Curio, by Evangeline Denmark

Curio, by Evangeline Denmkark
ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley
in exchange for a fair and honest review

Grey Haward lives in a world where people can’t digest food unless they drink a potion provided by a tyrannical ruling group. When her friend Whit gets punished for saving her life, Grey discovers a hidden trait inside herself – she is a Defender who protects people from tyranny. Just as she’s discovering her new powers, she is thrown into a strange new steampunk world in which she must find the Mad Tock in order to escape.

Curio had unique plot-line and world-building, and the mystery remained throughout the book. It was good, clean fun with no sex and minimal violence. Both worlds in the book were quite fascinating, and I wish I knew more about each. However, I did have some difficulty because the transition from the first world to the second was quite abrupt. I was just starting to get emotionally involved in the first when it was taken away, and I suddenly had to start from scratch learning the rules of a foreign world. I would have preferred reading two books each with one world than one book with two. It was a little confusing. Overall, I think Denmark has a lot of potential as an author, and will keep a look-out for other books by her.