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A review by someonetookit
Stormrise by Jillian Boehme
3.0
Rain is a girl in a mans world. She is a master martial artist but will never have a chance to show her true grit as she is destined for a blander future of marrying and bearing children. So, she decides to impersonate her simpleton brother and enter the army when he is summoned. This novel had a great premise and I was so enthusiastic to jump right in.
The first few chapters set up the family scene with Rain training with her father and thinking about the future of the family. Its your stock standard set up and I was ok with that. She heads to her local purveyor of potions and knickknacks to buy some dragon powder so as she may disguise herself better and halt her monthly cycles and then heads on her merry way, leaving only a note explaining her choice and a fear that her father will come after her. By this point I had a feeling like I had read it before, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it (honestly, I kind of still cant which is endlessly frustrating for me).
Once Rain heads out, she meets up with her group of army buddies and the story starts to unfold. I wanted to absolutely love it but as I said earlier, it felt familiar, but something was kind of off. I expected punchy and action filled and instead it felt a little Tolkien with its ‘people walk through the woods and camp for half the novel’ vibe. By the end I wasn’t underwhelmed exactly but felt like it could have been better
Now this is not to say the writing itself was bad. Boehme writes with such panache that I feel had the underlying story been different, it would have been fantastic. The use of language was a little basic but that can be expected from a Young Adult novel and the relationships between characters, although predictable, were precisely how I thought they would work out to be.
The main character is one of those ones who I kind of wanted to shake and tell her to grow up. She could have been brash and competitive, winning over everyone with vigour and zeal; instead she seemed whiny and about as intimidating as a mewling kitten. Despite her efforts to come across as masculine, she is still extremely feminine in her interactions and I felt a little take back that only a single character managed to work out that she was a girl (I mean men are sometimes oblivious, but I feel they aren’t quite THAT clueless).
The secondary characters were where the writing held its own. The other band of merry adventurers run the gamut from caring to malicious and manipulative. I absolutely loved every conflict that came from the novel because it meant something was finally happening. Alas these scenes were usually short lived and left me wanting more.
Now comes the bad guy who is tormenting everyone. He is referred to a couple of times, but it was ridiculously easy to forget that he was supposed to be the underlying threat to the country because he doesn’t actually show until the final 10-15%. Even then he is there and then suddenly everything is being tied up in a neat little bow. He could have been a big baddie and there could have been epic fight scenes but instead he was there and then just not…
I suppose here is where I should wrap it up. Basically, it wasn’t a bad book – the story had promise, the characters had promise and the whole thing could have been taken so much further. Maybe I had higher expectations knowing this was a highly coveted debut. Maybe I expected more from an author who teaches creative writing for a living. Unfortunately, I finished feeling a little let down. I feel like it would be a great novel for those who are into questing and genderbending tales.
The first few chapters set up the family scene with Rain training with her father and thinking about the future of the family. Its your stock standard set up and I was ok with that. She heads to her local purveyor of potions and knickknacks to buy some dragon powder so as she may disguise herself better and halt her monthly cycles and then heads on her merry way, leaving only a note explaining her choice and a fear that her father will come after her. By this point I had a feeling like I had read it before, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it (honestly, I kind of still cant which is endlessly frustrating for me).
Once Rain heads out, she meets up with her group of army buddies and the story starts to unfold. I wanted to absolutely love it but as I said earlier, it felt familiar, but something was kind of off. I expected punchy and action filled and instead it felt a little Tolkien with its ‘people walk through the woods and camp for half the novel’ vibe. By the end I wasn’t underwhelmed exactly but felt like it could have been better
Now this is not to say the writing itself was bad. Boehme writes with such panache that I feel had the underlying story been different, it would have been fantastic. The use of language was a little basic but that can be expected from a Young Adult novel and the relationships between characters, although predictable, were precisely how I thought they would work out to be.
The main character is one of those ones who I kind of wanted to shake and tell her to grow up. She could have been brash and competitive, winning over everyone with vigour and zeal; instead she seemed whiny and about as intimidating as a mewling kitten. Despite her efforts to come across as masculine, she is still extremely feminine in her interactions and I felt a little take back that only a single character managed to work out that she was a girl (I mean men are sometimes oblivious, but I feel they aren’t quite THAT clueless).
The secondary characters were where the writing held its own. The other band of merry adventurers run the gamut from caring to malicious and manipulative. I absolutely loved every conflict that came from the novel because it meant something was finally happening. Alas these scenes were usually short lived and left me wanting more.
Now comes the bad guy who is tormenting everyone. He is referred to a couple of times, but it was ridiculously easy to forget that he was supposed to be the underlying threat to the country because he doesn’t actually show until the final 10-15%. Even then he is there and then suddenly everything is being tied up in a neat little bow. He could have been a big baddie and there could have been epic fight scenes but instead he was there and then just not…
I suppose here is where I should wrap it up. Basically, it wasn’t a bad book – the story had promise, the characters had promise and the whole thing could have been taken so much further. Maybe I had higher expectations knowing this was a highly coveted debut. Maybe I expected more from an author who teaches creative writing for a living. Unfortunately, I finished feeling a little let down. I feel like it would be a great novel for those who are into questing and genderbending tales.