Review: The Alchemists of Loom (Loom Saga #1) by Elise Kova

I need a moment to process this. This book was… everything! It was very different from Air Awakens, but I loved it just as much. The writing was amazing, the plot was interesting, the world-building was magical, and the characters were relatable. I am absolutely in love with this book!

Title: The Alchemists of Loom

Author: Elise Kova

My rating: 5 hearts

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Steampunk

Pub. date: January 10th 2017

Publisher: Keymaster Press

Synopsis: Her vengeance. His vision.

Ari lost everything she once loved when the Five Guilds’ resistance fell to the Dragon King. Now, she uses her unparalleled gift for clockwork machinery in tandem with notoriously unscrupulous morals to contribute to a thriving underground organ market. There isn’t a place on Loom that is secure from the engineer turned thief, and her magical talents are sold to the highest bidder as long as the job defies their Dragon oppressors.

Cvareh would do anything to see his sister usurp the Dragon King and sit on the throne. His family’s house has endured the shame of being the lowest rung in the Dragons’ society for far too long. The Alchemist Guild, down on Loom, may just hold the key to putting his kin in power, if Cvareh can get to them before the Dragon King’s assassins.

When Ari stumbles upon a wounded Cvareh, she sees an opportunity to slaughter an enemy and make a profit off his corpse. But the Dragon sees an opportunity to navigate Loom with the best person to get him where he wants to go.

He offers her the one thing Ari can’t refuse: A wish of her greatest desire, if she brings him to the Alchemists of Loom. (synopsis from Goodreads)

My thoughts: I loved the characters.

   Ari, Cvareh and Flor were all characters that you just couldn’t help but root for. I loved reading about them all, and seeing their journeys. I especially loved Flor. I could really relate to her, she was fun and interesting to read about, and I’d say she went through the biggest journey of them all. She really changed through the book, she grew a lot, and I loved following her journey.

   That’s not to say I didn’t love the other characters. I loved Ari and Cvareh, too. Ari was totally badass and independent and cool, and I loved her. There are still a lot of mysteries surrounding her, which, I admit, drew me in. I needed to find out what had happened that still affected her so. I still do. I need The Dragons of Nova, like, now!

   Cvareh… Sigh.

   I loved him. Seriously loved him. Maybe as much as I love Aldrik. Maybe more. I’m torn on that one. I don’t even know where to begin to describe him. He was just an amazing male, and it was impossible to not fall in love with him. Any fangirl with a beating heart would fall in love with him.

   And the romance between him and Ari was great. It was slow, which was good, because in the beginning, Ari hated all Dragons as a principle. Watching them grow closer, very slowly, was both amazing and difficult, because I need them to end up together!

   Dragons and Chimera and a whole new world make for an intriguing plot!

   Yes, you heard that right. Dragons. But these dragons aren’t the ones you know, no, they’re much cooler than that! I loved learning about the Dragons and the Chimera and the Fenthri. The world-building was amazing, but that was expected. I already knew Kova has a way to write a whole new world in such a way that you feel like you are really there, you forget about the real world, you forget that you’re reading. She also introduces the world in a great way, not all at once, a history lesson of Loom in the first chapter, but gradually, throughout the whole book. And she makes it feel so natural, not some stilted conversation just to teach the reader something about the world, but it’s actually a part of the plot.

   That ending.

   You all know I hate cliffhangers, right? Well, I do. And TAOL ended in one. But, and here’s the surprising thing, I didn’t mind it. It just felt right that it should end there, although I was really sad it did, because now I just want more, and I don’t know how I’ll survive for six months before TDON!

   Out of all the great things I’ve listed above, the best thing, the thing that made this book truly magical, was the characters. They came alive on the page in such a way that I couldn’t put it away, that I just had to know what would happen. I stayed up way later than I should’ve, and seriously considered skipping school to read (which is the first time I’ve ever considered that). When I was done, it felt like parting with old friends, after just one book. This book is the perfect example that amazing, relatable characters can have such a big impact on the plot. The further I got into the story, the more I needed to know what would happen to Ari, Cvareh and Flor.

   This book was so much fun to read, throughout it all. But be warned: if you’re not looking to be hooked, for characters that will seem so real, it feels wrong when you stop reading and they’re not there, this is not the book for you.

Elise Kova has always had a profound love of fantastical worlds. Somehow, she managed to focus on the real world long enough to graduate with a Master's in Business Administration before crawling back under her favorite writing blanket to conceptualize her next magic system. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and when she is not writing can be found playing video games, watching anime, or talking with readers on social media.

Links:
Website: http://www.elisekova.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/EliseKova