ARC Review of Megan Curd's Steel Lily

AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She’s a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued.

But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn’t any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better.

…Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything…including the fate of your world.

As I'm sure you have all heard me say at some point or another, the dystopian genre isn't a genre that I normally like to read. However, in recent months I have picked up a couple of books in the genre that have shown me that even though it isn't my preferred reading material, there are some that have sparked my interest. Steel Lily is absolutely one of those books.

Megan has imbued elemental manipulation into a new world with a steampunk flavor, and I am head over heels in love with it. I can totally see the world going in that direction, minus the elemental "magic" if you will. She has this way of telling a story that makes you look at the world around you and say to yourself, "Self, if reincarnation is real, I want to come back and live in this world that Megan Curd has created within these pages, because it sounds completely badass!" No really, you'll say that to yourself while you read this book, I did. I'm not making that up. But you'll only want to do it if you can be like Avery. Trust me.

The characters in this book, Avery, Alice, Jaxon, Sari, Legs... They could be your friends, your classmates, your love interests... They are well thought out, highly developed, and each and every one of them (even the villains, yes I used the plural form) are even more pivotal to the story line than just to give it more depth. They all play a distinct role, roles that give credence to the overall theme. It's this that ties them all together, and I fear that it is this that may tear them apart.

There were places within the story where I literally laughed out loud, and then others where I found myself fighting tears. There are also places where I had to take a step back and say, "Okay, remember, this isn't real and no matter what you cannot hurt this person." Yes, readers, it was THAT intense. And THAT my friends, is a sign of a damn good book. When you want to climb into the pages and hurt someone for hurting someone else.

All in all, I am completely hooked and I now have an intense need to know where this series is going to take us. Will these fragile (because they are extremely fragile) ties that bind this group of misfits together be enough to hold them to one another? How far can they be pushed before they break? What will it take for them to learn to trust outside of themselves? Because ultimately, that is what this series will be about. Learning to trust when you can barely trust yourself.

Great job, Megan. I'm anxiously awaiting Iron Pendulum.