Review: The Changer's Key

A Riddle in Ruby: The Changer's Key | Kent Davis

Published by: Greenwillow Books, September 27th 2016

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Pages: 384

Format: Ebook

Source: Greenwillow Books, via Edelweiss

The second book in the fantasy-adventure trilogy. In an alternate colonial America, young thief Ruby Teach trains to become the greatest weapon in the coming war.

To save her friends and family, apprentice thief Ruby Teach bargained with the man who chased her across the sea and through an alternate version of colonial Philadelphia. Now she’s training to become a soldier in the war he foresees and being experimented on by the army’s scientists. Ruby’s blood holds a secret, if only someone can unlock it.

Meanwhile, Captain Teach and Ruby’s friends—a motley crew made up of a young aristocrat, a servant, an alchemist, and mysterious woodswoman—are racing against time to find and liberate Ruby.

Kent Davis’s imagining of a colonial America powered by alchemy is fascinating and wholly original. The heroes are swept through cities and unsettled territories with imagination, humor, and magic.

I remember really liking the first book, but I just did connect with this at all. The Ruby plot, I liked but I didn't really care about it, and the other plot didn't interest me at all. But I still like Athena a whole lot, and kinda wish the book was all from her POV. By the end of this, I was just reading so I could finish it, and I'm not sure why because I really loved the first book.

Characters ★★★☆☆

Setting/world ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★☆☆

A Riddle In Ruby (ARC Review)

Key To The Catalyst: A Riddle In Ruby | Kent Davis

Published by: Greenwillow Books, September 22nd 2015

Genre: MG, Fantasy, Steampunk, Alternate History, Ships

Pages: 352

Format: Ebook

Source: Greenwillow Books, via Edelweiss

Ruby is a thief-in-training and a keeper of secrets—ones she doesn't even know herself. A Riddle in Ruby is the first book in a witty and fast-paced fantasy-adventure trilogy for fans for Jonathan Stroud, Septimus Heap, and The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates.

Ruby Teach, daughter of a smuggler and pirate, has been learning how to swindle and steal and pick the most complex locks for as long as she can remember. But a collision with aristocratic young lord Athen sends her spinning into chaos. Little did she know that her whole life has been spent in hiding from nefarious secret societies and the Royal Navy . . . who are both now on her trail. In this debut middle grade adventure, Kent Davis weaves a rip-roaring tale through an alternate colonial Philadelphia. A world where alchemy—that peculiar mix of magic and science—has fueled the industrial revolution. With this highly original setting, a cast of fully rounded characters and rapid-fire, funny dialogue, A Riddle in Ruby will call to mind fantasy greats like Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett.

Thank you, A Riddle In Ruby, for bringing the magic back to middle grade fantasy. I've read a slew of MG fantasy this year, most with ships and pirates as is my thing, and they've all been pretty good. But not amazing. None of them had the spark for me, that magic I've been looking for. 

This book did.

A Riddle In Ruby is a fun, high stakes adventure. It starts off on a ship (you know that's my jam) and moves onto an alternate history version of Philadelphi. Now I don't know much about American history or actual Philadelphia but I thought the setting was awesome, and wholly unique. There was a city on top of the city! Everything about this book felt indulgent, like Kent Davis had looked into my head and seen everything I wanted in a book and stuck it all in A Riddle In Ruby. Ruby, especially, stuck out to me. I loved her so much, and Athen too. Maybe the characters were the real magic I've been looking for.

My only niggle was that this book stuck to the thing where the MC is a young girl and follows a slightly older boy, who is more intelligent and worldly and knows all, where the MC is a silly little girl who needs help. I've read many MG that have this for some reason and I thought this book had given me the same thing that makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable. But nope. Everything I thought I knew was really a secret very cleverly concealed. So I actually love everything about this. It just feels fresh and it's compelling - the villain is interesting and doesn't fall into the same old villainous tropes, there are metal animals (!!!), dastardly sailors, and a very serious riddle in Ruby that I'd like to solve.

Do yourself a favour and read it.

(But what does the series name mean, and what's with the key on the cover? What am I missing? I'm so excited to get answers!!!)

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world-building ★★★★★

Writing ★★★★☆

Follow all my reviews on Bloglovin!

Reading Round Up (86)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week. 

10th August

I read 28% of A Riddle In Ruby by Kent Davis, finishing it, and this was fricking awesome. Can't wait to see where the next book takes Ruby!!

I also started Polaris by Mindee Arnett, sequel to my fave ever Avalon!!! I read 30% and I love it so much.

11th August

Today I read another 30% of Polaris, which is awesome. But I had some spare time to read and wanted a break from all the angst of Polaris, so I started Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics (20% read.) Kinda thought she was going to be pregnant with the devil's child for a few chapters there but that's not the case. Shame.

12th August

I finished Polaris (40%), and wow that went bizarre with the alien thing. Loved everything else but that totally undermined the rest of the story. 

I also read 13% of Daughters Unto Devils, which is fairly okay. I'm not a hundred percent sure this is a horror novel, as I was led to believe. I'm a third in and the only horrific thing to happen is the treatment of women in this era.

13th August

Today I decided I wanted to finish Daughters Unto Devils, and since it's fairly short, it was achievable. I read 82% and the ending was a thousand times better than the rest of it. I did get bored, but that's because nothing happened for a while, but that seems to be par for the course with YA horror.

Oh, and I also read 5% of Cities and Thrones by Carrie Patel. Mostly I wanted to start this because I know it'll be slow going for the first third until I proper get into it and I want to finish it by the end of the month.

14th August

I started This Monstrous Thing (26% read), which is not as good as I'd expected. And I read another 5% of Cities and Thrones, which seems to be the most amount of book I can read before my mind wanders.

15th August

Okay I read like 16% of This Monstrous Thing and I'm just not feeling it at all. It's slow and I don't care about anything that's happening so DNF.

16th August

*major grumbling*

I started Undertow by Michael Buckley, which I thought would be awesome but turned out to be not. I hated it within 9% and DNFed. Which makes two, in two days, consecutively. Yay~~~

Failing that, I started The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett (27%), and I'm having much better luck with it. Thank God.

Books finished this week: 3
Books DNF'd this week: 2

For review:

This didn't sound terrible and it's LGBT inclusive so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's pretty short too, so it shouldn't be so bad. I hope. I don't historically love alice in wonderland retellings, though, and the publisher has been hit or miss for me. Hoping this hits.

I have friends that like it, and although it sounds too close to Angelfall for my liking, I'm assuming the non-post-apoc thing will set it apart. Plus it was on read now and I have no will power against that.

Night Owls (4.5 STARS) + a guest post from Jenn Bennet

This Monstrous Thing (DNF)

Undertow (DNF)

Reading Round Up (85)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week. 

3rd August

I read 32% of The Vanishing Island by Barry Wolverton and finished it. The end was not as good as the rest of the book.

4th August

Today I started Night Owls by Jenn Bennett and I literally FLEW through this book, reading 115 pages. The anatomy-obsessed girl, the hella attractive (looks-wise and personality-wise) love interest, the unanswered questions and mysteries. THIS is why I give contemporary fiction a chance. THIS is why I can never dismiss all contemp romances as fluffy nonsense.

5th August

I read 50 pages of Night Owls, and I am literally swooning. Someone bring me smelling salts.

6th August

I finished Night Owls, reading 126 pages. I loved it WAY more than I expected, and I actually understand contemporary plots a lot better because of this book, so I learned something too!

7th August

I started The Accident Season by Maria Fowley-Doyle (26% read) and I genuinely can't work out whether I like it or not.

8th August

Okay I read like 30% of The Accident Season and I'm just not interested in anything, so DNF. 


BUT I started A Riddle In Ruby by Kent Davis and I'm loving this. Ships and  
adventure and fun and people who have way too many secrets - this is so cool.

9th August

Today I read 49% of A Riddle In Ruby and I'm proper liking it.

Books finished this week: 2
Books DNF'd this week: 1

For review:

I'm sure I got something but I literally can't remember. If I do, I'll put it in next Monday's post.

The Accident Season (DNF)