I was given this book in place of an honest review.

Synopsis:

When fifteen-year-old Edna Mather tears an expensive and unfamiliar pocket watch off her little brother's neck, he crumbles into a pile of cogs right before her eyes. Horrified, Edna flees for help, but encounters Ike, a thief who attempts to steal the watch before he realizes what it is: a device to power Coglings—clockwork changelings left in place of stolen children who have been forced to work in factories.

Desperate to rescue her brother, Edna sets off across the kingdom to the hags' swamp, with Ike in tow. There, they learn Coglings are also replacing nobility so the hags can stage a rebellion and rule over humanity. Edna and Ike must stop the revolt, but the populace believes hags are helpful godmothers and healers. No one wants to believe a lowly servant and a thief, especially when Ike has secrets that label them both as traitors.

Together, Edna and Ike must make the ingdom trust them or stop the hags themselves, even if Ike is forced to embrace his dark heritage and Edna must surrender her family.


My review:
This is the third book I've reviewed by Ms. Mierek. And I have enjoyed them all. However 'Cogling' I must admit is now my favorite of hers. This book was just amazing with its storyline, the setting, and the intrigue. I mean throughout this entire book you get thrown into a whirlwind of an adventure. And oh my the things that are revealed at certain times of the book was priceless I mean one minute you find one thing out only to have e another surprise awaiting around the next corner. I seriously cannot wait to read the next book in this series. Thank you Ms. Mierek for letting me review your books for you, and I hope we can continue our relationship for a long time. ( )

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

While Edna is fifteen, she read like a younger person. I also thought the story was more middle grade than young adult. It was not just the writing, but also the story (as in everything was happening very easy and the problems were also solved with considerable ease). This set me back at first, because I was expecting YA.

While I liked certain parts of the story, the main drive felt forced. I never completely got the animosity between the Hags, Ogres and humans and what it all meant. There should have been more explaining about it. In the end, Ike's revelations were too much for me and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

I always try not to be too suspicious, and trust me - I do hope I'm wrong this time - but I find it at least a little bit strange but as I'm writing this review, the ratings for this book on GR are very high (maybe too high). I'm so far (out of 69 ratings on January 24th) the only one with a rating under 4 stars. While I may very well be the odd one out not enjoying this novel so much, it is my experiences that when there are over 10 rating for a book, never everyone is going to like it.
What was bothering me even more about it is that I was contacted a few weeks back by someone claiming to be from the author's 'street team' looking for reviewers for another of her books. I thought this was a bit odd, as usually I'm contacted via Curiosity Quills when they want reviewers, and since the sender also didn't take time to check my profile, which showed that I was already currently reading one of her books and had previously read another one (but as she made no reference to this, I'm quite sure she didn't bother to check), I just kind of ignored the mail.

Now I'm not sure what to think of it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review during this blog tour! ( )

I was offered a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I had trouble getting into this book. That probably says more about my reading preferences than it does about the book itself. I don't normally read YA or fantasy novels, so this is a big departure for me from the kinds of books that tend to appeal to me.
That being said, I read the author's book Escape from Witchwood Hollow and definitely enjoyed it more of the two.

I kept with this story, wanting to make sure I saw it through. I knew there was a moral in the story and I wanted to make sure I found it. Here's the line in the book that I felt summarized the story the most "we are doomed to be born where we are, but we choose where to die".

The lead character is in a poor family, she is a teenager and her brother a young child and they both have to work to help support their family. She occasionally helps as a lady's maid to a rich family. There are also hags and other creatures/people/animals in the background of the story. A hag is like a witch and one day the young boy in the story is stolen by a hag and replaced by a cogling. His sister is smart and quickly realizes that this is not her brother. So, she sets off to find her brother, wherever he may be. She gains help from a young man around her age, who sounds as though he may be homeless.

They set off together to battle the evil and to get her brother back.

In the story you can see how much easier and different life can be for some than for others. With the humans it's more of a division between the rich and the poor and on the other hand there's the difference in life between the humans and the hags.

While the journey may be harder for the poor people that no one is helping, they are struggling to be the best versions of themselves and accomplish what they need to (in this case, getting bag the real boy).
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--Read my full review of the book at seriesousbookreviews.com! Spoiler Free!

I'm a sucker for a good steampunk novel.

I don't really enjoy adventure novels too much; I find them very slow. And this novel was definitely more in that vein. Which is totally fine, I just found that it had its slower parts.

I also think the synopsis is a little misleading and a bit of a spoiler. The whole bit about them impersonating "nobility" doesn't get touched on until later and I think it would have had more of an impact if I didn't know. (Perhaps it did get mentioned earlier and I just missed it...that happens sometimes too.)

But where that mystery is lacking, there are plenty of other great twists along the way. There were definitely some things I never saw coming that kept me reading this story to see how it all played out.

**I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced by my source.**

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!

Full Review: http://wp.me/p7hLUw-1Mb
Actual Rating: 3/5
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Cogling by Jordan Elizabeth is a young adult steampunk fantasy that even old codgers like me would love! I love steampunk, fantasy, magic, creatures of fae, dragons, trolls, and a touch of romance (not too much), adventure, action, mystery, and this book has all of this and more! Wow, I was so surprised at the depth of each character, the wonderful weaving of the plot, and the vivid fantasy. I can't say enough of about this book. It is made for young adults, I think, but anyone that age and older will love it! I hope there is a Cogling 2! Lots of twists, surprises and fun. Great read. I received this book for a honest review and it in no way effected my review or rating, it is just darn great! ( )