I am at a loss for why this title was put into my “I will not give feedback” section. This is literally one of my all time favorite authors who’s street team I am honored to be on.

I absolutely love this entire series and own multiple copies

Elise kova is such a fantastic author, I fully believe she can write anything. From fae to elves and now we have dragons and steampunk? I loooove it!

As well as a thrilling steampunk inspired fantasy, this book is also filled with mystery and adventure. Ari is such a strong main character, steadfast in her decisions and such a well rounded person. I found the underlying message on being who you are so beautiful.

An excellent start to a brand new exciting series!

This is the first Elise Kova book that I have read and surely, I got hooked. I was initially introduced with Air Awakens but the series was far along and I don't think I could keep up with it anymore. This was so fun to read and will just open your imagination. I took me away from my reading slump! If you love reading fantasy and dragons and heists, this book is for you.

The first thing I noticed while reading this book was the difference between the writing compared to the Air Awakens series. Air Awakens has an easy Air to it (pun intended). The were heavy subjects, but it was easy to read and follow, but with Alchemist of Loom it took me a while to get into this story. But man, when it grabbed me I had to read it in one go.

As a Rivet in the Guild Games I was already partial to Ari, but after reading the book I’m in love with Cvareh and dearest Flor too. Ari and Flor kind of reminded me of Katniss and Prim, the kickass daring sister and the sweet girl. But Ari also reminded me of Caelena from Throne of Glass. As far as Cvaher, I loved him from the beginning. Ari hates dragons and you should be careful with them, but Cva didn’t feel like a bad soul. I was with Flor on that one. Leona on the other hand, I hated her. So much so that I almost didn’t want to read her part, but she still has this Air of vulnerability that pulled me in.

Elise did the smart thing to split the pov in these four characters. It gives another dimension to the story and makes you want to read on. I don’t like the switching in a lot of books, but it worked well here.

I also really love the cover! It draws me in and makes me want to read about this person.
Another interesting thing I picked up on was Elise’s use of Dono and Oji. These are Japanese suffixes for respect and royalty.

This is a very interesting setup for a new series and I cannot wait for part 2! There are still so many questions and I want to see so much more of this new world Elise created.

I love Elise Kova's AIR AWAKENS series so I was excited to check out her adult series, THE ALCHEMISTS OF LOOM. Sadly, I was not able to get into it like I did the AIR AWAKENS series and did not enjoy it as much. I'll plan on sticking to her YA novels as I just don't think that adult steampunk is for me.

Will no longer be reading or reviewing this book due to lack of interest in the title, and the fact that the title has been archived.

I loved the magic system and the story itself as an interesting mix of steampunk and fantasy. Sadly I guessed a few plottwists which made the book not as surprising as I wished it to be. The first 20 percent were quite slow and I noticed that I didn't always get the written language which made me read some pages a few times. This was probably because english isn't my first language but still was a little issue for me since I read this book much more slowly than expected. It is still a good story with interesting background and I am hopeful for the next installments in the series.

A fun series! Really noticed how much the authors writing grew in this book! Would recommend to any fantasy fan.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I have lost interest in the title, partly due to trusted reviews, and will not be reviewing the title. I have, however, promoed the title through my weekly recap with links to Amazon. Thank you again, and I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

I received an Advance Reader Copy at no cost from the publisher/author.

This review MAY contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

I admit to being a little nervous before reading this. Elise Kova's Air Awakens series was her first series, and it holds such a special place in my heart. I feared that because of Kova's change from young adult fantasy fiction to adult fantasy fiction with this series that I would somehow not get the same spark that I got with her first series. I feared for naught. That spark was there and more. Go ahead and declare me a phoenix because I feel like that spark will continue to delight me and then make me reborn with everything that Kova writes.

If you are familiar with Kova's young adult books, the first thing that you may notice is the different feel of this book. I definitely felt it. It was something new and curious and absolutely enchanting. This series really is adult fiction....and what is this...I like it! A lot! I am a woman in my early thirties that reads primarily young adult fiction. I love it, so I read it. (No matter how much my husband teases me. =P) I have always wanted to branch out more and read more adult titles, but I hardly ever do. At least not as much as I would like to. This book really opened my eyes to the plethora of possibilities out there in fantasy fiction. I have been limiting myself to mostly young adult, but I could be experiencing so many more epic stories. So that fear that I was talking about in the first paragraph...it's gone! I now embrace adult fantasy fiction.

One of the things that made the adult label stand out more to me is the incredible world building. I mean, really, this world building is boss. I admit that I had to reread the first chapter three or more times before I felt like I could go on because there is so much world building to grasp on to before moving forward. Once I got that first chapter down and got used to it, I was golden. The world building just flowed off the page after that. And it is so impressive. I love the dragon and chimera aspect. The dragons have magic and different kinds of magic is housed in different organs. So there is a black market organ trade for dragon parts. The dragon blood and organs also help them to refine metal with magic in it. It's really complex. So not only can you buy dragon organs and have them implanted inside you so that you can have magic, but you can also have magic objects made from gold- which is made from dragon blood/organs. The emergence of dragons has really made this steampunk world evolve. It's amazing. And the distinction between the different races is so well written. The way they dress, their names, the dragon hierarchies, the way that dragons challenge one another to gain rank in society, the guilds and the way that the Fenthri are made to wear their guild tattoos on their faces. Everything is so perfect in the world building and so completely original.

The writing itself is magical. I was invested in the story from the very beginning. I love the way that Kova grabs your attention and keeps it honed in on the story. This book seems more fast-paced than her other books, but it certainly doesn't lack anything for it. The writing is beautifully constructed.

These characters had to grow on me a little, but in the end, I loved them. The way that Kova writes her characters is incredible. You get to know them right from the start and it keeps building up as the story progresses. There are small details about their pasts or their personalities that all adds up. The relationships that are formed by the characters as the story goes on is amazing too. There are so many emotions and Kova makes you feel all of them along the way. The way that the characters come together and learn to trust one another is invigorating. I especially loved how Ari and Cvareh come together in the end.

There was not really much romance in the book, but I actually didn't like the book any less for it. Which is rare for me. Normally without some romance, I won't like a book at all. But I think that the way Ari and Cvareh go from hating one another to trusting one another to pretty much being friends was such a journey. It really felt like the start of what could potentially be romance, and it was awesome! I have high hopes for Ari and Cvareh in this series. I may be wrong, but grinding gears it feels so right!

Overall, this is another epically fantastic release from Elise Kova. She has proven that she isn't tied down to a single genre and can conquer the mountain of any genre he brilliant little mind can conjure a story from. I really am so impressed! I recommend this book for any fans of Kova's previous works, and anyone that loves a good fantasy story. I think that steampunk fans will love it as well! This is another home run for you, Elise. Congratulations!

So good! As soon as I finished, I ran out and bought a copy!

If you know me, you know i love elise and her air awakening series is my fave i was so happy and anticipating reading this new series but it fell short in keeping me reading. Granted at the time i was in a slump but i still gave the book chances, the premise and plot is up my alley. I don't know i'm just not rushing to try and read again maybe sometime in the future.

I really fell in love with this book! I'm not usually a big fan of steampunk but the writing and the world and the characters completely drew me into the story, and they didn't let go!

Let's start with the writing :) Elise Kova gave the perfect balance of description and action. I thought the pacing was good, the multiple POVs were handled excellently, and the slow unveiling of the complex society worked really well. I never felt lost but I also never felt overwhelmed with facts.

The world, wow, the world--what a creative idea! The dragons live in the colorful vibrant world above, and the Fenthri live in this smokey steampunk world below. The powers at times reminded me a little of one of my favorite fantasy epics, Mistborn, and I mean that in the best way possible, since gold and metal and alchemy were so important. But the whole idea of the chimera, and the way the dragons fly between the worlds, and the different guilds--I loved it all!

Now, finally, the characters! Ari and Cvareh, I adored their journey from hatred to mutual understand to the hint of something more in the next book. And the side characters all had their own arcs and stories. Nothing felt flat or one dimensional.

All in all, a wonderful book and I can't wait to continue the series!!

I'm sorry I didn't like this. I DNFed pretty early on.

I loved the steampunk, fantasy sci fi influence in this book. This author has a knack for creating interesting diverse characters and painting a detailed environment. I love the worlds in this book and I'm looking forward to the next chapter in this story.

Elise Kova's The Alchemists of Loom follows Ari after the five guilds fall to the Dragon King. She meets Cvareh, who is wounded, and she thinks she can kill him off as some kind of revenge, but she decides not to when she learns he can grant her the boon she wants if she takes him to the Alchemists of Loom.

Premise of this is amazing and right up my alley, but something about it fell short for me. Most of it has to do with the fact that we're thrown in media res without much explanation or world building. We're just supposed to piece it together with the help of a glossary in the back (which one might not know about if one's reading a digital copy) or through hints made throughout the story. I don't mind it if a world is built as sort of an unfolding, but this was like opening up a single folded sheet of paper. You open it and it's all there like glitter and you're supposed to keep it all together while trying not to let it spill everywhere. It took me to get about halfway through the book until I felt familiar enough with the world and the characters and the rest of the details to start enjoying the book. I kept reading only because I wanted to know what Cvareh would do.

This book falls under the steampunk fantasy variety and features an indistinct world in which everything happens. There are five guilds with distinct practices, a Dragon king (and I was a little bit disappointed to discover they weren't actually dragons), shady characters, some light romance that felt entirely forced (oh yes the main girl and the main guy argue all the time and clash all the time so of course they'll automatically like each other).

Ari reminded me a lot of Celaena in Maas's Throne of Glass series before she became Aelin, and Ari in this novel is a well-known criminal with an intent to restore Loom to its former glory before the Dragons took over. Her motive is unclear though, and I don't really find a connection or sympathy to a character who has a mission. She is unyielding to that mission, but she has no clear motive for what she does, just that things must be made right. Okay? But why? Her sidekick/lover/girlfriend/??? Florence is more interesting and believable than Ari. Cvareh is the trickster sort of character who seems to flip flop between wanting to save himself, work for the Dragons, or help Ari, and the most interesting twists of the story seem to come from his actions.

The story's action moves at a brisk pace, and I enjoyed that about the book. I just wish I had a bit more of Ari's backstory to connect her motive with her actions and reactions because a lot of Ari's life and relationships read completely unclear. I am going to see what the reviews are for the second one to gauge reactions to what happens next before I pick it up, but I hope it focuses more on Cvareh's side of things!

Overall, it's an enjoyable fantasy if someone's ready to take a step up from "YA" fantasy and try something new.

DNF at 46%

The Alchemists of Loom has honestly been this on-again and off again read for me. I've picked it up and dropped it several times when I realized that I was just forcing myself to read it and not at all liking what I was reading. The way we were introduced to the world was kind of abrupt - What are the Guilds? What was the world like before the Dragons?

What are Dragons exactly? They say dragons "landed" but they look human? But more colourful? And a corona is something like a shield? I was sort of lost, and the book was dragging. I almost reached 50% of the book before I decided to DNF and during HALF of the book almost nothing but snapping betweet Ari and Cvareh occured and Cvareh being silly and unable to control himself after a single comment against his house.

I feel horrible DNF'ing titles, and I RARELY ever do it, but I'm just not enjoying reading this book, even a bit, and so I'm afraid I have to.

Steampunk isn't one of my favorite genres, but it might just become one if all books are just like this one. I've heard a lot of great things about Kova's books, and I've decided to give this one a try.

There's something incredibly magical about this book, and it's truly amazing to experience. First of all, the world of Loom is really interesting, with steampunk themes blending perfectly with fantasy, in a way I hadn't quite imagined. There's magic, dragons, and technology that, strangely, work just fine together. The world itself is really complex, with a lot of stuff to understand, and a lot of stuff that I didn't quite understood at first. I kind of felt a lot like Cvareh, being thrown into an unknown world and trying to understand it. At times that proved a bit difficult, especially since there's a lot of stuff that we don't know about what happened in the bast, way before the events in the book started.

I also liked having the book told from different POVs. It helped show a bigger picture than what one side would have shown, and I loved that we got even the villain's side of things.

Ari was a really interesting heroine. She is definitely not an easy person to understand, or even like. She has a lot of secrets, and the more I read about her, the more intrigued I became. I wonder if in the future we'll get to fully know who Ari is, what her motives for hating the dragons are, and if she'll get some kind of closure. But I did respect her, to be really honest, because as cold as she wanted others to see her as, she was truly loyal to her friend, even though that put her in a lot of danger.

Florence was one character that I loved from the very start. She was witty, funny, and kind of impossible to resist. I can understand why Ari wanted to protect her at all costs and why she rescued her when she did. I also liked that even though Florence had a pureness and tenderness that made her seem soft and breakable, she found it in herself to make the hard decisions, even though she was truly scared of the outcome.

Cvareh was the character that, much like Ari, was interesting, but it took me a while to understand. I still feel like there's a lot about him that we don't know, that he's keeping a lot of things about himself hidden, and I'm curious how that will work out in the next book. But as I said, having different POVs in this book made it difficult to decide which side of the war to sympathize with, because contrary to what Ari believes, Cvareh didn't seem so bad.

The more I read, the more I understood why I had so many people urging me to read Kova's works, mainly because she managed to get me to like a story in a genre that I don't normally connect with. The only thing I would have wanted was to have more background information, to maybe understand how to navigate the world of Loom better, but all in all this book was a great series-started, and I'll definitely read the next book in the series.

I've been wanting to try Elise Kova's work since I started seeing Air Awakens around the blogosphere, so when the opportunity came up to review her newest release, The Alchemists of Loom, I jumped at the chance. Just read the summary and look at that cover (plus, all of that advance praise) - how could anyone resist. I wasn't one hundred percent sure of what to expect since I hadn't read Ms. Kova's work before, but I was really hyping it up in my mind. And, happily, it fully lived up to the hype for me! I found myself fully invested in the world and the cast of characters.

The world and characters of Loom, and Nova, that Elise Kova has created is incredibly rich with a complex history. It's in the epic fantasy vein, but with a healthy dose of steampunk elements. The Fenthri of Loom, usually squat in size and ashy in color, don't have magic like their Dragon overlords from the city of Nova above the clouds. Instead, they engineer and experiment with technology. The Dragons are seemingly the opposite of their Loom counterparts with their bright colors, lanky frames, and magical abilities. They, aka the Dragon King, control Loom and have brutally imposed their will on Fenthri society and how their Guilds operate. They can also fly, but not in they way you would expect. There are also people called Chimera. Chimera are Fenthri who have needed to receive Dragon parts, organs, and/ or blood to survive and as a result can access Dragon magic. Essentially, the citizens of Loom are slaves of the Dragons.

All of that's just a quick overview, but you can see how unique and complicated things are right from the beginning. Like I mentioned before, I was absolutely taken in by all of this and I couldn't help but want to know more about this unique land. Of course, it takes a bit to get things straight, but it never becomes overwhelming. Although, we're set loose in the middle of this place, I found myself fairly quickly able to get my balance. A good deal of that has to do with the characters populating this realm.

This novel features several perspective characters - mainly Arianna, Florence, and Cvareh - a Chimera, a Fenthri, and a Dragon, respectively. Each are quite different and we get a very good idea of how the Kova's world works through their interactions - primarily between Arianna and Cvareh. While Ari hates Dragons, she comes to learn that she and Cvareh have a little more in common than she would have thought possible. I also particularly liked reading about the friendship between Ari and Florence. Florence is pretty great, by the way, she works as a Revolver making weapons for Ari. Basically, Florence really gets a kick out of blowing things up.

Overall, The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova is an amazingly creative and imaginative steampunk fantasy that comes highly recommended from me. It's fast-paced and action-packed with complex world-building, plenty of magic, and a great central female friendship. I think you'll also like this novel if you're a fan of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I, for one, can't wait for the sequel, The Dragons of Nova - and I'll need to pick up Air Awakens as soon as possible.