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I read - and enjoyed - Ivey and the Airship by Cheryl Ammeter, as did my 16 year old son who shares the following:
Ivey and the Airship is a tale of horror and romance set in Aether, a steampunk world filled with airships and contraptions of unfathomable size and elegance.
I’ve been a fan of stories based on the fantastic concept of steampunk ever since I had the chance to read Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn, so of course when I saw the copy of Ivey and the Airship that my mom brought home, I snatched it without hesitation.
The storyline is simple at first, but slowly spreads and weaves its way through your imagination as the plot develops and you get deeper into the story, meeting loads of great characters along the way.
At the age of sixteen, Ivey Thornton is the perfect age for marriage according to her parents and is forced into an engagement with Miles Fenchurche, the son and heir of the Fenchurche industrial empire. To humor her father and mother, Ivey agrees to the marriage with no intention of following through or even considering the future she could have. Unbeknownst to Ivey, Miles Fenchurche is also reluctant about an engagement, but has no choice in the matter due to a domineering mother looking for a chance to extend the Fenchurche blood-line.
As an engagement present, Miles presents Ivey with the chance of a lifetime: a week-long pleasure cruise on the airship Monarch. A regal airship that holds many secrets.
After a couple of days on the Monarch, the story begins to turn evil. From killer leeches to power-hungry cipher machines, the book spirals in and out of Inception-like dream circles. After days of evil and menace, the passengers are rescued from the crippled Monarch, but the story isn't over for Ivey. Taken to a hospital and force-fed drugs that make her seem like a lunatic, allowing the creators of the cipher machine to keep a hold on her, Ivey Thornton is finally freed from the hospital by Miles Fenchurche and a small group of Ivey’s close friends.
The story culminates at a costume ball on the Monarch, where Ivey is presented with the owner's rights to the ship and the choice of becoming the ship's captain or joining Miles at Fenchurche castle. Even though Miles had fallen in love with Ivey, he allowed her to control her own destiny instead of pressuring her into an engagement.
Ivey and the Airship is definitely a book that I would recommend to any reader of steampunk or adventure novels.
~ Evan Bordessa
The author is online at Aether's Edge where you can read an excerpt or print out a cool bookmark.
