My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is book 2 of Polk's debut series. I'm a little disappointed that Miles isn't our main character. Instead we get his sister. I really missed the banter between Miles and his partner in the first book. While our leading gal and her minor romantic interest (a woman) have a couple quip's; it just didn't feel the same (or as romantic) as Witchmark did. It is critical that you read book 1 (Witchmark) before you read this one. Stormsong continues the complex politics between nations, the discovery of souls/magic made in book 1, and the repercussions of war.
Plot
As stated above, the plot gets more complex the further into the Kingston Cycle Series we get. It worked fine for me, but I could see those who dislike highly politicized stories being unhappy about the focus. We have all our characters from book 1 plus some new ones; including our leading lady's semi-love interest.
Love Interest/LGBTQ+
Yes our leading lady's love interest is another woman. But if you're hoping for hot lesbian scenes, or even the cuteness we had between our two men in book 1, you're going to be disappointed. The entire side relationship felt very unnecessary. As though it was added in as an afterthought to the story. While the representation is good, and this is an 'own voices' series for Polk when it comes to sexuality; I'm just not sold on it feeling like add-on. Either develop the relationship a bit more, or just cut out anything above 'overtones of attractiveness' and flesh out the story later in series.
Overall
This is a great series. It has fun, excitement, intrigue, complexity, politics, and magic. What more could you ask for? As this is only Polk's sophomore release I am really looking forward, to not only more from this series but, other books from her. I think TOR has found a shining new voice who will help make fantasy characters less archetypal and feel more like people we might know today (just handling magical issues of their world). I look forward to seeing more of myself and other more modern representations in fantasy books.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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1 comment:
Sounds like maybe the romance was added as an afterthought because everyone was gushing about how cute that couple in book one was? Glad to hear the sequel didn't disappoint otherwise!
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