Roar by Cora Carmack
My Rating: ★★★★
Aurora was born into one of the oldest and most powerful magical families in Stormheart. She’s spent her life being groomed to become the future queen, but there’s a catch: Aurora was born without magic. Forced to enter an arranged marriage with a powerful and harsh man, she must pretend that she has an affinity or lose her kindom. Then she learns that families like hers aren't the only ones with magic, which turns everything she's ever known upside down. What do you do when you discover everything you've been taught is a lie?
I was a little apprehensive about reading this for a book club because Aurora sounded like the typical white and blonde special snowflake that's often seen in young adult books like this. After a couple chapters, any preconceptions that I had blew straight out the window. Now, Aurora is described as beautiful, white, blonde, compassionate etc. and does fall into the special snowflake category. However, the story itself is wonderful. The world building never stops. I could truly see the world she lives in as she's learning about it herself because she was so sheltered that her understanding was actually a bunch of lies wrapped up with a pretty little bow on top. I even grew to like Aurora after a while because she became more complex as the story went on. By the end of the book, I found myself rooting for her. I want her to come out on top of everything that's stacked against her.
I found myself loving majority of the characters, some of which we didn't see much of because they are not closely involved with the central plot. I hope that we see more of these characters in the next book. Then we have Aurora's former friend, Nova, who has been hiding a secret of her own. She's a great character and I loved reading from her perspective and seeing Aurora's kingdom from her view. I hope to see her character further developed as the series continues. I'm also fascinated by the storm hunters and look forward to learning more about them and their lives as well as the rest of the world that all of these characters live in.
The two characters I didn't care for are the two love interests, Cassius and Locke. Cassius is Aurora's betrothed. He's a possessive and cruel character who sees Aurora as an object that he can own and conquer. I didn't like him from the moment he appeared. It's hinted that he's this way because of his family and that he may have had an abusive upbringing, but I can't bring myself to care about him. Then there's Locke, who is interested in Aurora because she reminds him of his late sister. That's totally not weird, right? Right. He reluctantly brings Aurora on as a storm hunter in training. He's constantly battling himself with keeping her safe because he was unable to do that for his sister, and fighting with his romantic feelings. I don't hate him, I just don't care for him because he's very obsessive about Aurora. It's hard to get a feel for him as a character outside of his weird combination of familial and romantic feelings for her.
All in all, I love the overall story. It's rich, complex, and keeps on giving. It's not just the characters, but it's the lands, storms, and different branches of magic that are each given so much depth. I think that this series opener covers all the bases so that the story can hit the ground running in the next installment because. I'm looking forward to where this story goes next.
No comments:
Post a Comment