Stormi's Review: The Colonel and the Bee by Patrick Canning
APC PUBLISHER: Evolved Publishing RELEASED: June 1, 2018 GENRE: historical, action & Adventure LENGTH: 304 pages FORMAT: ebook, paperback
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A peculiar explorer and downtrodden acrobat span the globe on a building-sized hot air balloon, in search of a precious artifact and the murderous treasure hunter who seeks it.
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Beatrix, a spirited but abused acrobat in a traveling circus, seeks more than her prison-like employment offers. More than anything, she wants to know her place in the world of the halcyon 19th century, a time when the last dark corners of the map were being sketched out and travel still possessed a kind of magic.
One night in Switzerland, the mysterious Colonel James Bacchus attends Beatrix's show. This larger-than-life English gentleman, reputed to have a voracious appetite for female conquests, is most notable for traveling the world in a four-story hot air balloon called The Ox.
Beatrix flees that night to join the Colonel, and the two of them make a narrow escape—Beatrix from her abusive ringleader, the Colonel from a freshly-made cuckold. Beatrix, feeling the Colonel may have the answers to her problems, pledges to help him catch the criminal he seeks in exchange for passage on his magnificent balloon.
The criminal seeks a precious figurine, The Blue Star Sphinx, but he's not alone. The Sphinx's immense value has also drawn the attention of the world's most deadly treasure hunters. A murder in Antwerp begins a path of mystery that leads all the way to the most isolated island on Earth. FOUR BOUNDLESS STARS
Beatrix is a performer in a traveling circus. She is abused and jumps at the chance for escape when the colonel appears on the scene. After a daring escape, for both of them, they find themselves on an adventure of a lifetime chasing a treasure and trying to solve a crime. This book was awesome. It was colorful and detailed. It was heartbreaking and yet fun. It was action-packed from start to finish. Bee is a just a young girl who is in a dangerous place. She is in a harsh environment and freedom is her longing. She was a fantastic character. The colonel is a man of adventure and is full of daring. He rescues a young trapeze artist changing both of their lives. The only thing I found in this book, that wasn't bad, but more of an annoyance was the use of huge words. I spent a lot of time researching what words meant because they are just not ones that you hear or see on a regular basis. This isn't bad, because it helps with building the vocabulary, but in my opinion, it's just a bit of an annoyance and hurts the flow of the story. Other than that I enjoyed this story. It kept me reading and was a fun read.