Bella

by Michael Conley

In an alternate 1800’s America, where magic is real and dragons soar through the skies of the American frontier -my name is Topher. I had a good life, mostly. It wasn't great, but what can a young African girl living at the Edge of the World expect? I had a shack that I shared with my Ma, I knew the vendors I could pocket an apple from, and was better than anyone with a spitshot. Then that chucklehead Wasco rolled out of the mountains like a toppled boulder and dragged me into a whole mess! I figured if I guided him around town, maybe I could pocket a penny or two from him. Before I knew it we were trompin’ around the Blacklands, getting shot at, almost eaten and damn near gutted by some bull-headed dandy! All because someone went and took Bella, and Wasco aimed to get her back.Jacob, who was about the handsomest gunfighter a body could imagine, turned out might be some kind of monster. Old Ying was acting like one of them wizards from the storybooks, and Li had a magic sword!I had been too stubborn not to follow them. Yeah, it had been a good enough life. I just wasn't sure I was going to make it back to it. Or if I wanted to.

185 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 26, 2019

Reviews

[Maggie]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! For transparency, the author is a good friend of mine and I bought it to support him. I don’t really like Westerns in any media, but this was more than a western. It has all the best aspects of many fantasy genres all rolled into one—adventure, magic, steampunk, action. I really cared about the characters and what happened to them. The writing flows smoothly and if I had enough time, I could have read it in one sitting. Highly recommend this book for anyone!

[Dee Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly liked reading Bella.

The positives: It's full of imagination and adventure. I love this world, where every place holds new secrets, and exciting, often magical surprises. Structurally, it's very well thought through and the characters are all well utilized.
The main character, Topher, is a delight to read and her voice makes for an entertaining look at this world.
I also really adore the vocabulary. It contains a lot of your run of the mill vernacular typical for the genre and meshes well with the story and setting.
The book doesn't contain any deep themes and is not supposed to, but rather feels like an opening to a Saturday morning adventure series set in a world I would love to learn more about.

As for the negatives: I'm not sure what audience this book is for, since it contains a lot of crude language and graphic violence, yet the main character is only eight years old. Some of the characters are too stereotypical (e.g. the Asians are very Asian) and apart from the main character, most of the other cast is not very well fleshed out, and I didn't care about them too much. The vocabulary was too complex for an eight year old, so I have to assume the main character is writing this after the fact.

My favourite quote is: "I was too afraid to be afraid."
It made me laugh out loud. There are many more gems I could offer here, but I would rather recommend for you read this book and find them yourself.

[Janet Rybicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. I only bought it as I met Michael thru a dog rescue and wanted to support him and I was a bit curious. Not my genre AT ALL- I thought I’d just get thru it but I could hardly put it down! The imagination needed to write this fascinated me- the characters, locations- all so aptly described that it was easy to have a visual. And I loved the writing. I often laughed out loud as Topher described some scene and her apparent amazement that she lived thru it.
The book ended way too quickly!
An added note- Topher’s comment towards the end of the book, “It was my first real understanding of how little the world cared about our wars and concerns, it just kept going.” was somehow so pertinent- even more so as Michael is a veteran.
I would highly recommend this book and would definitely enjoy a sequel!

[Margaret Gaffney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book! From start to finish I was hooked, and I never knew what elements of fantasy, western, or steampunk might emerge to draw the story together. I finished in only a few days, couldn't put it down. I will admit that there were times the world didn't make complete sense, but that's largely because there is so much of it to understand; I'm sure things will become more clear as the sequel etc comes out. I also would have liked a bit more explanation of Bella's abilities, but again, save some for the popcorn!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm normally not a fan of steampunk, butI really enjoyed this! A quick read because it's so engaging. I found myself quickly invested in the characters. I love action/adventure and fantasy genres--this delved into both. It was also a bit steampunk, which isn't my typical genre of choice, but it really worked here. A great story, and well worth the read.

[Katrina Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun read.