Bingo review 4: Violet
Stormsong is the second of what is planned to be a trilogy, and the covers are apparently going to reflect the bisexual pride flag; book 1 was blue (Witchmark), book 2 is purple (aka violet), and the to-be-released-Feb ‘21 book 3 (Soulstar) will be pink.
Stormsong is the second of what is planned to be a trilogy, and the covers are apparently going to reflect the bisexual flag; book 1 was blue (Witchmark), book 2 is purple (aka violet), and the to-be-released-Feb ‘21 book 3 (Soul Star) will be pink.
Stormsong picks up in the aftermath of the conclusion of Witchmark, just after a major conspiracy has been revealed and destroyed, but now the consequences of shutting down Aeland’s power source as well as meddling with the natural order of the business of the Amaranthines (who keep death and the afterlife moving properly) have to be faced. This time around there’s a lot more politics and the main perspective of the story changes from Miles to his sister Grace who spent a good bit of the first novel as a minor antagonist who went to the good side in the end but now has to deal with a lot of guilt about her part in the bad stuff.
Grace now has to deal with re-establishing her position as head Storm Singer, the magic-users who control the regional weather (and the weather’s become a lot worse), Chancellor to the Queen, meaning Grace has to get the Queen what she (the Queen) wants which is basically res-establish order without giving up any power or causing much change for the nobility, and also trying to make sure the visiting Amaranthine noble who will decide how to deal with the ugliness caused by Aeland in the previous novel doesn’t decide to be harsh.
Then there’s the personal issues of dealing with her family, and Grace’s father is terrible excuse for a human being who tries to control her and everything else from a cushy prison, Prince Severin her main ally at court but how trustworthy is he, and dealing with the talented journalist whom Grace might have a bit of a crush on (no tension between them, nope, not at all- NB pure sarcasm here). And then there’s the murder that becomes the key to pretty much everything else.
There’s a lot of thread to follow here, and it all weaves together pretty well, but this isn’t the whole story; the relationships and a bit of romance are definitely the main thing. It was Tristan and Miles’ love story in book 1, and this time it’s Grace’s turn. The problem for me with this is that we don’t get to see the relationship really start, grow or develop. It just suddenly kind of happens. Near the very end we find out that Grace and her person (no spoilers here) have actually liked each other observed from afar for a long time, and are now finally getting to get to know each other and realize that the other person has liked them too the whole time.
While there’s something to be said for pursuing the person you’ve had your eye on for a long time and are suddenly thrown together with, it’s just not developed enough. With so much else going on, there’s virtually no room for Grace and {person} to actually get into their feelings about each other and their potential relationship and what that might mean for them individually and as a couple. The only reason this is a problem is that this element was handled so extremely well in Witchmark as m-m, and it’s kind of disappointing to see so much less of it for the f-f side. It’s still a good addition to the series though, with a lot of world-building and creating a lot of things that could be explored in the final volume next year.