More fantasy books? Don't mind if I do!
Kind of a disclaimer? I have no idea who Cora Carmack is in the adult publishing world. I've never read anything else by her. I kind of purused her website and I'm pretty sure I haven't. The amazon summary starts out by stating she's a new york times bestseller, and I just had a 'wait, what' moment. So, clarifications! Whee!
An amazon summary, "New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack's young adult debut: Roar.
In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.
Aurora Pavan comes from one of the oldest Stormling families in existence. Long ago, the ungifted pledged fealty and service to her family in exchange for safe haven, and a kingdom was carved out from the wildlands and sustained by magic capable of repelling the world’s deadliest foes. As the sole heir of Pavan, Aurora's been groomed to be the perfect queen. She’s intelligent and brave and honorable. But she’s yet to show any trace of the magic she’ll need to protect her people.
She might not have magic now, but she can steal it if she’s brave enough.
To keep her secret and save her crown, Aurora’s mother arranges for her to marry a dark and brooding Stormling prince from another kingdom. At first, the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. He’ll guarantee her spot as the next queen and be the champion her people need to remain safe. But the more secrets Aurora uncovers about him, the more a future with him frightens her. When she dons a disguise and sneaks out of the palace one night to spy on him, she stumbles upon a black market dealing in the very thing she lacks―storm magic. And the people selling it? They’re not Stormlings. They’re storm hunters.
Legend says that her ancestors first gained their magic by facing a storm and stealing part of its essence. And when a handsome young storm hunter reveals he was born without magic, but possesses it now, Aurora realizes there’s a third option for her future besides ruin or marriage.
Challenge a tempest. Survive it. And you become its master." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
Aurora is the princess to a Stormling kingdom where her magic has yet to manifest itself. The stormlings are able to tame storms. The storms seem to have a mind of their own and are usually hell bent on destroying cities/people. So, it's kind of big deal that the princess to a stormling kingdom doesn't seem to have any magic....but her mother (the queen) has decided to keep it a secret. Constantly rotating out her maids and doing the work to fend off storms from their kingdom (where normally the heir starts to). Stormlings are also able to capture the heart of the storm after they've defeated it essentially. ...which is how Aurora's brother died (the original heir to the throne). So Aurora is doing her absolute best to try to be worthy of the throne. But she doesn't have magic, so she can't protect her kingdom.
The solution? Marry a prince from a powerful stormling family of the neighboring kingdom. Enter....well... a very unsavory dude. He's super manipulative but to what end? Aurora ends up following him out of the palace when her suspicions are raised and wanders into...essentially the black market. She meets a group of storm hunters, and she's never heard of them before. The black market excursion opens her world view and she begins to wonder what else she doesn't know.
That is enough summary.
The story telling in this is a little weird for this plot line. It's third person omniscient, but it skips around so much. There's also a weird, immediate lust thing that happens when Aurora meets the prince from another kingdom and also one of the storm hunters in the black market. I guess it could kind of made sense in the strict context of Aurora not really being around people, but like, dudes, you're making it so hard to treat Aurora as a respectable character. It's basically that weird, "what is this weird fire that seems to be igniting in my belly and on my skin?" when they got anywhere close. Apparently, Aurora also did a crap ton of training with the soldiers of her kingdom...so I feel like she should be super used to close contact. You can't really learn how to fight without getting up in someone else's personal space. So I found that entire aspect of the story highly implausible.
There were also elements introduced about other characters personalities that it seemed like within pages, they were dismissed or were shown a completely opposite trait. So in the grand scheme of running around in this chaotic plot and finding magic potentially, you also have conflicting storytelling. There were lots of aspects of Aurora I wanted to root for as like a gung ho, strong female character, but because of how the storytelling was done, it was a little jarring. Especially when you were hopping into the minds of the men who find her attractive also make a lot of comments of like, "She's so hot, but determined, what a rare quality in women". It was just pretty discouraging. I guess it kind of makes sense in the aspect of making sure to portray how the world views her to know exactly what mindsets she's dealing with...but it was still disheartening.
I am intrigued by the overall plot presented by the book, but I don't think I'll pick up the sequel.
Happy reading!
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