Rain is a girl in a mans world. She is a master martial artist but will never have a chance to show her true grit as she is destined for a blander future of marrying and bearing children. So, she decides to impersonate her simpleton brother and enter the army when he is summoned. This novel had a great premise and I was so enthusiastic to jump right in. 

The first few chapters set up the family scene with Rain training with her father and thinking about the future of the family. Its your stock standard set up and I was ok with that.  She heads to her local purveyor of potions and knickknacks to buy some dragon powder so as she may disguise herself better and halt her monthly cycles and then heads on her merry way, leaving only a note explaining her choice and a fear that her father will come after her. By this point I had a feeling like I had read it before, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it (honestly, I kind of still cant which is endlessly frustrating for me).

Once Rain heads out, she meets up with her group of army buddies and the story starts to unfold. I wanted to absolutely love it but as I said earlier, it felt familiar, but something was kind of off. I expected punchy and action filled and instead it felt a little Tolkien with its ‘people walk through the woods and camp for half the novel’ vibe. By the end I wasn’t underwhelmed exactly but felt like it could have been better 

Now this is not to say the writing itself was bad. Boehme writes with such panache that I feel had the underlying story been different, it would have been fantastic. The use of language was a little basic but that can be expected from a Young Adult novel and the relationships between characters, although predictable, were precisely how I thought they would work out to be.

The main character is one of those ones who I kind of wanted to shake and tell her to grow up. She could have been brash and competitive, winning over everyone with vigour and zeal; instead she seemed whiny and about as intimidating as a mewling kitten. Despite her efforts to come across as masculine, she is still extremely feminine in her interactions and I felt a little take back that only a single character managed to work out that she was a girl (I mean men are sometimes oblivious, but I feel they aren’t quite THAT clueless).

The secondary characters were where the writing held its own. The other band of merry adventurers run the gamut from caring to malicious and manipulative. I absolutely loved every conflict that came from the novel because it meant something was finally happening. Alas these scenes were usually short lived and left me wanting more.

Now comes the bad guy who is tormenting everyone. He is referred to a couple of times, but it was ridiculously easy to forget that he was supposed to be the underlying threat to the country because he doesn’t actually show until the final 10-15%. Even then he is there and then suddenly everything is being tied up in a neat little bow. He could have been a big baddie and there could have been epic fight scenes but instead he was there and then just not…

I suppose here is where I should wrap it up. Basically, it wasn’t a bad book – the story had promise, the characters had promise and the whole thing could have been taken so much further. Maybe I had higher expectations knowing this was a highly coveted debut. Maybe I expected more from an author who teaches creative writing for a living. Unfortunately, I finished feeling a little let down. I feel like it would be a great novel for those who are into questing and genderbending tales.

DNF at 21%. There were so many issues just within the first fifth of the book that I knew continuing would be a waste of time. 

The plot revolves around a girl called Rain, who lives in the province of Tenema. When invaders breach the 'Stonewall', a protective wall, conscription is levied on every able-bodied man. Rain uses a magic powder to disguise herself as a boy and takes the place of her twin brother Storm, whose childlike mind makes him unsuitable for combat. Note that the powder doesn't turn her into a boy: mostly it just stops her periods. 

I struggled with this book from the very beginning. Here's why: 

❌ Extremely poor description. This applies to both people and places; characters appeared and disappeared from the page with absolutely no reference to how they looked. It got even worse with places. Rain travelled to town, through her back garden, to an army encampment, etc without any substantial reference to what made these locations different from each other. There was also, at one point, an entire paragraph devoted to talking about the avila plant, which the invaders apparently are desperate to have. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? Somehow, we never even learned what this plant looked like! What colour is it? How many petals? How long are the stems? Considering this plant is the entire reason for the war, I wanted to know more about it.

❌ Rain was stupidly impulsive. Her decision to dress up as a boy felt extraordinarily unrealistic, given that she spent all of five seconds thinking about it before putting this plan into execution. She didn't even consider what backstory she'd give, or spend some time practising masculine behaviour, or ANYTHING. Just, I don't want Storm to go and fight. Hey! Let me dress up as a boy! Should be easy! Considering the author tells us that impersonating a boy leads to EXECUTION WITHOUT TRIAL, you'd think Rain would be a little less TSTL over it.

❌ More examples of stupidity: she blows her cover story within the first ten seconds of meeting someone. At one point she comes across a boy called Forest, who has less personality than a potato. Immediately, she says that she's seventeen - forgetting that she'd planned to pick a younger age, to compensate for her girliness - and also nearly says 'when I was a little gi -', almost ruining her not-very-carefully-thought-out plan. Again, considering her crime carries a death penalty, I was stunned by Rain's lack of preparation. She also has to take the period-stopping powder nightly; she takes it in front of Forest, who naturally asks what it's for. Has Rain come up with some lie about it being stomach medicine, or headache m edicine, or any of the countless plausible reasons she could be eating medicinal powder? Nope! She just stammers a non-answer and changes the subject. Way not to be suspicious, Rain. Why didn't you just wait for him to be asleep before taking it, if you hadn't come up with an explanation?

❌ Insta-love. No thanks. Looking at Forest - whom she knows is her sister's fiancé - Rain almost instantly feels a 'fluttering in her spirit.' What the hell? Not the time or place, dude. 

Basically this is just a BTEC version of Mulan , complete with a wall (Great Wall of China, much?) and vague references to a misty form of martial arts called the Neshu. Considering I had the luck to read a genuinely awesome retelling of Mulan a few days ago (The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas) all the poor worldbuilding and plotting in this book were glaringly obvious. I strongly recommend that you go and read that one instead.