"How can I own something that flies and is free?"

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warnings: attempted rape, including a scene in the head of the intended rapist as he imagines himself forcing himself on the victim. (Both were non-descriptive, but they are still very obvious.)

The rapist is also absolved of wrong-doing because he was under the influence of magic and was "too simple" to know that rape was wrong.

"Did I, a child still, deserve to bear such an assault from a creature too simple to know what he'd done?"

I just... no, no, no, no, and again, no.

This is marketed as a steampunk retelling of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. I have no knowledge of 'The Tempest' but the plot sounded intriguing and for the first few chapters, I thought I was really going to enjoy this one. However, from that point, the only two emotions I felt while reading were confusion and discomfort. The plot feels rushed, yet nothing seems to happen. The characters all felt extremely empty, and, oftentimes, came off as caricatures of a stereotype. The setting is confusing, and the steampunk elements are all-but nonexistent. And while I believe the author's intentions must have been in the right place, the rep for mental illness and the female body were, in my opinion, both distasteful and potentially harmful.

The story had potential, and perhaps I would have felt differently about it had I known more about the original story but overall, it wasn't for me.