DNF Review – SteamFate by Kat Daughtry (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Twisted Core Press
Release Date: November 24, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0615844073
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 2/5 stars
“ROMANCE & REVOLUTION. Destiny, though powerful is never convenient. Every second proves this as the forbidden love of Adam, a man of royal law, and Zona, the leading element of revolution fight the natural order of society and listen to the adoration flaring inside their hearts. Through the blinding weakness of love, every moment holds the choice of fate or foe. Will their love survive obligations as the battle leaves death and destruction in the path of each stolen moment? Every good man deserves a woman like Zona and every strong woman deserves a revolution. Experience the hardships of destiny in the steampunk erotic tale of Steamfate.”
I picked this up for Kindle because I was looking for some more steampunk books and this one had very high reviews. I really should have done a bit more research on this, this was really not my thing at all. I stopped reading it about 20% of the way in.
Adam is a Magistrate who likes to paint. He has a private studio where he goes when his wife is off taking care of her own social obligations. However this time when he goes to his studio a lovely but dangerous young woman is there named Zora.
The first 20% of this book was basically one long sex scene. While I don’t mind erotica, there were a lot of undertones hear that I didn’t enjoy. Adam is a married man who protests against being accosted by Zora, the beautiful dominating criminal who breaks into his painting studio.
Despite his protests she has sex with him anyway, which I guess is supposed to be okay because he’s a man and really wants it even though he originally says no. In general the whole thing is kind of well…yucky feeling. I don’t like it when forced sex is prettied up to be erotic and tempting…it’s just not right. I suppose you could say he wasn’t forced, he was eventually coerced to say yes…but in my opinion that’s a pretty fine line.
The writing was okay but not great. The whole thing is pretty awkward and there is no story here. The book briefly talks about revolutionary bombers and that is mentioned again around the 15% mark. However, as I said above the first part is just a really long sex scene and it’s mediocre at best. It’s hard for me to really enjoy and get involved in a scene like this when it’s hollow and I don’t like (or even know much about) the characters.
There really isn’t all that much steampunk here, I guess the setting is loosely steampunk. I possibly didn’t get far enough into the story to see some of the steampunk elements. However, if I am nearly 25% through a book and I still don’t understand the setting/world then it needs some work.
Overall this was not for me. The simple writing style, skeleton of a story, and unlikable characters made this go past “okay” down to “I do not like this”. For those who are really into the dom/sub scene and don’t mind borderline non-consensual sex being glorified you might enjoy this. I would not recommend picking this up if you are looking for a good steampunk adventure with some romance.