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eesh25's review
2.0
Will there ever come a day when I randomly check out a review from years ago and don't find a typo?
*****************************
2017 Review
After three days of procrastination, I'm still not out of my review funk (it happens more often than you'd think) but since I've still been reading, the reviews are just piling up. And enough is enough. I'm doing this. Not sure if I'll do it well, though.
Roar is the first Young-Adult Fantasy novel by Cora Carmack. I've read many of her New-Adult, contemporary, romances and she's very good at those. This venture into a different genre, unfortunately, didn't pan out very well. Ironically, it was the fantasy part that wasn't the problem.
The book is set a world where sentient storms ravage the lands. The storms can only be dissipated by those with special abilities, abilities that you must be born with. Aurora (or Roar) is a princess and comes from a line of powerful Stormlings but she doesn't have any power and because of that, she will not be able to protect her kingdom from storms. In order to keep her position as the future queen, she must marry a powerful stormling prince while maintaining the pretense of being a stormling herself, until the wedding.
But when the prince's intentions seem harmful and Roar sees another way to gain the power she wasn't born with, she runs away.
Now right off the bat, there was a problem. You see, if you've read as much YA Fantasy as I have, you would have seen a whole lot of princesses and I, personally, am really fucking sick of them. In fact, I'm taking a break from any book with the word 'princess' in the synopsis. But because I like Cora Carmack, I persisted; despite the unwanted-betrothal trope (because we haven't read enough of those). I even tried to be okay with the female-MC-overhears-guy-saying-bad-shit-behind-her-back scene. I told myself that at least she hadn't run away. That was good, right?
Then... she ran away, because God forbid we have a princess in a YA novel who isn't either lost or running away from her betrothed.
That was the first quarter of the novel and it was bad enough that I almost stopped reading. I continued because the romance was about to start and the author is good with those. Except the romance sucked!
The whole time after she met the male protagonist, Locke, I was waiting for there to be something to root for with them, some connection. There was nothing. They just argued the whole time! And not in a good, love-hate relationship, kind of way but in a had-no-fucking-chemistry kind of way. Part of it was because Locke had the overprotective thing going on, which made him a douche. But even when he was being good, when he changed, Roar still had a problem with everything he said. Their interactions were basically:
Locke: *says something*
Roar:
After a while I started to think if maybe 'triggered' was her natural state. She was unreasonable, stubborn, annoying and completely useless, with a later added case of special snowflake syndrome.
And all of this is so disappointing because the novel has a good prose. Some of the side characters are really interesting and I cared about them more than I did about Roar (if only they were more prominent). The story had potential and the villain was intriguing. The world-building was really good. I could tell that the author had put a lot of thought into it. But the thing is if, to be in this world, I have to put up with Roar and the stupid romance that makes no sense, I don't think I can do it.
In the end, I have a little rant that I wrote about a particular scene while I was read the book. Enjoy!
* * * * * * * * * *
I'm not fond of people force-feeding me feminism. I don't need to be told over and over that women can be awesome just like I don't need to told the same about men. If someone does something good and brave, that's enough. So you can imagine my annoyance at this little conversation:
Now, if the shoving feminism down my throat wasn't bad enough, the dialogue is wrong in other ways too.
For one, his confusion at her having a horse and a good amount of belongings has fuck-all to do with her sex and everything to do with the fact that half the people in her mother's kingdom are paid so poorly that they can barely manage to keep a roof over their heads, much less own a horse and quality weapons.
Then there's the insinuation that anyone who's poor is somehow weak and helpless. As if growing up in a privileged household and never having to work a day in her life was such a chore. As if having a rich mother who provided her with everything, somehow made her better than the people who work themselves ragged just to earn a living. Know what? Fuck you, Roar.
*****************************
2017 Review
After three days of procrastination, I'm still not out of my review funk (it happens more often than you'd think) but since I've still been reading, the reviews are just piling up. And enough is enough. I'm doing this. Not sure if I'll do it well, though.
Roar is the first Young-Adult Fantasy novel by Cora Carmack. I've read many of her New-Adult, contemporary, romances and she's very good at those. This venture into a different genre, unfortunately, didn't pan out very well. Ironically, it was the fantasy part that wasn't the problem.
The book is set a world where sentient storms ravage the lands. The storms can only be dissipated by those with special abilities, abilities that you must be born with. Aurora (or Roar) is a princess and comes from a line of powerful Stormlings but she doesn't have any power and because of that, she will not be able to protect her kingdom from storms. In order to keep her position as the future queen, she must marry a powerful stormling prince while maintaining the pretense of being a stormling herself, until the wedding.
But when the prince's intentions seem harmful and Roar sees another way to gain the power she wasn't born with, she runs away.
Now right off the bat, there was a problem. You see, if you've read as much YA Fantasy as I have, you would have seen a whole lot of princesses and I, personally, am really fucking sick of them. In fact, I'm taking a break from any book with the word 'princess' in the synopsis. But because I like Cora Carmack, I persisted; despite the unwanted-betrothal trope (because we haven't read enough of those). I even tried to be okay with the female-MC-overhears-guy-saying-bad-shit-behind-her-back scene. I told myself that at least she hadn't run away. That was good, right?
Then... she ran away, because God forbid we have a princess in a YA novel who isn't either lost or running away from her betrothed.
That was the first quarter of the novel and it was bad enough that I almost stopped reading. I continued because the romance was about to start and the author is good with those. Except the romance sucked!
The whole time after she met the male protagonist, Locke, I was waiting for there to be something to root for with them, some connection. There was nothing. They just argued the whole time! And not in a good, love-hate relationship, kind of way but in a had-no-fucking-chemistry kind of way. Part of it was because Locke had the overprotective thing going on, which made him a douche. But even when he was being good, when he changed, Roar still had a problem with everything he said. Their interactions were basically:
Locke: *says something*
Roar:
After a while I started to think if maybe 'triggered' was her natural state. She was unreasonable, stubborn, annoying and completely useless, with a later added case of special snowflake syndrome.
And all of this is so disappointing because the novel has a good prose. Some of the side characters are really interesting and I cared about them more than I did about Roar (if only they were more prominent). The story had potential and the villain was intriguing. The world-building was really good. I could tell that the author had put a lot of thought into it. But the thing is if, to be in this world, I have to put up with Roar and the stupid romance that makes no sense, I don't think I can do it.
In the end, I have a little rant that I wrote about a particular scene while I was read the book. Enjoy!
* * * * * * * * * *
I'm not fond of people force-feeding me feminism. I don't need to be told over and over that women can be awesome just like I don't need to told the same about men. If someone does something good and brave, that's enough. So you can imagine my annoyance at this little conversation:
“Where did you get the horse?”
“I didn’t steal her, if that’s what you’re accusing me of.” At least … not really. She was Rora’s.
His jaw clenched. “I didn’t say that.”
“Then why ask?”
“I thought you were—”
“A helpless girl who needed you to rescue her? Did you expect me to show up with nothing but the clothes on my back, needing you for every little thing? While you might have helped me the other night, generally I can take care of myself just fine.”
Now, if the shoving feminism down my throat wasn't bad enough, the dialogue is wrong in other ways too.
For one, his confusion at her having a horse and a good amount of belongings has fuck-all to do with her sex and everything to do with the fact that half the people in her mother's kingdom are paid so poorly that they can barely manage to keep a roof over their heads, much less own a horse and quality weapons.
Then there's the insinuation that anyone who's poor is somehow weak and helpless. As if growing up in a privileged household and never having to work a day in her life was such a chore. As if having a rich mother who provided her with everything, somehow made her better than the people who work themselves ragged just to earn a living. Know what? Fuck you, Roar.
dwon_reads_a_lot's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
booktallie's review
4.0
In a world haunted by intensely violent storms where gifted human use magic to control them, Carmack delivers a compelling and exhilarating story. Roar was a character that readers could connect with, with growth and learning how to be strong on one's own. The romance was AGGRAVATING in a delicious way. I personally can't wait to start Rage, book 2. Thanks Cora Carmack for a great adventure.
hebberelle's review
3.0
AMAZING world building, sadly marred by teenage FEELINGS and overblown villains. Yet another story about the girl who has no special powers and then suddenly is saving the world.
paperbacklass's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Just finished up the magical book "Roar" by Cora Carmack and wow, what an awesome YA novel! This amazing book was filled with lies, secrets, magic, politics and a little slow-burn romance (one pepper of spice), perfect for a teen reader. The world building was wonderful, vivid and easily imaginable. Aurora was a great FMC, who appeared weak, but showed so much strength, all the way to the end of the book. This is truly a book of Aurora's self discovery, but I do hope the next book gives us more on Locke. I would highly recommend this book to teen readers who are looking for a good, fast paced fantasy with elemental magic and adults looking for a sweet, clean romantasy.
mickachoo's review
3.0
So this isn't my favorite book out there and I was sluggish reading it because I wasn't totally enthralled by it. However, that's more because of personal taste regarding the characters and world within this book.
My main put off was Locke's . . . douche-baggery-ness. I don't know how else to put it. One of my favorite tropes is the asshole is really a softy on the inside (enemies to lovers, basically) and blah blah blah but this was not one of those cases where it's done well. First he's nice to her and then he's rude and then he keeps trying to hurt her because "Oh, I'm scared of getting attached and getting hurt" and then he's nice again and then WE START ALL OVER AGAIN. He was just disrespectful of her as a human being and excused it all because he had a hard past. Boo hoo.
I just wasn't here for him. My ship was with Cassius from the beginning but even as the story progressed, he kind of annoyed me too and was also rarely even there.
The second thing that bothered me was how quick Roar was t become this lovestruck girl with no other purpose. It wasn't so much that she was doing it but that the narration kind of disregarded all of her other qualities immediately upon falling for love interest. She was no longer Princess Aurora who was venturing into the world despite a betrothal to try and find a magic she did not possess; she was Roar who belonged to a man and that was that. Roar herself knew she was a powerful, strong character, but the narration and characters were reducing her to nothing but someone a man loved and nothing else mattered. And this only happened at the very end of the book, which somehow irked me more because we had all this character development and it was just dumped for some hot makeout sessions. Nope.
I did, however, like Roar apart from all of that. When Locke wasn't making her out to be some weak baby, she was stubborn and cool. And I liked Cassius enough to hold out hope, and I liked Nova and Jinx. I liked the world (although I could've done with some more structure and details) and the storms/Stormlings/Stormhearts (though, sometimes it was odd) and various other things enough that I do plan to read the sequel when it releases. The powers with the storms and the stormlings was something very unique and interesting to see and I want to see more of it after the ending and how Roar ends up.
I really want to see Roar fight all the bastards with her full potential and show everyone that she's not some weak female and that she is powerful one way another.
My main put off was Locke's . . . douche-baggery-ness. I don't know how else to put it. One of my favorite tropes is the asshole is really a softy on the inside (enemies to lovers, basically) and blah blah blah but this was not one of those cases where it's done well. First he's nice to her and then he's rude and then he keeps trying to hurt her because "Oh, I'm scared of getting attached and getting hurt" and then he's nice again and then WE START ALL OVER AGAIN. He was just disrespectful of her as a human being and excused it all because he had a hard past. Boo hoo.
I just wasn't here for him. My ship was with Cassius from the beginning but even as the story progressed, he kind of annoyed me too and was also rarely even there.
The second thing that bothered me was how quick Roar was t become this lovestruck girl with no other purpose. It wasn't so much that she was doing it but that the narration kind of disregarded all of her other qualities immediately upon falling for love interest. She was no longer Princess Aurora who was venturing into the world despite a betrothal to try and find a magic she did not possess; she was Roar who belonged to a man and that was that. Roar herself knew she was a powerful, strong character, but the narration and characters were reducing her to nothing but someone a man loved and nothing else mattered. And this only happened at the very end of the book, which somehow irked me more because we had all this character development and it was just dumped for some hot makeout sessions. Nope.
I did, however, like Roar apart from all of that. When Locke wasn't making her out to be some weak baby, she was stubborn and cool. And I liked Cassius enough to hold out hope, and I liked Nova and Jinx. I liked the world (although I could've done with some more structure and details) and the storms/Stormlings/Stormhearts (though, sometimes it was odd) and various other things enough that I do plan to read the sequel when it releases. The powers with the storms and the stormlings was something very unique and interesting to see and I want to see more of it after the ending and how Roar ends up.
I really want to see Roar fight all the bastards with her full potential and show everyone that she's not some weak female and that she is powerful one way another.
cmitchell2781's review
5.0
It took me a long time to get into this book. I actually put it down for almost a month before I picked it back up and finished it. I feel like the beginning was rough, I didnt like the introduction to the characters, and I didnt see the need for the strange attraction Aurora felt towards Cassius.
However, once I got passed the first couple chapters and met the hunting crew, I grew more interested in the story. I enjoyed reading Rora's struggle with her emotions as she learned that the world wasnt like her mother had taught her, and I actually really enjoyed the blooming relationship between her and Locke. I would have liked to see more of the fighting/knife skills that the story hinted at her having earlier in the book, but I also understand where they wouldnt be much help in fighting a storm.
Overall, I'm really glad that i picked this book back up and finished it, and now im going to wait impatiently for the sequel to come out, because there were a lot of things left unfinished in this one.
However, once I got passed the first couple chapters and met the hunting crew, I grew more interested in the story. I enjoyed reading Rora's struggle with her emotions as she learned that the world wasnt like her mother had taught her, and I actually really enjoyed the blooming relationship between her and Locke. I would have liked to see more of the fighting/knife skills that the story hinted at her having earlier in the book, but I also understand where they wouldnt be much help in fighting a storm.
Overall, I'm really glad that i picked this book back up and finished it, and now im going to wait impatiently for the sequel to come out, because there were a lot of things left unfinished in this one.