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The Persephone Star is one of those books I read because I was really interested in it from the first minute. I even felt a conection with it, but this review is not about me and my love for books. That's why now I'm mentioning the things I liked about this book: f/f romance + western + feminism, a combination that in The Persephone Star works perfectly and it entertains. It was nearly impossible not to think about the classic Hollywood western films while reading, but the only difference between those classic movies and this book is that in The Persephone Star there's no damsel in distress and the machismo is denounced. Sullivan was able to write a book where this genre is brand new and I love it SO MUCH. She took the western's tropes and cliches and started to change them, exposing the machismo and building badass women that can save themselves. I think it could have been awesome to read about the tribes and the white supremacist, but this book is about empowered women and I also understand why this topics weren't the protagonists. Anyway, I loved Sullivan's work on the western genre and the use of contemporary debates. I loved the romance too, even though I think it was a little love at first sight.
The writing is very simple and tho I liked the characters, I had the feeling that they weren't build very well. It was like, inmersed in the genre and the atmosphere, Sullivan forgot other essential parts of the story. Luckily the book is pretty interesting and the adventure helps you keep reading.
Another three things I didn't like so much: first, the steampunk. The Persephone Star is catalogued as a "steampunk western", but the only steampunk thing was the dirigible. The problem might be in the similar aesthetics between the steampunk and the western, and friendly reminder, the western in this book is so good that I think it overshadowed the other one. I was a little sad about this, because I love steampunk stories and I expected so much more. The second thing was Penelope. It was a okay main character, but more than once I wanted to slap her. She was a little irrational sometimes. The third and last thing I didn't like was the rythm of the story. Everything happened VERY quickly. Not even the reader, the story or the characters have a second to breath and the result is a feeling of void because things are really speed-up. The conflict had a good development, yes, but as I said it was a little speed-up.
But that's it. I liked this book and if you want to read a feminist-sapphic western, pick this book!

A fun, fierce and feminist adventure that features found family, found freedom and a queer romance that will set your heart beating faster.


Set in a wild west with steampunk inspired aspects The Persephone Star follows Penelope Moser from her safe and somewhat mind numbing role of postmistress to the deck of the famed airship, The Persephone Star itself, where she comes face to face with the famous outlaw Mirage Currier.
Throughout her unexpected journey our heroine, a book lover at heart and always sharp-minded, finds herself questioning what the men in her life have always told her is the right and lawful thing to do.

The variety of characters in this book is delightful, we meet women from every kind of background and all with a story to tell.
Mirage stole my heart a little with her quick wit, open mindedness and loyalty to her blood and her found family both.

The plot winds along, never particularly rushing or slowing, the first half of the book is mainly the setup and development of intrigue for the unfolding action in the second half.
The writing is straight forwards and evenly paced and while in a few places felt a little too plain it did not take away from the story itself.
We are given a clear sense of the backdrop and type of world our characters live in even though we do not travel far from the main setting of Fortune town.

All in all an easy and quick read with plenty of wild west shoot-out style action scenes and shady double-dealings as well as interesting characters and heart-warming moments.

3.5 Stars
This was a short but enjoyable read. If you're looking for a fun PG romance and adventure featuring a prim and proper lady and a charming outlaw to while away an afternoon, this is for you. Sullivan has elements of steam punk and the wild west to give the story a nice bit of originality, but if these are not your normal genres, don't fret - they are pretty light without getting into the nitty gritty technical or historical details so if you're not familiar with these genres you won't feel lost or confused.

The focus is on Penelope, the buttoned up and proper post-mistress of Fortuna, and her attempts to prevent a violent confrontation between her fiance sheriff and a ragtag band of outlaws led, by the legendary Mirage Currier, who are bent on revenge for his part in Mirage's sister capture, trial and soon to be execution. As Penelope gets further enmeshed in trying to find the truth of what really happened, the action heats up and lends a good pacing to the novel.

There's a really nice blend of the different elements - the steampunk and western setting, the mystery and action as well as a sweet romance between Penelope and Mirage - and the characters were fun and engaging. Sadly, most of the male characters were jerks - which sometimes made the villains a bit too villainous (and misogynistic ... but hey, it's the wild west), but they were tertiary characters at best with more focus on Mirage's crew and their camaraderie.

I genuinely don't think I've loved an indie f/f novel this much since Rescues and the Rhyssa. Just like in that romp, there are compelling characters, although these are a crew on a floating steampunk ship rather than a space ship.

Penelope Moser is the well to do daughter of Ashes Moser. Wealthy, both of them. And Ashes clearly loves his daughter, but he wants a good marriage for her most of all. Enter Cullen Wiley, the Sheriff of Fortuna, where they all live.

Only one problem: Wiley is... pretty awful. If I have any trigger warnings to give, it's that he's really damned uncomfortable to read. Although he doesn't actually hit her, the violence around his person is incredibly clear, as is the foreshadowing that should they marry, Penelope would become a battered wife. And the kisses he forces on her are none too pretty.

When she gets kidnapped by mistake, it's almost a relief. We come to meet Mirage Currier, a big, bad criminal who Wiley has made his mission to take down again now that she's out of jail.

But the person we meet is Mell Currier, a fairly unassuming woman who just wants to stop her little sister from being hanged for a crime she didn't commit. On board her ship of misfits are multiple women who have been saved from a variety of not particularly nice situations. Saved by Mell Currier.

And she very quickly begins to worm her way into Penelope's affections.

I won't lie, I've been a long time fan of this author's work, and it's an absolute pleasure to see her in print again.

This was a cute, fast read. It was very PG and not particularly slow burn. The characters were really interesting. There was a lot of great world building, character development, and exploration for such a short book. It felt fully realized and was entertaining. My only real complaint is that, for my personal preferences, I wish it had been longer.

I really like the cover. Honestly, and sadly, that's not something I can say often about lesbian books, and while we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, it doesn't hurt.

Post Mistress Penelope is quite an interesting character. Full of so much more than she is offered in her life, and circumstances in Fortuna give her a chance to amount to something more than the fiance of the awful Sheriff Wiley.

This is an enjoyable fiction with a baseline of gentle bravery to take the opportunities presented to you and eat the cake.

I am always looking for new steampunk and The Persephone Star doesn't disappoint. Fascinating world building set in the wild west, fun cast of characters, and a super fast read. I will definitely look for more by Jamie Sullivan.

I’m a fan of steampunk so I was looking forward to this one because they’re usually fun and if done well, they’re fueled by some high charged telling. Unfortunately, I felt let down with The Persephone Star because there isn’t enough substance in the book for me as a reader to sink into the story.

Penelope Moser is out west with her banker father living in a cowpoke town in Arizona. When the dubious local sheriff decides she’s to be his fiancée, she has no say and the decision comes down to a shake of the hands between the two men. Life is boring for everyone until the notorious Mirage Currier and her female gang are released from prison. They circle overhead in their airship and word is out that the criminal is seeking revenge. At this point, the story should have kicked into high gear but it does not and instead, there’s a lot of filler. Also, the trademark gadgetry and the irreverent tone is mostly missing so it’s a very lite steampunk.

I do like the ending where the characters finally have a specific mission. The tempo picks up and the mains start to show their personalities. Although I’m not a big fan of this book, something caught my attention so I’d like to give this author another try.

The Persephone Star was a quick and enjoyable read. Penelope is a postmistress who is engaged to a man she can't stand, but getting kidnapped brings her into a community of women who love and support one other. She becomes more comfortable in their company and finds herself drawn the leader of the crew. Wish it was longer, but I enjoyed the characters and setting. It is a female driven tale of the Wild West with a touch of steampunk and I would recommend it to others!

The Persephone Star is a quick and easy read. Set in the 'wild' west, with steampunk vibes, the story follows the local Postmistress/librarian, Penelope, who is kidnapped by a group of female outlaws. But as one would expect, all is not as it seems with the leader of the outlaws, Mirage Currier.
Unfortunately, I felt this story was driven more by trying to force a story featuring a F/F budding romance than being driven by the plot. It is a decent enough story for a quick read, but there aren't any major points that kept me on edge needing to know what happens next.

"The Persephone Star" by Jamie Sullivan is about the obedient Penelope (26) who is promised to the sheriff of the town as a fiancée. Because of a mix-up she is kidnapped by the everywhere feared outlaws Mirage Currier (24) and her crew.
Penelope has moved with her father to the Wild West to open banks. They have settled in the small town of Fortuna, where Penelope works as a postmistress. Her father has promised the local sheriff his daughter's hand in marriage.
Mirage Currier has a score to settle with the sheriff who put her little sister on death row. Due to a mix-up, Penelope, instead of the Sheriff, is kidnapped on the Persephone Star, the crew's airship.
While reading you are reminded that you should never judge people too quickly and that not everything is as it seems at first sight. Each member of the motley crew had their own motives and motivations to join the life of the outlaws.
The story, which I would count as steampunk, takes place in the Wild West, where the Mirage Currier and her crew move around with their airship.
I really liked the book. The characters had depth, but still it didn't dive too much into the soul life of the individuals. So it was an easy and amusing reading pleasure.

I received a copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I would classify this story as steampunk lite. It would be more accurate to say wild West with Dirigibles. The Persephone Star being said vehicle. I loved the wild West setting combined with a cast of fantastic women who refuse to be treated like property.
The characters of this story were fantastic. Penelope is such a strong and intelligent character even though she spends most of the book accepting her place just because it is all she has ever known. Her intellect, desires, and drive are all ignored by the men in her life. She is like a stick of dynamite just waiting for a match.
Mell and the crew of the Persephone Star are all amazing in their individual ways and each has a different story of breaking free of the box society has placed them in. I loved each of them so much and I can’t wait to see more of them in the future. They are a fantastic found family.
The dialogue was amazing. I loved all the witty banter.
I loved the message of finding yourself and being willing to break the rules to become who you’re meant to be, this is Penelope's journey through that process and it was well written.
Mell and Penelope has such a great connection and they mesh together so perfectly. They had wonderful chemistry and I loved seeing how their relationship grew.
The Persephone Star is a stellar read and I can’t wait the see these badass ladies return to the page.

Jamie Sullivan’s The Persephone Star was an okay read, no high flyer but still entertaining. The setting was mostly Wild West, with the Persephone airship as the Steampunk component. Main theme was a gang of wild women, painted as villains by the men in charge, are trying to break out one of their own out of prison before she gets hanged.

There is a lot of male misogyny in this book, keeping true to the time period I guess, but it still irked me that our heroine, Post Mistress Penelope Moser is so passive throughout the book. Only much later, at the edge of disaster, does she find her strength. The evil fiancé and sheriff of Fortuna was of the moustache twirling variety and I don’t understand her misplaced loyalty to him or her father, to be honest, for they did nothing to earn it.

The ship was cool, although I wondered about the science of keeping it in the air all this time. The family like bond between outlaw Mirage Cutter and her small crew of female misfits was sweet. The plot was a bit thin, the drama thick. So in short, The Persephone Star is entertaining if you don’t want to dig too deep.

f/f the romance part is very PG, a few kisses were shared. Penelope is a lady afterall.

Themes: Fortuna, Wild West meets a tiny bit of Streampunk, a kidnapping gone wrong, sky pirates, all men are evil, ‘little librarian’, wrongly accused.

3.4 Stars

* A free copy was provided by Netgalley and Riptide Publishing for an honest review.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review of the story.

This is a sweet period romance - a bit steampunk, a bit gold rush western.

A young woman is engaged to marry the town sheriff against her will.

A young woman ourlaw flying the western territory in a dirigible while trying to find a way to rescue her sister from the gallows.

The two meet in an unorthodox manner but quickly change each other for the better.

The romance is underscored by the truth of the times - women did as they were told, they didn't think independently, they didn't manage their own lives. Men often confused the law with power.

I enjoyed this book - again, very sweet romance, a bit of suspense- will the sister be saved from the gallows, will justice be served, will love save the day?

I look forward to reading more by this author.

**Big thanks to Riptide Publishing for providing me with an ARC for an honest review!**
3.75* How to describe this book: an F/F sky pirate story set in an Wild West type town? Penelope has followed her father as he moved west from New York, establishing banks in the West. She now works as a postmistress and self-installed librarian. Her father has also agreed to her engagement to the town Sheriff. She lives a life where women are supposed to know their place and allow the men to control their lives. Then, she hears news of a bunch of female-only criminals headed by Mirage Currier. They travel in an airship and can be described as sky pirates. The Sheriff's deepest wish is to kill Mirage and her gang. Penelope found herself kidnapped by the gang and starts to know their backstories. And what do you know, she even finds herself liking them!
This type of heroine meets dashing pirate and falls in love story is not uncommon. I've always found them quite fun to read. Who does not want to live vicariously and go on an adventure with a good-looking rake? The setting here is a bit different with the wild, lawless West but with airships. But, if there's one gripe I have, it's that the resolution came too quickly. It would be a good candidate for a sequel though, letting us get to know Mirage and her crew more deeply.

Wild, wild western… women? Oh yes, folks! She’s the bandita by air ship robbing and pillaging and her crew has just taken hostage a timid librarian- telegraph operator who happens to be more than she seems. I was all in for this female western adventure romance.
Review

The Persephone Star begins with somewhat naive and timid, but sensible and capable postmistress Penelope Moser living her days in a small western town secretly dreading when the wedding with the fiance her banker father chose for her. The virile and blustering sheriff might make every other woman’s heart go pitter pat, but Penelope doesn’t miss his promises that when they are marriaged things are going to change. Her life will be more confined to housekeeping and babies. Penelope dreams of being a librarian and inspiring literacy in the town. She loves her job as the postmistress and telegraph operator. She isn’t unaware that the sheriff plans to keep up his bachelor lifestyle at the saloon with his cronies and the women there. Her father wants her settled and seems to have forgotten that she has a mind that was equal to his own when he talked his banking business with her. Their planned future for her is stifling.

But, then word of Mirage Currier and her Persephone Star are spotted in the next town. The residents of her town are terrified, but the sheriff who put Mirage behind bars and testified against her sister declares it will be a showdown and he’ll gun Mirage and the whole crew of her ship down. Penelope seeks ways to avoid bloodshed in the town, but then she ends up a kidnapped hostage aboard the Persephone Star. A whole new world opens for her in the freedom of the skies with an outlaw crew of women no less. She can’t understand her reaction to the woman known as Mirage at first and then has to decide if she can throw off everything she knows to embrace what she is feeling. But, the crew and captain are faced with the hanging of one of their own and Penelope just might be the only one to find a way through the danger.

The Persephone Star had the elements to make up a good western, but all seen through a feminine lens and a strong female-driven slant. I had the impression it was a steampunk and it is, but only a whiff. Not much alternate history or gadgetry like one usually sees. That didn’t detract from the story, but just took some adjusting in my mind.

Penelope is the sole narrator and it was neat seeing her start out so parched and not seeing herself well to growing and flourishing as she faced each choice and event. She had to deal with a great deal of male braggadocio and chauvinism, but she still wanted to keep everyone safe even the ones who probably didn’t deserve it.

I loved the colorful, eccentric outlaw crew and learning how they came to join together. The time aboard ship was my favorite part of the book.

The big climax was exciting and I loved how the author ratcheted up the tension in the last half.

It was a quick and didn’t spend a long time developing the action and the character relationships, but I don’t want to give the impression that it was devoid of development. It was fun and boisterous and had me wanting to yell with the Persephone Star crew, I am female, hear me roar. Haha! I would recommend this to those who enjoy a sweet sensual f/f western historical romance.

Let me start off by saying that I found this to be a good read. I also was confused in the beginning about what the Persephone Star was and I often found myself wondering was it accurate. I am a little lazy to look it up. Anyway, I found this to read more like scifi (IMHO).

The story is very interesting. Penelope has traveled with her banker father all over the country and have finally settle in Fortuna. She is engaged to marry the town sheriff and all is going fairly well. Except, it seems she really doesn't want to marry the sheriff but her father expects her too and she finds him to be crude. Since the story is told from her perspective we find the backstory of Mirage Currier who has come back to the area to save her sister from the death penalty. The sheriff wants to get his hands on Mirage and the rest of the crew of the Persephone and describes them as being ruthless villains. Penelope tries to find out why the sheriff really dislikes them, but no one wants to tell her the story.

Even though this is classified as a romance, I treat it more as fiction. There is a love connection between Mirage and Penelope once they meet, but that really isn't the focus. The focus is why is Mirage sister in jail and how will she get her out....well there really is a tad bit more on the Penelope side. Anyway, I found this to be a pleasant and fast read. I wish there was more romance and I wish that I had a clearer understanding of the Persephone star and if it was historically accurate.

3.5 stars

3.50 Stars. This was a fun read. A little bit of steampunk and the Wild West made this an entertaining read. After a nasty ice storm left me without power for two days, I was very happy that I had a charged Kindle to help with the boredom. This little read was able to keep my mind off reality for a few hours and that was exactly what I was hoping for.

The story is about Penelope, who followed her father out west to cash in on some of the gold rush with his new bank. Penelope is the local postmistress and librarian, although no one actually reads her books. Penelope doesn’t fit in very well and is biding her time until she must marry the local Sheriff who got her father’s permission for her hand. Penelope’s mundane life is shattered when she hears a band of female airship pirates are out to get her fiancé. Why is Penelope’s fiancé so obsessed with these outlaws and how did a bunch of women become pirates? Penelope needs to find out these answers and more, before it is too late.

This is a 2020 release of this story. It was originally released with a publisher that is no longer with us. I did not read the story when it first came out but it does look to be different. It looks like this used to be a novella, than Sullivan added 30+ pages so it’s now a quick-read full length book. I read a review for the older version and they mention the ending was rushed and that we didn’t get to see this and that. Well this book had all of those things the reviewer was missing so it looks like most if not all of the new content was added to make a non-rushed and satisfying ending. I’m glad I got to read this new version because I enjoyed this ending.

The wlw romance in this book is very PG. Penelope is a 27 tear-old virgin, a “lady” of the times so I’m actually glad that Sullivan kept the romance lighter as anything fast moving would not have been believable. They characters have some chemistry and a little heat, and that worked well enough for me.

While there was a lot in this book about how women were treated and suppressed, the overall storyline had some good feels. This is a story about a bunch of strong women and Penelope who does not know how strong she really can be. It’s not the deepest of stories but it was entertaining and had a good pace. It doesn’t take long to get into the story and once you do, you’ll want to read until the end.

I would recommend this to people who like Wild West stories. There is nothing really groundbreaking here but it was fun and entertaining so I’m glad I read it. I would definitely read another wlw story by Sullivan.

3.5 stars

Note: this is a re-released edition; The Persephone Star is previously released by (the now-defunct) Less Than Three Press. I don't know whether the story has been re-edited or re-written. Assumed that it is not, if you have bought/read the story that it is probably the same one

Penelope Moser has been living her life as a good girl -- she doesn't object much, even when she is betrothed to a man that she doesn't love. Penelope does her job as postmistress well and keeps her head down. The only thing she wants for herself is the library she is trying to build. Until she is kidnapped by the crew of The Persephone Star, said to be a bunch of female criminals lead by one Mirage Currier, who is gunning to release her sister from death sentence.

I think the story is pretty sweet and rather straightforward. I wish there's a little nuance though, because it seems that all the men are bed, and all the crew of the Star misunderstood. But I think it's also makes things easier for Penelope isn't it?

There isn't much time for relationship development between Penelope and Mell Currier, the captain of the ship. Because time is rather pressing with Mell trying to save her sister from being hanged. Still, it's a nice quick read... and Penelope manages to help find justice for Mell's sister and grabs her chance of true happiness.