Audiobook Review – Roar (Stormheart, Book 1) by Cora Carmack, Narrated by Soneela Nankani (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 13 hours and 25 minutes
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Release Date: June 13, 2017
ASIN : B071PF5T5B
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Stormheart series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
“In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.
Aurora Pavan comes from one of the oldest Stormling families in existence. Long ago, the ungifted pledged fealty and service to her family in exchange for safe haven, and a kingdom was carved out from the wildlands and sustained by magic capable of repelling the world’s deadliest foes. 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 dark and brooding Stormling prince from another kingdom. At first the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. He’ll guarantee her spot as the next queen and be the champion her people need to remain safe. 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.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in what I believe is supposed to be a trilogy (the third book has been delayed indefinitely at this point). I got a copy of this on audiobook from Audible.com
Audiobook Quality (4/5): The audiobook was well done and is fine to listen to. The narrator does a good job with character voices and with conveying emotion.
Thoughts: This book focuses on Aurora/Roar, a Stormling princess without the powers to work with storm magic. Her mother’s hope is to marry Roar off to a Stormling prince so that Roar’s lack of powers aren’t noticed. Roar, however, has other plans.
I am kind of conflicted about this book. I really, really loved the world-building and the idea of storms being sentient magical beings. I loved the Storm Hunters as well.
I thought Roar was an okay character but also thought that her competence in so many areas didn’t really mesh with the naïve nature that she constantly showed. I also think she was fairly selfish in the actions she took throughout the book.
The relationship the Roar and Locke form felt fake to me. Roar is all preaching about wanting to be independent, yet Locke is constantly saving her. There are way too many scenes where they sit around talking about their feelings because they “need to talk” but then they never really say anything important. If I had been reading this in paper form (rather than listening to an audiobook) I probably would have skimmed these parts.
Another big complaint is that vast portions of the plot are dependent on characters not communicating well. I mean really if Roar had just talked to Prince Cassius about his motives openly there wouldn’t have been a book here at all. Those kinds of things really bother me because they end up making such a big deal out of such small things.
This also had that typical romance/YA issue where every character who enters the book is either super hot or really beautiful and all of the super hot men are interested in Roar…ugh. You can tell that Carmack is primarily a romance writer.
My Summary (3/5): Overall, I thought this was going to be an awesome book but it ended up falling somewhat flat for me. I did really enjoy the world-building and magic. However, as I got deeper into the story there just wasn’t enough meat here for me. It was just too much of beautiful, naïve Roar being saved by Locke. I didn’t enjoy either of them as characters and didn’t enjoy how much time was spent with long, meaningless scenes between the two of them. I don’t plan on continuing the series.
