Review: The Kiss of the Spindle

In The Kiss of the Spindle Nancy Campbell Allen gives the reader a delightful Sleeping Beauty tale with a steampunk twist. Our heroine, Dr. Isla Cooper, has been cursed by a powerful witch so that she goes into a deep, nearly dead, sleep at the stroke of midnight each evening and cannot wake for six hours. The curse will end after a year…with her never waking up at all. As the year mark draws near, Isla’s on a quest to track down the witch, who is the only one who can reverse the curse, to a Caribbean island. To gain transportation from England, she blackmails shipping magnet Daniel Pickett to take her along on his airship (yes, this is steampunk!) to the island. Unbeknownst to her, Pickett is secretly transporting illegal shapeshifters who can be free in the Caribbean. And Nigel Crowe, a government official who wants to eradicate shapeshifters, forces himself along for the ride, too. Isla, who is an empath for shapeshifters, and Daniel join forces to protect the shapeshifters from Crowe. And Daniel pledges to help Isla on her quest for survival. Packed in between all that drama, a sweet romance (read: no explicit scenes) emerges between Isla and Daniel. I’m not a huge steampunk fan, but Nancy Campbell Allen’s world is wonderfully developed, and she has a knack for developing the relationships amongst her characters. A fun, quick read!

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