Heir of Thunder

Being a fan of Karissa Laurel’s work it was a no-brainer reading this book YA or not. Besides I like YA books just as much.
And I was not disappointed. It was a beautiful paranormal coming of age story that kept me captive and guessing to the last page.
I really enjoyed the world, in which we follow Evie (Evelyn Stormbourne) through her adventure. World building was great and it just brought you right into the setting.
Though, I have to say that the beginning of the book seemed a bit slow, with the world and character interdiction but once we get past that point maybe 15-20 % into the book it really picks up and fast .
Things are happening with and to Evie, and she is just trying to survive. She also has a lot to learn as she never used to have to do much on her own, being sheltered by her father most of her life didn’t help. Now on the run with Gideon she has to learn fast. Of course there are hick-ups and not everything goes as smoothly as she thought. She also learns quickly that she should not trust everyone and that betrayal is a real.
I liked how much Evie grew throughout the book and how she became more and more confident in her abilities and herself.
Gideon is there to get her to safety in one piece, but there are a few things that are a mystery about him. We learn more and more about as Evie grows closer to him. But how much we really know about him is yet to be seen.
Evie meets a lot of great and interesting people along the way. Some help, others are out to get her … some do both.
Overall great book and I enjoyed it a lot, once it got passed the slower start. Really looking forward to see what happens next to Evie and her crew.

I rate it 4 ★

What a great new fantasy series for young teen readers. Evie, a strong young woman awakens to her home being attacked and escapes with Gideon, a stable hand from a neighboring kingdom. She is just beginning to understand her power of controlling thunder and lightening and it seems many factions are much more aware of her skills than she is. An adventure through many lands meeting friends and foe. Being betrayed and tested are just a few of the problems encountered by Evie on her trip. As she struggles to find help to save her family's legacy she must depend on strangers and traitors to survive. Younger readers will enjoy the magic and fantasy set in this new series , Stormbourne Chronicles.

Heir of Thunder is the first installment of The Stormbourne Chronicles series. It's a young adult coming of age story that follows the adventures of Evie Stormbourne as she discovers her legacy as a member of a dying family with the power to control thunder and lightning storms. Readers are introduced to different regions and peoples of the world in this book. I greatly enjoyed this aspect of the book and felt the author did a wonderful job with the world building. Reading pace was steady and enjoyable. There's a little bit of romance and some elements of steampunk. I had mixed feelings about Evie. She seems like she could be a strong female lead, but then she tends to come across as a bit gullible when it comes to the men in her life. I wanted more insight into how it felt for her to discover and harness her powers. It's a good start to a unique series. I'd definitely be interested in reading future installments.

This is the first of what appears to be an enjoyable series.

The main character, Evie is left homeless by the death of her father. Concealing her identity she goes on the run with Gideon Faust.

I really enjoyed this book and will look out for the others in the series. 4*

This book deposits you straight into the action from the beginning, and the pacing is amazing.

Heir of Thunder tempted me: it had magic, powers, a destiny and various groups of outsiders that come together. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to those expectations.

The main issue was the characterisation. Due to inherit the throne on her eighteenth birthday, Evie is just coming into her powers when she is forced to flee her home while it is under attack. It makes sense for her to be frightened and weak at the start. But Evie remains trusting, naïve and foolish the entire way through. Even by the end, she herself refers to some of her outbursts as tantrums: she doesn’t shake off the spoilt princess mantle.

The worst part is that she thinks she does. There is nothing more annoying than a character that stands there and reflects on how much they have changed and developed throughout the narration. If done properly, the reader sees that for themselves – they certainly don’t need it thrust upon them when there has been no evidence to support the development. Evie manages to cope on her own better than she thinks she can, but she doesn’t lose that naivety that made me find her annoying.

The secondary characters are marginally less shallow. I quite liked Gideon and his moodiness but even he didn’t ring true. Telling Evie he will “hunt her down” as a way of stopping her from running off, even in jest, spoke of a controlling character – and not in a good way. Evie’s polar-emotions when it comes to Gideon also made it impossible to truly get to know the character.

With the odd exception, the majority of the characters were shallow. None of them are given the chance to develop or do things that make them relatable.

It wasn’t only the characters. I couldn’t work out the world. The places are all given fantastical names but I could relate them to part of Europe, especially when the foreign “language” was Spanish, just without the correct punctuation for that language. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a future/past world that should be relatable to today’s continents or not, which meant it grated on me. I thought a new world was being established given the opening, then pieced together what they were describing. Either way would have worked – if it was clear that was how it was supposed to be.

Even the magic wasn’t explored properly. There was one scene where she consciously uses her powers to help others (which reminded me so forcibly of the Stardust film it was absurd!) and the rest of the time the magic just seems to be linked with her tantrums. There was the potential for so much more.

This is only the first book in the series, meaning that some of this potential could be utilised in the following books. But the complete lack of development, plus not being able to connect to the characters, means I won’t be following the story further. A disappointing read: it could have been more.