Book Review – The Storm Crow

Title: The Storm Crow (The Storm Crow #1)

Author: Kalyn Josephson

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication date: July 9th, 2019

352 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

Eragon meets And I Darken in this thrilling new fantasy debut that follows a fallen princess as she ignites a rebellion to bring back the magical elemental crows that were taken from her people.

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.

Review

The Storm Crow is a YA Fantasy with magical crows, each different type of crow has control over a different element. Very similar to Eragon, where there are Crow Riders that make up Rhodaire’s army. But one day, the realm of Illucia invades and set fire to all of the crows. Without their support, Rhodaire has no way to fight off Illucia’s continued attacks so Queen Caliza must set a betrothal between Prince Ericen and Princess Anthia. But, Thia is in a deep depression due to losing the crows and her mother during the attack. When Thia finds a Crow egg hidden she decides to try and save her kingdom, even if it means going up against Ericen.

I truly loved the magic and plot of this book. I also really respected the mental health representation with Thia being in a depression after her mother is killed. So many stories focus on the main character being thrust into the ruling position after parents are killed, and just get on with their lives. I loved that Thia wasn’t next in line for the throne and that she reacted realistically to a traumatic event. It was refreshing to read. I also loved Ericen character and their dynamic – he was a multi-faceted character and I definitely preferred him at times to the other male side character. In fact, all the supporting cast was interesting and had great arcs.

One thing. The ship I wanted to sail, did not sail. Now, I imagine this could happen in the next book, but it feels weird to start a romance with one character in this book and then quickly break if off to move onto the next one? So maybe the ship I want won’t sail. And that makes me sad. But I will be reading the next book to find out, and I really hope they go into more of the crow magic. Since the crows perished very early in this book, there wasn’t a lot of world-building or explanation of the magic system, it was mostly plotting and scheming against Illucia. Which was great, but I want to know more about the world too.

I hope you do pick this up if you loved Eragon. Trigger warnings for : depression, death of parents, abuse, PTSD responses, murder.

Happy reading, folks!