***I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review***

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I really liked this book. I just wish the cover was better / different, because it does no justice to the exciting story held within. Rhoades and Rutledge craft a fun story with a wide variety of deeply complicated characters that all feel whole and complete, like if I were to bring Vasili’s mother or the innkeeper aside to have a chat, they’d be able to without floundering for words. The authors created a well thought out steampunk-esque adventure without needlessly throwing cogs and gears everywhere. The flying airships fit the world perfectly, and I never felt like the world didn’t make sense. And while that was a lot of fun, the shining note on this book are the characters.

Ticker is about a girl with a mechanical heart, a device she did not want but needed in order to live. Now, in order to keep alive, she needs an upgrade to her "ticker" and the only one who can do that is a mass murderer. It's an interesting dilemma! What would you do if the only way to stay alive was to go with a brilliant, but delusional murder and let him operate on you knowing that he killed dozens in order to perfect the technology?  Would you willingly go with him after he kidnapped your family and threatened to bring down the society around you? It's a brilliant premise, but the book could never really deliver on that grand idea.