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Everley Donovan was the only survivor when the rest of her family was killed by her father’s exploration partner. She has only been alive the past 10 years because of a clockwork heart that her uncle made for her. Since then, she’s lived with her uncle in his clock shop. She has been waiting to use her father’s beautiful sword to get revenge on Governor Killian Markham, and she sees her opportunity when Markham comes into the clock shop to get an instrument to take on another expedition to the legendary Dagger Island. Of course, she doesn’t get to kill him there in the clock shop, but she decides to find him that night along the docks before the ship sets off for the island that’s known for being cursed but which her land’s queen wants to colonize, using prisoners.
As one thing leads to another that fateful night, Everley ends up on the voyage, a prisoner destined to help settle the island. She finds out just how dangerous it is even as she learns more about the true identity of her adversary — and that the stories that have been passed down for centuries about a princess trapped in time and the prince cursed to be separated from her may not just be fairy tales.
Everley herself feels she’s been living on stolen time, but time may actually be her ally as she and her shipmates try to save their world and others from a person bent on destruction.
Before the Broken Star is a story that combines elements of fantasy and fairy tales with a tiny touch of steampunk and a little romance. It all works together fairly well. I enjoyed it well enough that I’ll read the next book.
Rated: Mild. There is no bad language; sexual content is limited to a little kissing and references to women who work as “streetwalkers” and duel with each other at night. There are a few references, put fairly delicately, to a young woman being raped before her death, and one instance of a girl facing a possible rape but being spared. Violence is somewhat regular but not gory.
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