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A review by chroniclesofabookreader
Stormrise by Jillian Boehme
4.0
Stormrise was an intriguing character-driven tale with a young woman hiding her gender to replace her brother in the war. Boehme did a fantastic job with constructing a realistic heroine that toed the line between having the gumption it took to make this dangerous life choice and the inability to always keep up her facade. The build up to battle and the growth given to its characters in that time led to a story I couldn't put down.
There was such realism in Rain's journey and I admired that the millisecond it took to make this life-changing decision didn't automatically make her path easy. Her struggles to maintain her persona and to fit in contrasted well with her unmatched fighting skill, and that war of opposites along with her spirited heart made her believable and the great character that she was. Every obstacle was met with resourcefulness and while it was never easy, she always found it within herself to push forward. The pacing was well done and held my attention from beginning to end, and I loved the culture infused within the world and it's characters. And the bits of magic added a nice layer to an already great fantasy tale.
The only aspect that didn't work was the romance and I hated that it didn't. There wasn't as much time taken in developing their connection—her pretending to be a man aside, as that had its own hand in it not fully working—and it felt less earned overall. I loved who she fell for, but the execution of their relationship could've used more time and depth.
Overall Stormrise was a well-written story with a great main character and I look forward to what this author will write next.
**Received an early copy via Edelweiss; this had no bearing on my opinions**
There was such realism in Rain's journey and I admired that the millisecond it took to make this life-changing decision didn't automatically make her path easy. Her struggles to maintain her persona and to fit in contrasted well with her unmatched fighting skill, and that war of opposites along with her spirited heart made her believable and the great character that she was. Every obstacle was met with resourcefulness and while it was never easy, she always found it within herself to push forward. The pacing was well done and held my attention from beginning to end, and I loved the culture infused within the world and it's characters. And the bits of magic added a nice layer to an already great fantasy tale.
The only aspect that didn't work was the romance and I hated that it didn't. There wasn't as much time taken in developing their connection—her pretending to be a man aside, as that had its own hand in it not fully working—and it felt less earned overall. I loved who she fell for, but the execution of their relationship could've used more time and depth.
Overall Stormrise was a well-written story with a great main character and I look forward to what this author will write next.
**Received an early copy via Edelweiss; this had no bearing on my opinions**