Uptown Oracle Reads… Roar

In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them. As the sole heir of Pavan, Aurora’s been groomed to be the perfect queen. She’s intelligent and brave and honorable. But she’s yet to show any trace of the magic she’ll need to protect her people. To keep her secret and save her crown, Aurora’s mother arranges for her to marry a Stormling prince from another kingdom. At first, the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. But the more secrets Aurora uncovers about him, the more a future with him frightens her. When she dons a disguise and sneaks out of the palace one night to spy on him, she stumbles upon a black market dealing in the very thing she lacks—storm magic. And the people selling it? They’re not Stormlings. They’re storm hunters. Legend says that her ancestors first gained their magic by facing a storm and stealing part of its essence. And when a handsome young storm hunter reveals he was born without magic, but possesses it now, Aurora realizes there’s a third option for her future besides ruin or marriage. She might not have magic now, but she can steal it if she’s brave enough. Challenge a tempest. Survive it. And you become its master.

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Roar
Cora Cormack

As soon as I started reading Roar I fell in love with the world it was set in. There’s so much great world building to introduce you to the different kingdoms, how the storms work and also the magic system. The magic system we get to learn through Roar’s eyes as she learns that you don’t have to be a Stormling so it’s really intriguing.

Even though I fell in love in the first chapter, I also got really annoyed very early on. Obviously the prince is a bad guy as the synopsis says, but he is built up slightly as a love interest at the beginning. But he’s manipulative and our MC Roar doesn’t really understand relationships as she’s been pretty locked away her whole life and is very naive. Later down the line she meets her actual love interest which so much of the books focus is on. I really disliked this love interest as well. He starts of by saying she reminds him of his sister, and he’s extremely possessive about Roar. Multiple times he grabs her even though she tells him not to, and kissing a girl when she’s angry is not romantic at all. Can we please stop writing this in books!

Strangely enough, my favourite characters wasn’t a main character. I really loved Nova and I wanted to know so much more about her backstory and her magic. She was a really strong character and she stayed faithful to her friend, Aurora, even though she was trapped. I really hope that if Roar returns to Pavan in the next book that she shows Nova the same level of faith and respect that she’s been given.

The majority of the book is spent training Roar (when she’s not making lovey eyes). This felt very slow, long and slightly tedious. I understand our MC needs to develop her skills but the running training was basically Locke chasing her and pushing her around. Which is very similar to how their ‘romance’ is to be honest. I just don’t understand why a romance needs to be pushed outside of the main plotline. The training could have been similar to a montage where we leave her for a week or two.

The ending did make me want to read the next book, but I highly doubt it will be top of my TBR list because I don’t care for romance and it just slowed down too much in the middle.

POSITIVES

+ World building and magic system

+ Nova as a character

NEGATIVES

– Romantic interests

– Long, tedious training