Reviews

Stormrise by Jillian Boehme

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nicozzy's review

4.0

3.5

The first half of the book was a bit of a struggle. No descriptions at all about the characters or the setting so that was a little off putting. But, hey, at least I didn’t have to read reference after reference about of how beautiful the main character or the love interest were.

vanquishingvolumes's review

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4.0

My heart didn’t know I needed a Mulan retelling, and yet here I am with a full and happy heart. Although different from the Mulan story in some ways, this felt very much like a retelling of Mulan. A young woman who doesn’t fit in with other women her age disguising herself as a man to join the army and prevent her father and twin brother from facing certain death. Throw in some dragons, and you’ve got a compelling story with plenty of action, adventure, and possible romance.

I’m so glad I read this. I never would have if it weren’t for Yawny Studio, an independent business who does Blind Date with A Book packages. I’m so grateful that they sent this book my way!

readingrobin's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

katiehicks's review against another edition

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3.0

This story borrows a lot from established tropes and mythologies, and even has the feeling of some other writers' work- the most prominent example is, I think, Tamora Pierce, as others have pointed out and as the marketing of the book itself shows. But I like those tropes, and I have loved Tamora Pierce’s writing since I was a kid, so I was interested in a book that seemed to be in that same vein. Overall, this book was comforting in that it was very familiar, but it didn’t blow me away.

The dragon lore is a little light and didn’t make a whole lot of sense most of the time (but maybe I just have a bias against intelligent dragons- I think I prefer when they’re just animals) and the characters were a little flat (it seems like the marketing set this book up for failure by comparing the MC to Alanna from Song of the Lioness and Arya from A Song of Ice and Fire, both protagonists with a lot more personality from two much longer series which give them room to grow over time).

I just have a personal grudge against “girl dresses up as a boy to join the army” stories that don’t make her love interest openly bisexual. It seems such an obvious thing, and the fact that there are so many of these stories and so few male bisexual love interests feels very wrong. This story I guess gets points for not making the love interest obviously attracted to her when he thinks she’s a boy and then… just… ignoring that and pretending it’s totally NOT GAY to be attracted to a girl that you think is a boy and he must have subconsciously KNOWN the whole time because there is simply NO OTHER EXPLAINATION. This boy is very straight and only starts showing signs of attraction after he finds out. Which… sigh.. I guess is fine…it just… could be gayer is all I’m saying.

kyera's review

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3.0

I struggled a lot while reading Stormrise because I oscillated between enjoying it, being conflicted about it, and cringing at it. My biggest concern was the fact that the first 40% of the book was an almost direct pull from the plot of Disney’s Mulan. Obviously, there was more detail and more scenes added in – but nomads trying to breach the Stone Wall (instead of the Great Wall), all men being conscripted into the army, the father having been injured in the last war and the daughter taking off in the night so he doesn’t have to go back, the long journey to the camp, the young commander that is really good at his job and his elders respect, the repeated failures to get an item at the top of a rope (instead of a pole) and finally perseverance wins out and she makes it, etc. – if you’re familiar with the Disney version of the story of Mulan than you will wonder if you’re reading a Mulan retelling. It went its own way to a degree for some of the middle of the book and then blended the originality with the ending of Mulan once more. I would have given it more of a pass if it had said it was inspired by Mulan, but with more dragons! Okay, I can be on board for that. I love Mulan and dragons, but this said it was a retelling of Twelfth Night (the only commonality was the crossdressing, the rest of the plot didn’t correlate) so I felt like this was a deception.

That being said, I love Mulan so I enjoyed it despite the fact that I always wondered if it was slightly plagiarized. I really had fun going on the journey with Rain as she trained with her fellow soldiers. The first 40% of the book was incredibly enjoyable, even though as I mentioned before there were some moments when I cringed over the writing quality or descriptions. I still really got absorbed in the book and the story in the beginning. When it started to be more original and follow the plot of Mulan less is when I felt some of my attention waning. There was a lot of time and detail given to scenes that I felt could have been shortened and would have helped with the pacing.

I really appreciated the thought put into the dragons. Even though I wish that there was more world building and lore given, I felt that the dragons were a unique element in this book. They were represented very differently than I feel dragons normally are in literature. The main dragon that we are exposed to in the story has a coat (think fur) and six legs – I appreciated that she took the time to draw more inspiration from Asian depictions of dragons than Western ones, since I feel they are woefully underrepresented in literature. Although I wish we were given more, I do think that the dragon lore was a redeeming element of the book because it was original (to me).

There were no characters that I personally connected with, although I liked Forest the most. That being said, you may find yourself connecting with some of the characters that I did not and enjoy the book more. There was a little character development over the course of the novel, most of which came from Rain (our main character) although it was more telling than showing those changes. Sometimes the new opinions and actions were jarring because they seemed to come out of nowhere. I felt the same way about the romance, I never felt it building it just seemed to have random moments or scenes which felt unjustified and then were cemented without the proper foundation.

Overall, I ended up feeling fairly middle of the road about this book. There were times that I really enjoyed it and others in which I couldn’t put it down fast enough (I don’t want to spoil anyone, so I didn’t talk about those moments). It ended on a satisfying note but mirrored Disney’s Mulan once more. As a result, I felt this book deserved three out of five stars – it had moments when it was enjoyable and others when it wasn’t. I had such high hopes for this because I love dragons and I’m left feeling confused.

hadiqa01's review

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3.0

First few chapters felt like reading Mulan tho it changed a little here and there, but tidbits still similar to Mulan. I like how it ended tho.

ela_35's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I liked this book, but I really need to find more adult retellings.

I liked the plot, although I thought that the beliefs and history of this world could have been explained in a bit more detail.

I liked Rain and how she didn’t let anything stop her. The other boys in her unit could have been really interesting characters, but they weren’t talked about enough and I think that some of them never even said anything. There was one side character that I had a big problem with. Throughout the whole book Sedge is rude, insulting and has disgusting behaviour, but at the end of the book he does one thing right and suddenly everything else was forgotten. I liked the idea of Nuaga, the dragon, but she wasn’t shown much.

There could have been more scenes when Rain was interacting with the others, or when they were training.

The end was fine, but I thought that it could have been longer to show what Rain’s normal life would look like now.