Review – The Mapmaker’s Apprentice
The Mapmaker’s Apprentice is book 2 of the Glass and Steele series. It takes place immediately after the events in the Watchmaker’s Daughter and Oh My God, this book was boring! Definitely Skip it! Even if you like this type of Mystery Romance Historical Fiction, Skip it!
At the very beginning it started with what was practically a recap of the previous book. Almost like “Previously On” on a TV show. Then, it continued with meaningless banter for way too long. And yes, banter is good and fun, but when it goes on and on without a point. Jeez.
Finally, we get to the main mystery of this book, a missing apprentice. But damn, it was so boring the way they investigated it and nothing happened. The whole mystery came together in the very last pages, which were kind of fun to read. I’d say the last quarter of the book was pretty good, but the only reason I made it that far was because I listened to it as an audiobook. If I was reading it, I would have given up way before that.
Now, there were events that happened before the end that seemingly should have peaked the reader’s interest, but they didn’t, and as I thought about it, I figured out why. They didn’t have an impact on the characters. For example, at one point a hooded man with a scar isolated our hero and threatened her to stop the investigation. Pretty exciting, right? Remember, our hero is a woman in Victorian London; this would’ve probably rattle her to her bones. And while we were told that it scared her, what were her reactions? What were the consequences? Did this event give her pause the next time she decided to confront someone she barely knew? Did she hesitate to leave the house? No. not once. And even when she decided to go alone into a dark building at night following a suspect, she didn’t even remember the hooded man.
So, yea. If something happened, but it had no effect on the characters, it didn’t really happen. Skip this one.
