Review “Cogheart”

Title: Cogheart | Author: Peter Bunzl | Publisher: Usborne | Series: Cogheart Adventues #1 | Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy | 362 pages

I have left this book a little long on my pile with unread books to be honest. By the time I actually got around to reading it the author had already finished the whole series. Oops.

SYNOPSIS

Lily’s life is in mortal peril. Her father is missing and now silver-eyed men stalk her through the shadows. What could they want from her? With her friends—Robert, the clockmaker’s son, and Malkin, her mechanical fox—Lily is plunged into a murky and menacing world. Too soon Lily realizes that those she holds dear may be the very ones to break her heart…

REVIEW

I have read this book almost a year ago and only now I get around to write a review about it. I still remember most of the story and how I felt about it though, so I’m feeling fairly confident that I will do right by it.

I feel like I don’t have much to say about this book. The overall story was engaging and fun, with lots of peril and mortal danger, with intrigue and sinister plots and lots of running away from things all wrapped up in a steampunk setting.

The main character, Lily, was a headstrong protagonist, a girl that didn’t like rules and seemed to be out of time. To be honest, she annoyed me a little. Robert was also rather generic, although I always appreciate characters that are good at repairing things and tinker about. It made me warm right up to him and his brooding.
Characters I definitely DID love were Malkin, the clockwork fox and the captain of the small airship. I love airships.

In total, I had a general “meh” feeling about the story. I wish I would have liked it better, it’s not that it was bad, it was just not enough to really keep me engaged or to really have me read all the other books in the series. Don’t get me wrong: there were some great things in it. I liked the adventure and some of the small twists. I loved some of the steampunk elements. I liked the clockwork characters. Some of the story was really engaging and thrilling. The writing style was great.
It just seemed like a generic steampunk novel and while I some of the ideas and tidbits were great I didn’t feel like there was too much new stuff about it. I could guess “The Big Secret” right from the start, which was really not that hard and which might just have been the crux of the whole thing. It was just not very well hidden and maybe that’s what made me a little bored with it. I just wanted them to get on with it. Or maybe I would have liked the book better if I liked Lily more, I don’t know.
It’s not a bad book and I’m sure children who like steampunk and victorian settings will love it. It’s a great adventure. I’m just not gripped enough to continue the series.

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