Book Review: The Watchmaker’s Daughter by C. J. Archer

The Watchmaker’s Daughter is the first book in the Glass and Steel series by C. J. Archer.

Quick Review (read on for full review)

Engaging, entertaining and a good first book in a series.  A fun read, with an interesting cast of characters and a great setting.  Looking forward to reading the next book.  4 / 5

Summary (from Goodreads)

India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her – an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.

Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won’t tell India why any old one won’t do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London’s best streets. So when she reads about an American outlaw known as the Dark Rider arriving in England, she suspects Mr. Glass is the fugitive. When danger comes to their door, she’s certain of it. But if she notifies the authorities, she’ll find herself unemployed and homeless again – and she will have betrayed the man who saved her life.

Favourite Quote

“You’d better not wager anything you can’t afford to lose.”

(The Watchmaker’s Daughter by C. J. Archer, Chapter 17)

Review

I’ve been meaning to read “The Medium”, the first book in the Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy, by this author for ages.  I can’t remember how long it’s been sitting on my digital shelf, but it’s been there a while.  Then when I was perusing the same set of digital shelves last week for an indie read, this cover called to me.  To be fair, I think this book has also been waiting at least a year for some attention, and it’s finally got it.

First thing’s first. I love the cover.  The colours and fonts are eye-catching, and the imagery is well-suited to the story.

The Watchmaker’s Daughter is a fantasy story set in Victorian England; I’m not sure there are enough elements in it to categorise it as steampunk, at least not yet – that might come as the series continues.  I found the storyline very interesting: characters from the Wild West on a quest through dark and gritty Victorian London, with the help of young, destitute woman with connections to the city’s watchmakers.  What’s not to like?

I liked the characters.  India Steel, I liked on the whole, though on a handful of occasions I questioned her thinking / actions.  It’s always nice to come across a character who turns out to be stronger than she thought possible, and who has what it takes to triumph over the difficulties in her path, and this is how I saw India for the majority of the book.  Matthew Glass, again was a likeable character.  His secrets gave him a mysterious air, though the way he was portrayed suggested (to me, if not India) that he could always be trusted.  As for the rest of the characters, they are quirky and / or disreputable, and I think they worked well in both the setting and the story.

I was engaged enough with the story to not want to put the book down.  I wanted to see how this first instalment would end, and even though I anticipated much of what was to happen, I enjoyed the reading of it, and there were still a number of plot twists I didn’t expect.

I couldn’t decide between awarding this book 3.5 or 4 stars, but the beautiful cover encouraged me to be generous.  For the first book in a series, I thought it did a good job introducing the reader to the world it is set in, and to the cast of characters, and I’m looking forward to continue reading it.  The next book in the series, The Mapmaker’s Apprentice, has been added to my TBR list.

Rating

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Sammi Loves Books Reading Challenge 2019 – I’ve chosen this book for challenge #19 in the list: A book by an indie author.