Steel Victory by J.L. Gribble

If I had seen this one in the store, I would have passed it up.  In fact, it's been in my 'to do' pile for about half a year and I kept talking myself out of reading it.  The book cover isn't inviting and the title doesn't hold enough appeal to make up for the cover.  I really didn't give this one a fair shake, and now I wish I had.

Right away I was pulled in by a wonderful escape attempt.  We have elves and vampires and flobbits!  Alright, there aren't really flobbits, but there should have been.  Everybody loves a good flobbit.  We have political issues that aren't boring and dull!  We have military action that didn't make me want to scratch my eyes out!  We have cunning, surprise villains!  We have villains out in the open that we're allowed to despise!

Our main characters live in a town that was created for equality of all species, human and non-human.  It's a safe zone between the Roman Empire and the British Empire.  Of course, there are gonna be haters.  Even though this book was published before all of the craziness going on in today's media, throughout the book I kept wanting to raise my fist in the air and yell #alllivesmatter!  Yes, I wanted to yell out the hashtag.  But, the point is that we have this peaceful town and some amazing conflict going on.

Gribble's writing was a surprise too.  For being a novice writer, but a seasoned editor, she has a really great flow.  There are a couple of clunky parts, but not enough that it's noticeable.  It's easy to get lost in this one.

I enjoyed this one so much that I've already added the sequel, Steel Magic, to my 'to buy' list.  It's a quick and easy read that kept me entertained.  I really couldn't find any faults with it.