Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon.

Warning: Spoilers (Duh.)

Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official on the island of Anglya. She’s one of the privileged – she has luxurious clothes, plenty to eat, and is protected from the Collections which have ravaged families throughout the land. But Catherine longs to escape the confines of her life, before her dad can marry her off to a government brat and trap her forever.

So Catherine becomes Cat, pretends to be a kid escaping the Collections, and stows away on the skyship Stormdancer. As they leave Anglya behind and brave the storms that fill the skies around the islands of Tellus, Cat’s world becomes more turbulent than she could ever have imagined, and dangerous secrets unravel her old life once and for all.

I was incredibly disappointed by this book. I got about halfway through before I had to put it down. And I'm struggling to decide why. The world was quickly and nicely set up. On paper the protagonist was right up my street and the other characters were different and likeable, so why didn't I like it?

First of all it didn't seem like the author knew where she was going when she was writing, plot wise, it seems a little lost at first, as if she was just writing without any thought of where. (Or going back n edits to make it look like she saw everything coming).

Secondly I have no time for dark, brooding, tortured loved interests. They immediately make me scoff and just bleurghhhhh.

Thirdly and probably most importantly. I wasn't sold on Cat. On paper she is a great protagonist. Strong and brave who doesn't play by the rules, but shes just a little...dry! She didn't seem to be doing some of these things because she wanted to but because Saxon said that was what she was going to do. All of her skills were very coincidental and mentioned just as she needed them and I don't know. She kind of reminded me of Bella Swan doing an impression of Katniss Everdeen.

The problem I'm having with this book is that Saxon is clearly a wonderful writer, her style is easy and her world building is great. But I don't feel like this is the story she should have written. I feel like she will write something else in the future that is going to absolutely shake the world. Like she so talented there is no doubt she has big things coming but I don't feel like this book is it.

This book is the dry run, the practice before she pelts down the runway and takes flight. So Take Back the Skies didn't rock my world (although I hope to read the last half at some point) my stormy heart did not set the world free. But I have a feeling we have big things coming from this author. And who knows maybe the sequel will be a game changer.