Ugh. I had an entire review written for this and then accidentally closed out of the app and it all went 'Poof!' Anyway, here we go again.

I really wanted to love this book. I mean, look at that freaking gorgeous cover! Unfortunately, I felt like it pretty much went downhill from there.

Synopsis: Aurora is a princess in a world where all of the rulers have what they call 'storm magic'. But she, of course, has NO MAGIC! Dun, dun DUUUUUUN! In order to keep this travesty a secret, her mother, the Queen, has been telling everyone that she is super powerful. Because that won't end badly...anyway, the Queen has betrothed Aurora to the second son of another kingdom in the hopes that they can keep their people safe from these random violent storms.

However, Aurora decides to run off with a group of storm hunters who have learned how to harness the storm magic, even though they were not born with the magic. There she meets a guy (because of COURSE she does) and the story progresses from there.

Things I liked:

1. The cover, even though I get serious Daenerys Targaryen vibes from it. It's still beautiful.

2. ...um...some of the side characters (namely Novaya and Cassius) were interesting. Actually, they were far more compelling to me than the main characters.

Things I didn't like:

1. Oh my goodness, this book bored the heck out of me. I just could not get invested in it. I thought at first that the idea of the storm magic and storm hunting seemed really interesting, but every time there was a storm and they went to fight it, I got bored stiff. I felt like it was a better idea in concept than in execution.

2. I also didn't really understand these storms and how they actually worked and looked. So apparently each storm has a 'heartstone' somewhere inside it and if you can thrust your hand in the storm and pull it out, you kill the storm and gain it's magic. Or something. I had a really difficult time imagining what this was supposed to look like. Also, there is more in this world than just storm magic, but it is looked down upon and people with it are persecuted against because...reasons...

3. Roar was an obnoxious main character. She is selfish. She is naive. She is impulsive to an extent that it ends up hurting the people around her. After she ran away from Pavan, she gives barely a thought to her mother

who is pretty much in a catatonic state because of her daughter's 'kidnapping',

and Novaya,

who is being held prisoner on suspicion of being an accessory to the 'kidnapping.'

Even if her mother had received the letter she'd written, there is no way she wouldn't be worried sick about her daughter going off with a group of storm-chasing strangers. Then while she's with Locke's group, she repeatedly refuses to follow instructions that are given because she has absolutely no idea what she's doing and would be a liability in any other situation.

4. The 'romance' (blech). I found this to be one of the most cringe-worthy romances in a YA fantasy that I've ever read. First of all, Aurora can't meet a handsome man without getting all twitterpated. She meets Cassius, spends a couple hours in his company, then says that he broke her heart when she overhears a conversation he has with his brother Casimir. Speaking of Casimir, she meets him and is immediately attracted to him as well. Knowing that she is promised to his brother doesn't stop her from enjoying his attention and attempted flirtation. Then Locke comes along and she's all hot and bothered again...this is all in the course of like two days.
I just did not buy the relationship between Locke and Roar. First of all,

she is with his group in disguise. None of them know that she is a princess. And at no point in the book does she confide the truth to Locke. So how can I be all invested in this 'epic' love story when she is literally lying about her identity?

Secondly, Locke spends quite a bit of time in the book comparing Roar to his sister. I'm sorry, but that's just a little creepy. There is a scene where they are making out and she gets all emotional and in the next scene he's thinking to himself as he watches her sleep how much she reminds him of his sister...right after they were making out. Just...no.
My biggest problem with the romance was the way Locke (and Cassius as well, but apparently it's okay when Locke does it...) gets all possessive over Roar. At one point, she tells him that he was the first person she'd kissed, and he says that he's glad because it means she's his territory...yes, he literally uses that word. And it's not the first time in the book where he went all caveman on her. There are so many times he grabbed her and held her against her will (but he's so hot, so it's alright...or something) and once he even forced her to ride on his horse with him, even though there was room in the carriage they were traveling in. IT'S. NOT. CUTE.

5. The Stormlord. Half way through this book, we are introduced to a character who I'm assuming will be in future books in the series. He is later referred to as the Stormlord, but in the two or three passages that we get his perspective, he's only referred to as 'him'. Now, I didn't necessarily dislike his character. To be honest, we weren't given enough information about his character to form a real opinion about him. What I disliked was how the author presented his scenes directly after scenes from Locke's point of view. This was utterly confusing because we'd have this whole section about Locke, which often used pronous like 'he' and 'him', and then jump into a new scene (within the same chapter) still saying 'he' and 'him'. The first time he popped up I thought it was Locke, and in the context of what was happening that was seriously confusing.

6. The plot is so thin. For all it's 'action', nothing really happens in this book.

7. The ending is so abrupt. Absolutely nothing is resolved at all. I get that this is supposed to be the first of a series, but there should have been some sort of resolution somewhere. Everyone's story is just left dangling. Not exactly a cliffhanger, because that might have at least been exciting. Just like the rest of the book, it was boring.

Random musings:

1. Never do they talk about the weather in this book as anything normal. It's only these violent storms. Do they ever have a day where it's just raining, but not a big deal?

2. I feel about this book much the same way that I did about Truthwitch. It checks off a lot of boxes as far as what I like to read about, but for some reason it just doesn't work for me and I get bored. The difference is that I think the writing is better in Truthwitch.

3.

why the heck do Casimir and Cassius pretend that Cassius is the younger brother and Casimir the elder? I don't understand and it makes no sense that no one in Pavan would know the names and ranks of the Locke heirs.

4.

When Roar was injured by the lightning storm and unconscious and Locke was terrified and in the next scene we see her awake and fine...that bugged me. The author just jumped ahead and it was jarring. At first I thought she may be having some sort of coma dream or something. But no, it's just bad storytelling.

I know there will probably be tons of people who absolutely adore this book. I wish I could've been one of them. Part of me wants to read the next book just for Novaya's story, but I have a feeling she will continue to be criminally underused, and I don't want to suffer through another 400 pages of Locke and Roar being so in luuuuuurve. Blech.