B.J. SikesRezensionen

While there are moments during this book where I felt entertained and I enjoyed the setup (including the ending which, at least, felt extremely satisfying), I can't say that I enjoyed this book as a whole. It starts off with sentences that are short in a way that is jarring to read, and overdescriptive prose that feels unnecessary and as if it is padding, and from there it doesn't really improve. The concept/idea for the story is excellent but it falls apart in the execution. At several moments it feels as if the wrong story is being told or attention is being paid to irrelevant details, and the action doesn't really kick off until quite late in the book which is not where it should be seen. It definitely has an issue with pacing that takes away from the immersive feeling.

That being said, it is not a bad story. The author picked an excellent option for the point of view character, and has some great ideas for the plotline and premise that I think could have warranted from further exploration. I love the Victorian setting and some of the descriptions were not as overdescriptive as others, leading to a more vibrant and engaging description of the world and the people that were inhabiting it. The characters were excellent choices and I think the author did well with characterisation. I just don't felt like it fully delivered what I was expecting from the synopsis of the story.

This historical and culty novel is set in the early 20th century and gives us a unique peek into the life of that age. It concerns a long-separated family from England, the father of which has been working in a cult on a sparsely populated tropical island. When he his wife, Clara, and two children to join him, our story begins.
Clara is a somewhat scattered mother, and her kids often seem to understand more of their new home better than does she. She feels she is psychic and wholly immerses herself in the community, despite receiving a less than warm welcome from her husband and the other cult members.
The cult is formed around a secret is all I can say without giving away the story.
I wanted to love this book, but I instead found a lot missing from it. We never really find out too much about the cult and its workings. We meet some island natives, but feel that story, too, is half told. We don’t really meet too many of the cult members or understand their entire reasoning for compliance. The husband has what may be an interesting story, but we hear too little of it to really understand him.
All in all, this should have gone one of two ways; it would have made a great short story if it took out a lot of the detail about the trip to the island less consequential parts. Or, it may have made a better novel had it actually added some of the detail I mentioned .
Easy to say, I suppose!
Anyway, I grade this one average. It’s good enough to get enjoyment from finishing, and it has a satisfying ending. However, it may raise more questions than it answers, and I feel it just misses in a lot of places.

The Cultist's Wife was a creepy, gothic story taking place in the Bahamas early 1900s. I don't usually like the horror genre but I enjoyed this book and didnt find it *too* scary for me. Mainly it features the horrors that people (in this case a remote sect of creepy white people on a small island in the Bahamas) inflict upon each other for power and the hope of immortality.

The main players are a 2 children and a mother from England who are called to join the family patriarch in the Bahamas, suddenly and without explaination. As a mother, I found Clara's treatment of her children difficult to empathize with. As a women, I do empathize with her inability to shape her own life and decide for herself whether to become a mother. Elsie is young, rambunctious and I loved her. Reggie is adorable and so sweet.

I enjoyed veing introduced to some new players from Caribbean mythology, like the Lusca. What's not to love about an octopus-shark?!

Definitely worth the read! I received an arc and happily wrote this review.

I received a copy of this ebook as part of Library Thing Early Reviewers.
It did take me ages to get to this as I had not realized it was a sequel when I requested it and I am a completionist who also feels a need to consume media in the proper order. After finally sourcing the first book in series for myself, I reviewed it thusly:
"Steampunk adjacent versailles focusing on artists mostly. The most interesting parts were the world building but for fans of true steampunk this novel may feel a bit light.
Read this book mostly because I was given a copy of the sequel to review and I am conceptually opposed to reading sequels before experiencing the original"
I will say I enjoyed the sequel more than I enjoyed the original, but the world building remains the most intriguing part. Some characters could have benefited from a bit more backstory and fleshing out. A compelling read though and quite enjoyable. 3 stars

The Cultist's Wife is primarily set in The Bahamas in 1908. Clara lives unhappily in Bath, England with her parents and two children while her husband, who she hates, has been away, ostensibly working for the British government, for the past five years. Her life is tossed into upheaval when her husband demands she and the children join him in The Bahamas. The reader will not be surprised that he is a member of a cult and only wants her for her fortune and for her children.

The story's perspective switches between Clara, her daughter Elsie, and Irene, a local woman who makes a longevity potion for which the cultists pay very well. The three intersect throughout the story with all three working together at the end.

The story is very readable and moves smoothly. However, the title sets the expectations a little too much, so there's no great surprise when Clara (and the readers) arrive at the compound where he husband lives.

I won this book in a giveaway. I wanted to really give this book a chance but after about 25% of the way through, I realized I was slogging and forcing myself to read it. The shift between Clara's perspective, Elsie's perspective, Irene's perspective, etc. etc. --- I'm sure it'll all come together but the pacing of the story and the prose became tedious to read.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't stop. The interwoven stories of the characters create a rich and interesting narrative about responsibility, control, and family.

Clara and her children are called to the Bahamas, where her husband has been working for the past five years. Rather than the comfortable home they expect to find, the family is brought to a compound intent on finding spiritual enlightenment, lead by a cruel eyed man. Meanwhile Irene, a resident of the island, hopes to make a better life for her family by selling a potion to the compound's inner circle. As she gets to know Clara's children and learns the secrets of the compound she begins to wonder if her actions are enabling the compounds crimes.

I enjoyed the interweaving of the stories. Clara's struggle to find control in her own life, Elsie's resourcefulness and care for her younger brother, and Irene's strong will and leadership. All the characters had their own motivations and value which made for a colorful cast. I did wish there was more on the spiritualist powers that Elsie and Clara seem to have. While it came into the story at times, I felt that it could have used some more explanation. That said the novel is a nice quick read, with a satisfying ending, and wonderful prose.

I enjoyed the dramatic styling in this book. I think there are places that things could have been more flushed out and others that were too verbose. I really felt for the children as the mother of the 1900s was NOT what we consider very mothering in today's society, but probably very realistic for an upper class mother of that era.

Steampunk adjacent versailles focusing on artists mostly. The most interesting parts were the world building but for fans of true steampunk this novel may feel a bit light.
Read this book mostly because I was given a copy of the sequel to review and I am conceptually opposed to reading sequels before experiencing the original

3.75 // Starting off, this is certainly a unique and interesting story. It takes place in the early 1900s; a mother and two children are called to a remote island by her husband who has been there for several years under the guise of work. Clara (mother) appears to have some psychic abilities, though the extent of them wasn’t very fleshed out.

“The child had reached the age when the spirit world opened to her”

They arrive on the island and later realize that nothing they had heard about the island was true. As you can tell from the title, the island is home to a small cult that relies on medicinal herbs from the indigenous islanders. The bulk of the story details her and her children’s experiences in the cult and her fading trust in her husband and peers.

I found the beginning to be quite slow but the last half went by so quickly, I got through it in one read. The book takes on several perspectives, most commonly Clara and her daughter. I struggled initially with the shifting perspectives as I couldn’t tell whether Clara and Elsie’s chapters were occurring simultaneously or chronologically. It became more clear as the book went on.

I liked the pace of the book and it definitely could have been drawn out more as there were so many details and potential plot points to draw from. But I appreciated the brevity. At times the conversations between characters felt dull, probably accurate for the 1900s, but not the best reading. We could grasp some aspects of the cult including the hierarchy, mechanism of control, punishments, etc. I think it could have been fleshed out a little more, like what brought these people here; why hasn’t anyone tried to leave, what happens if they leave etc. The book alludes to various practices like sedation, abuse, starvation, and “physical degradation.” Later on there are references to blood letting which I didn’t fully understand until quite literally the very end. Basically this cult isn’t supposed to be conniving, they’re all just dumb, high, lunatics who think they’ve figured out the secrets to life. I think ward’s motives weren’t entirely clear either. Like obviously his main goal was clear and he was a nasty evil dude. I just assumed he wanted all of those members for their money, but there could have been another underlying psychological reason.

The ending was very action-packed and had me really feeling for the characters, where in the beginning I found them cold and not relatable. The very end of the book felt a little too easy, but it felt satisfying. I don’t like when books try to wrap up all the loose ends - it just makes the end long and too idealistic. The ending was at the right point and vague enough that it wasn’t overdoing it. I liked that we saw the final scene from the main characters point of view; they had one singular goal and the rest of the “loose ends” didn’t matter to them or the reader.

I could definitely see this being a horror-ish movie, maybe like a Jordan peele style. Overall I think the story was great but I felt that I didn’t understand the characters as well as I should have.

I was given an advanced reader’s copy for review.

I found myself completely captivated by the characters and storytelling in THE ARCHIMEDEAN HEART. Set in an alternative Paris in the late 1800s, there is much unrest politically due to the conflict between Scientists, who have adapted robots and other machines to control the weather, saving France from starvation by creating a favorable climate, and have advanced prosthetics to the point humans can be altered to be almost entirely robot, and the Naturalists, who are against this and think it is creepy. Henri and John are half-brothers and both artists and Naturalists. I actually read book two in the series first as I came upon it first as an ARC read and I loved how this book focused even more on their story. There’s a strong sense of suspicion and danger throughout the book, where even talking about the wish for a different France is treasonous, and the author writes that well. John is summoned to paint a very special portrait, and this causes him to discover an important truth about someone in power, and also to meet Marie-Ange, a courtier he falls in love with despite their difference in social station. I loved the star crossed lover storyline, set against the rising revolution within Paris, as Henri is set on an assignment of his own involving talented scientist Dr. Adelaide Coumadin (I loved her in this book, too.) These characters are amazing. I flew through this book, eating up every word and I can’t wait to see what BJ Sikes writes next! 5/5 stars.

I LOVED The Vitruvian Mask. This was a book where I was sucked right in to the story from page one and just binge read. So good! Adelaide Coumain is a roboticist and scientist working in historical France during a time when the Naturalists are persecuting scientists. I loved the steampunk vibe of this book! She’s also about to give birth, and won’t reveal the father of her baby. Henri is an artist and Naturalist, and he and his brother John have been living in exile in England for the past year. We slowly learn more of their story and why they were in exile and how they and Adelaide are connected over the course of the book. Adelaide eventually comes to stay at a hospital and to work with veteran soldiers in need of mechanical adjustments to their robotic prosthetic limbs. I really loved what a strong character she was portrayed as. There are some neat surprises and twists in store all the way to the end in this one. Highly enjoyed it! 5/5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC copy of this book from the author for review purposes.