DNF at 33% - I had a hard time connecting with the characters and the writing was hard for me. I tried two separate times and just can't finish this.

Not a bad read, but I had a lot of trouble caring about any of these characters, to be honest. I'm afraid I won't be continuing the series.

Daughters of the Storm was a very interesting and captivating read. It is marked as YA, though I would suggest that readers be aware that there is some violent and sexual content, so this might not be for everyone.

The premise of the story is interesting and relatively unique: a king, on the brick of death has his five daughters rushing home to help him find help, through a witch. But first they must overcome childhood animosities and perspectives, come together as true sisters, and find the witch because of their strong bonds.
In that way, it is a beautiful family story that I very much enjoyed.
I loved the magic aspect of the story, and that it is an empowering tale, but sometimes characters made weird or illogical choices, which in my opinion dragged on the plot unnecessarily, but that is just a personal preference.

Overall, I give 4 Stars

Entirely too long winded and filled with unnecessary vulgarity. The characters did not feel relatable, authentic, or well conceived. The number of pages, while not an issue for a good read, made this feel like a chore to finish reading. I was not able to finish this read.

I wanted so badly to like this book but I DNFd it because I could not get into it. After months of trying I finally had to admit I was never going to finish this book.

I absolutely loved this book and will highly and frequently recommend it to my customers! Thank you, NetGalley, for the advance copy!

I've seen this book tagged as young adult, so I wanted to be clear that it decidedly isn't! The story follows five sisters who are trying to save their father after he is poisoned and lying on his death bed. I really loved that all the sisters had a defining characteristic (Bluebell, the stoic warrior. Rose, the romantic. Ash, the one in tune with magic. Willow, the religious fanatic. Ivy, the flirt.) but none of them were one-dimensional. All of them were flawed, and as sisters do, alternately see the best and worst in each other. If you're looking for a happy family that bands together in the face of adversity though, well, this story is a lot darker than that.

Bluebell and Ash were the most interesting characters to me, but even they had their dark moments. I thought, much like Bluebell, that Rose was incredibly selfish and naive considering her circumstances, but eventually I grew to sympathize with her (at least a little bit...). I wanted to slap some sense into Ivy but the story had her paying brutally for her mistakes. Willow was the most infuriating of the sisters (in the best way though), and I'm really excited to see how her role expands in the next books of the series.

The Norse influence on the kingdoms and magic were really unique and interesting. There is also quite a bit of violence, rape, and abuse in this book, also a nod to the violence of the Vikings. Overall, this was a refreshing fantasy series featuring many powerful and flawed women and I'm excited to read more.

A good fantasy with strong female characters is always welcome. Sadly, that's not what I found here. I don't know if it improved, but the prologue and first chapter were so full of poor writing and unsympathetic characters that I just couldn't go on. And I'm sorry, but if you want me to take a warrior princess seriously, don't name her Bluebell. It just so didn't fit and was distracting enough that I couldn't take anything else fully serious either. I did not connect with this story at all and was eager to stop reading.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've come to really enjoy historical fantasy as a genre. When done right, it lets you experience historical moments, ways of life, and being, while also imagining that life in a context that more closely resembles what people of the past might have believed than what they actually experienced. "A quarter turn to the fantastic," to quote Guy Gavriel Kay (an incredibly important proponent of the historical fantasy genre, whatever you think of his style) can be freeing as a way to imagine the lives of "real" people living through "real" historical events. 'Daughters of the Storm' is a historical fantasy about Anglo-Saxon England in the same way that 'King Lear' is about Dark Ages Britain; in other words, it doesn't actually attempt to imagine what it would've been like to live in Anglo-Saxon times, but it does use our - the readers' - beliefs about Angl0-Saxon England to furnish its fantastical world with curses, magic, and legends of dragons. And, also like 'Lear', it plays out a fairy-tale structure of daughters of an ailing king against the backdrop of political and metaphysical conflict.

Overall, this is a lot for a fairly standard fantasy novel to carry, and there are times when the seams show a little too much. But at the same time, I enjoyed the ambition and scope of the story, and the insistence to stick to the conflict between the various family members rather than make one of them the "chosen " one against an ancient enemy and so on. That felt refreshing.

Wilkins does an excellent job of laying out clear and subtle motivations for her characters. She is also adept at generating scenes demonstrating the complexities of sisterly relationships, which become very much the prime movers of the interpersonal action. Daughters of the Storm is an exceptional epic fantasy adventure kicking off what promises to be a superb series.

Daughters of the Storm has interesting worldbuilding, with a clash of religions, several kinds of magic, and ferocious warriors. It has an interesting central premise, all about the familial relationships that are tested when a central figure falls ill. It has a wide variety of compelling characters, most of whom are women. What it lacks, to its detriment and what made me take 6 months to read it, is likeable characters.

Compelling characters can sometimes carry a book for me, in the absence of likeability, but every single one of the royal sisters in this novel is self-centered and awful, and while they certainly had motivation of their own, I dreaded reading about them being awful to each other when the world has been such shit for so long.

I'd recommend this book to people who like low-key grimdark, those who prefer their sibling relationships to be less wholesome, and folks looking for a lower magic setting.

I love this author so I had high expectations going into this one. I enjoyed it, pure entertainment. However I feel as though I have read this story before, and it felt more like a young adult fantasy rather than an adult one. I didn’t care for the characters and I need to like a few to get into a story properly.
If you like a light fantasy with lots of characters then I would give this one a try. I still enjoyed it!

Daughters of the Storm is the first book of Kim Wilkins’s Blood and Gold trilogy. Here, she tells the story of five vastly different sisters that must come together to search for a powerful witch to help their ailing father. Bluebell, the oldest, is a strong warrior who wants to father in her father’s footsteps to be king (not queen) of the kingdom; Rose is married to the king of a neighboring kingdom but who has a terrible secret; Ash, the middle daughter, is discovering her aptitude for magic; the twins, Ivy and Willow, are the youngest: Ivy is vain and selfish while Willow is devout.

I’m not sure how to feel about this book. On one hand, I enjoyed the world-building and the story, not to mention the premise of a story that centered around five sisters rallying to save their father. On the other hand, I didn’t like any of the sisters (except perhaps Bluebell and possibly Ash).

But what should have been a story of female solidarity and resilience and even sisterly love felt at times to morph into a story of women and characters bemoaning their “difficult” lives. Any time something didn’t go someone’s way, it was always the same complaint of “It’s not fair” – it wasn’t fair when Wylm wasn’t able to be king, even though he was the king’s stepson and didn’t have any royal blood to speak of; it wasn’t fair when Rose wasn’t allowed to love who she wanted because she was married to a king; it wasn’t fair when Ivy wasn’t married to a king, even though she was the youngest and barely fifteen. Instead of trying to make the best of their lives and dealing with the situations they found themselves in, they decided that the best course of action was to complain. No wonder Bluebell was always frustrated with her younger sisters (and stepbrother).

I also felt cheated as the characters of the sisters were told more than shown. While this applied to each of the sisters as well as other secondary characters (for example, Wylm and his mother, Gudrun), it especially applied to Bluebell. We are told constantly that she is cruel and merciless and tough, and while we see that aspect of her character at times, that’s not all that she’s about. I hesitate to call Bluebell complex, though, because any complexity felt superficial and lacking in the depth I felt it deserved. This made it hard to connect to the characters on any meaningful level and left me ultimately unsatisfied.

However, with all that being said, I am interested in continuing the series. Although I couldn’t fully connect with all of the sisters (especially Willow and Ivy, who were literally the worst), I did end up liking most of them enough to look past their mistakes and toward their more redeeming qualities. The ending of Daughters of the Storm had several cliffhangers that I want resolved!

Also, as a side note: maybe it was just me, but I kept drawing parallels between the five sisters in Daughters of the Storm and those in Pride and Prejudice: witty Bluebell and Elizabeth; sweet Rose and Jane; educated Ash and Mary; followers Willow and Kitty; and vain Ivy and Lydia. Obviously, these parallels are not perfect – for example, Willow is a follower of a fanatical religion while Kitty is not – but they’re there (at least in my mind)…

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

While I can respect the complex plotlines and the writing, <i>Daughters of the Storm</i> failed to really grab my attention. It was a struggle for me to finish the book, and I think part of that stemmed from how little I cared about the conflicts the characters were struggling with. The characters, especially the five sisters, were well-rounded and developed characters, but their conflicts felt like a retread of cliche plot points. Maybe this is just the struggles of setting up the world for the next two books, but I think I may give this series a miss for the time being.

I was not able to get into this book as easily I would have liked; unfortunately, it was not my style of book and I was unable to finish.

Daughters of the Storm by Kim Wilkins is just the sort of book we need while we wait for the next season of Game of Thrones. Five sisters, all with their own gifts, all very, very different, come together when their father falls ill. Bluebell is the warrior woman, lovingly referred to as "Old Iron-Tits" by her sisters; she's the closest to her father, and hell-bent on finding a cure for what ails him, no matter how much blood she needs to shed along the way. Rose is the sister married off for an alliance, but whose heart belongs to another: her husband's nephew. Awkward. Ash has magical gifts she's coming into, but her powers may be even greater than she can handle. Twins Ivy and Willow are... interesting. Ivy has just discovered men, so there's that. She wants to be the center of attention, and can't stand when Bluebell tries to boss her around. And Willow is becoming a religious fanatic, dedicated to the religion Maava. And then, we have Wylm, the stepbrother, son of the king's wife, Gudrun, who is much more than the mustache-twirling, haughty bro villain.

A touch Norse in flavor and epic in scale, Daughters of the Storm is a great start to to a new fantasy series. There's worldbuilding and strong, interesting characters that aren't always likable, but are incredibly readable. They're not perfect; they often act rashly and incur some big consequences that keeps the plot moving. You've got different kingdoms and rulers, delicate alliances and plots upon plots. Relationships are complicated, and if you've ever had a sister that irritated the living Jesus out of you, this is the book for you. The sequel, Sisters in the Fire, is due out next year, and trust me - when you read the last page of this book, you'll be waiting for it. My coworker saw me slap my Nook reader down on the break room sofa and say, "Come ON!" So there's that.

Daughters of the Storm (ISBN: 9780399177477) was published in March 2018 and is available at public libraries and bookstores.

I wanted to badly to love and enjoy this book and I truly believe that it's only due to my own attention span that I couldn't. Beautiful writing, engaging characters but I simply couldn't finish it.

I found this book to be beautifully written- however, at times it did seem to drag a little, especially when the sisters were waiting around. Took awhile to get used to there being 5 sisters-yet , each had their own distinct personalities- and especially liked bluebell the best.

Was a fun story to read-would be great for a lazy summer day.

Will certainly continue on with this series to see where it goes.

I would like to thank Random House Publishing - Ballantine, Kim Wilkins, and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In this fantastical, historical adventure 5 daughters are on a quest to save their father, the king from a curse that is draining his life away. Each sister is very different and they are interesting, strong female characters. I will definitely pick up the next in the series. I hope the characters and the plot continue to develop in a satisfying way.

I wanted to like this one, I really did. But I just didn’t. The story follows 5 very different sisters as they try to figure out why their father, the king, is sick. All while keeping the country and, in general, the entire region as they have ties to other kingdoms as well. The thing that I didn’t enjoy about the book is that the characters all fit into their little boxes and never seem to leave. All 5 sisters seemed to be caricatures of people rather than actual people. The only one that I sort of liked was really the one that you love to hate. I doubt I will pick up the next in the series.