The Storm Crow
Kayln Josephson
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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.
The Storm Crow starts off with us in flight on the back of a crow. This is such a beautifully written scene, and it truly helps you understand what Thia loses later on in the book. I adored the description of the lift and fall of flying, and it truly helps you imagine what it would be like. I also just found it to be the perfect introduction to the crows, and then our main character.
Then it’s straight into action which sets up the story. The city of Aris is setting up for a yearly celebration when the Illucian’s attack the crows nests – utterly destroying the crows and breaking the kingdom of Rhodaire. Anthia loses not just the crows but her mother and aunt, and her sister must take the throne.
The elation and ease in which Anthia works with the crow in the first scene, and one that she isn’t even bonded to, just shows that she loses a part of herself. Her grief and depression about the crows, her mother and her kingdom later on is so well described and worded. I personally understood the feelings so easily and this really helped me be empathetic towards her. Overall she starts to grow throughout the book towards her circumstances, and whilst she has times of doubt she manages to overcome these with the help of her friends.
He main friend and guard, Kiva, also suffers from MH. Most notably is that she has PTSD after killing a man in defense of her and Anthia. She struggles through this despite training to be a guard, however it takes time before she can confide in Thia. Her story isn’t focused on, and is more in the background but she does have her own life. Whilst she’s traveled to Illucien with Thia, she manages to find a friend and is shown to be a bit more 3D than a usual bodyguard character.
The Storm Crow focuses on strong women, both Thia and Kiva look up to the queen Caliza who is Thia’s sister. Whilst they don’t agree with the plan, they go along with it and work to get their kingdom back to what it once was. Caliza herself must be going through grief after losing her mother, but Thia points out she’s holding it together in front of everyone else. I’d love to have a POV chapter of Caliza at least once to know what she’s planning for Rhodaire.
On the other side, we also have a strong woman as the enemy. Razel is the queen of Illucian and is absolutely ruthless. Her subjects, including her son are scared of her and she’s a warrior queen. We’re told of her motivations from second hand sources, so it’s not totally reliable, but if true it is understandable. Her want for war with Rhodaire is more for a sense of revenge than needless murder, which I’m hoping is explored more in the next book.
There’s also Erican, Razels son and who Anthia has to marry. He’s constantly changing and has a need to be liked and respected by people, which means he often makes bad decisions. I loved his interactions with Thia and Kiva and how it differed due to the way Thia treated him from the beginning. There’s a lot of layers to his character that I don’t think we’ll manage to see much of, but it definitely makes you want to root for him.
With the loss of crows at the start of the book, I feel like we don’t see much magic until further into the book. As we’re looking through Anthia’s eyes we also seem to be missing a lot of information about crows too as she’s not fully trained. When she finds a crows egg, the main conflict is that no one knew how to hatch the eggs but their mother. But once Res comes into the picture, there’s a sense of curiosity towards the magic in this world. I’m sure the Crow Rider will have more of a focus on magic too!
The world building as a whole is a quite built up. We learn a lot about Rhodaire and it’s people from Thia having to introduce Erican to it during a tour of the city. It also gives time to explaining the differences between the types of crows, and how this affects the city of Aris. It also explains that not all riders will be warriors, as many of the crows help with farming, basic upkeep of the city, healing etc. In turn, we explore Illucien and learn about their culture when Erican has to introduce Thia to his city. There’s very distinct cultures between the two, plus more differences for the other kingdoms also mentioned.
On top of this, there’s a background of the Saints (the orginal 8 crow riders) and the Sellas (ancient creatures that created the crows) which was intriguing. This is both the history of Rhodaire, and a myth/legend that many don’t believe in. I’m wondering if these come up again in the next book, as a way to help get the crows back.
Overall I adored The Storm Crow and enjoyed the characters, the world and the storyline. I’m ready to jump straight into the next book, The Crow Rider. Plus, I can’t wait to see more from Kalyn Josephson.
Positives of The Storm Crow
- Characters had a lot of depth, and relationships formed naturally.
- World building was expansive.
Negatives of The Storm Crow
- Less magic than expected.
