Review : Ticker by Lisa Mantchev

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Ticker
Author : Lisa Mantchev
Publication Date : December 1st 2014
Publisher : Skyscape
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

A girl with a clockwork heart must make every second count.

When Penny Farthing nearly dies, brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick manages to implant a brass “Ticker” in her chest, transforming her into the first of the Augmented. But soon it’s discovered that Warwick killed dozens of people as he strove to perfect another improved Ticker for Penny, and he’s put on trial for mass murder.

On the last day of Warwick’s trial, the Farthings’ factory is bombed, Penny’s parents disappear, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom note demanding all of their Augmentation research if they want to see their parents again. Is someone trying to destroy the Farthings...or is the motive more sinister?

Desperate to reunite their family and rescue their research, Penny and her brother recruit fiery baker Violet Nesselrode, gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling, and Marcus Kingsley, a young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.

 
Personal Thoughts

Steampunk novels are such a rarity in the Young Adult genre. I don't think I've read many, but it is one of those sub-genres that has so much of potential because of the creative possibilities. That's the one reason I decided to request Ticker, along with that pretty cover. With a story about a girl with a clockwork heart, I was sure that I would completely love this book, I had some minor issues with it that prevented me from completely enjoying it.

The story opens up with an explosion at a factory where our protagonist, Penny's, brother worked. From the very beginning, I knew that Penny would be an interesting character. She was funny, sassy and all kinds of entertaining. She was the perfect kind of heroine for this kind of story; brave and admirable. Penny was also very devoted to her twin brother and it was clear that the two of them shared a strong bond based on love. I really did enjoy Penny's character although towards the end, I thought she became a little bit reckless. Still, her sass made her a likeable character. Ticker also had some interesting secondary characters. I especially enjoyed Penny's twin brother, Nic's character. Penny's love interest, Marcus, was a sweetheart, but I found myself wanting to know much more about his personality. I certainly felt like he was a little bit underdeveloped and sadly, in the end I just thought he was bit lackluster. I wanted to learn more about his background and that never really happened in this book. This was definitely more of a plot-driven story than a character-driven one. I did, however, really enjoy the role of the villain in this book. I thought he was well-written and his crazy nature was nicely portrayed. This book would have been great had their been chapters in his POV as well.

The plot in Ticker was action-packed. From the very beginning the book was intense and kept me flipping through the pages. It revolved around the villain kidnapping Penny's parents in demand of some documents that could extend the average life of a human. I'm usually a fan of books that involves chases after chases, so this was fun for me. The world building, however, left a lot to be desired. Quite frankly it was weak and the little bit that was present was confusing. Ticker's world building definitely needed to be polished further, especially because the steampunk elements were not really explained throughout the book. It definitely needed more meat to make Ticker a more enchanting story.

Overall, while I wasn't entirely impressed by Ticker, I still had a good time reading it. It was a the kind of mindless read that I enjoy reading in between heavier books!

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 3/5




Thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for the e-ARC of Ticker.

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