I enjoyed The Storm Crow. I thought the whole concept of the book and the magic was very interesting. I did struggle with Anthia, the mc, a bit. I really liked a lot of the other characters.Title: The Storm Crow (The Storm Crow #1)
Author: Kalyn Josephson
Publisher: SourcebooksFire
Release Date: July 9th 2019
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
In the tropical kingdom of Rhodaire, magical, elemental Crows are part of every aspect of life...until the Illucian empire invades, destroying everything.
That terrible night has thrown Princess Anthia into a deep depression. Her sister Caliza is busy running the kingdom after their mother's death, but all Thia can do is think of all she has lost.
But when Caliza is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the crown prince of Illucia, Thia is finally spurred into action. And after stumbling upon a hidden Crow egg in the rubble of a rookery, she and her sister devise a dangerous plan to hatch the egg in secret and get back what was taken from them.
One of the things I really liked about The Storm Crow was that it shows how crippling depression can be. From my experience there are many types of depression and many ways to deal with it. Anthia goes through a traumatic event where she loses quit a bit. It makes her retreat into herself. I get this, I’ve been there. I didn’t want to stay in bed all day, for me I would lay on the kitchen floor and spend hours picturing myself sinking into it. I would never ever judge anyone for going through it or say how much time someone needs to come out of it. I thought it was great how it shows her going through this and how people around her react to it. Including her sister, who feels helpless I’m sure. She keeps telling her to move on and you know she’s not meaning to be hurtful she just doesn’t understand.
This is not why I struggled to connect with Anthia. I felt like she is very selfish but it’s a selfishness that comes with being young. I don’t like how she treats her sister who is forced to keep things together on her own. That is having to make decisions she is not ready for. Also she can see what Revenge has done to Illucian and she acknowledges it then goes back on her revenge thing. I don’t know it just felt like Anthia and I were swinging by each other and just couldn’t clasp hands. There were other things that kind of made me feel ugh. I also felt like she has a lot of room for growth through the series. Sometimes I like to read a book where I don’t like the main character at first because then I can see them grow.
I thought Ericen is really interesting character. He’s in a tough spot. Ya he screws things up with Anthia at first but he really tries. The things he says about his predicament make sense. I think Anthia sees everything as black and white. Right and Wrong. Ericen is trapped in a gray area and I think he doesn’t even know how to get out of it. He doesn’t want to run away because he sees that if he can fight through maybe he can change things. Sometimes you need to leave to change things, sometimes you need to stay. I wish there was more with him or even his perspective.
I liked Kiva a lot too and I would like to see more of her relationship with another character. Not just the glimpses we had. I also thought Caylus was a cute nice guy. He just really was eh okay he’s cool, he’s there and all.
I thought the crow magic is really cool. I did think Rhodarie relied on them too much though. Ha ha. Like I somehow suddenly understand politics. At first I was picturing a Thumbelina world and not large crows but small people. I don’t know why. I like all the descriptions of how the different crows use their magic and how they have an influence on the economy and culture of Rhodaire.
So overall I did enjoy The Storm Crow. I hope to see some more growth of Thia in future books. Also to learn more about the other countries and the characters we’ve been introduced to.
Kalyn Josephson is a Technical Writer in Silicon Valley, which leaves room for too many bad puns about technically being a writer. She grew up in San Luis Obispo, CA, but now lives in the Bay Area with four awesome friends (because it’s the Bay and she’d like to be able to retire one day) and two black cats (who are more like a tiny dragon and an even tinier owl). When not writing YA Fantasy, she loves baking, reading, playing sports, and watching too many movies.
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GIVEAWAY
Prize: Win a finished hard copy of THE STORM CROW by Kalyn Josephson (INT) or a signed finished copy of THE CROW STORM by Kalyn Josephson (US Only)
** International as long as bookdepository ships to the country
Starts: July 9th 2019
Ends: July 23rd 2019
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