and not minutely graphic.
The book is well written - gotta love it when an author uses what she learned in school. The story is in first-person POV, so there's no irritating jumps between one person's thoughts and actions to another's. The premise is good and the plot well-executed, though I did have an issue with having the steampunk ethos being set in the 1820s (when Byron was in exile). Hey, poetic license, right? But for some reason, it didn't glue me to my earbuds. It's only about 7 hours long, but for some reason I kept drifting into other books. I'm giving this 4 stars because I don't think it deserves to lose one to my short attention span.
This is worth the money or audible credit.
This book begins with a suicide, opium addiction, absinthe, sex involving pain and drawing blood, a hangover complete with vomiting and yet another lover all in the first 3 chapters.
But if you can get past all that dark set-up the rest of the book gets better and better!
An unusual mix of steam punk, historical romance and mythology, this novel captured my attention and I read it all in one sitting. The romance part of the ending was a little rushed but all in all the book was satisfying and worth reading. I enjoyed it very much and though I didn't expect to like it so well as I did, I admit to being pleasantly surprised. Loved how the backstory explains so much of what is happening in the present and how the stories and characters all intertwined to come together into a fun read.