Ok. This was a very different read and I loved it! From page one I was hooked. The story is told from Tish Everett's point of view and she was a fantastic narrator. If you read the summary of the book you know that Tish is a nurse in our world and after she went to sleep we this locket she found at an estate sale she wakes up in a different world. Because Tish is new to this world we get to experience everything with her. So instead of the reader being introduced to a completely new world from page one we get to slowly learn more about this amazing world that is "Sang" as the book progresses.
I'm amazed I liked this book so much because I'm not a big fan of books that have a lot a world building in them. But "Sang" was so irresistible, beautiful, terrifying and steampunk-ish that Wicked as They Come wouldn't have been half as good without the world building. That doesn't mean that the book dragged or that there wasn't any action, it was just a perfect combination of everything good.
The characters were equally as interesting as "Sang". There's no words to describe them, really. There were so many of them and I couldn't get enough. I wanted more of these colorful and wicked creatures. As for Tish's gift that was a great twist I wasn't expecting. And then we have the clockwork creatures, oh my God, that was a little thing that made me love this book even more.
I didn't give this book 5 stars because I did have a little problem with it. I felt like the whole journey Tish and Criminy took was, I don't want to say a waste of time because things did happen and it was exciting, but maybe a little unnecessary. They went from point "a" to point "b" and then they had to go to point "c" but the thing that they were looking for wasn't there so they had to go back to point "a" and so on. Maybe to others this will be a turn off because the characters have to go through so much to get what they want but I overlooked it because the writing was amazing and like I said the journey wasn't uneventful.
Overall, I think I could not have picked a better book to start 2013.
This sounds so interesting. It is definitely going on my TBR list.
Great review, Beth. I am not a fan of steampunk, slash, paranormal and this one sounds like I'll be in for a confusing read. Glad you liked it despite some misgivings.