A review by readwithmekt
Seasons of the Storm by Elle Cosimano

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

Jack was given a choice many years ago, die or live by the ancient rules of Gaia. He makes the decision to live forever and becomes a Winter, with the task of going out and killing the season that comes before him. While living his new life he meets a Spring, Fleur, and falls for her. The only problem is that different seasons are not allowed to socialize with one another. Jack gets called before Cronos and while there he sees that Fleur is falling below the line and that she will be terminated within a year. He must decide how he will protect her or if it is possible for him to protect her, the first step is figuring out if there is a way to escape. 

I had never heard of this book until the Libby app recommended it for me. I took it out and decided to give it a try. I can say that initially I was not sure how I felt about the story. I was excited that there were 2 narrators so I figured that I would give it a try. I am glad that I did! This was a fun listen. I really enjoyed the world building and that this was a different take on fantasy than I have read in a while.

I loved the use of the seasons. I thought that it was interesting to have the season be the defining characteristic of the magic that each character possessed. I have been reading a lot of fantasy books recently and loved that this presented me with something new and different. I also loved the found family of this book. It was done differently than other found family books. It was a nice change of pace that the characters did not start out trusting one another and in fact continued to have challenges with trust throughout. 

Jack and Fluer as the main characters were a great balance to each other. The perspective starts with Jack and I found it interesting that of the two characters Fleur was the more self-assured character. I loved that it was written this way, especially since this is a YA book and I feel that it is super important for younger females to have female characters that are strong. I really enjoyed Jack overall. I found the struggles and challenges that he faced to be honest and him going back and forth about decisions that he was making felt honest and realistic.

This is the first book in a duology and I am interested to see how it will finish up especially since the first book did not end on a cliffhanger of any kind. This book gets a mixed rating of okay and love it because honestly I feel that it falls somewhere in the middle of these two categories for me. It was a fun fast listen and I was drawn in. I am curious to see what awaits me in part 2 and look forward to listening to it in the not too distant future.

Have you read Seasons of the Storm? Did you like it?