Review: Onyx Storm
EricMesa
- 3 minutes read - 491 words
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
What I really liked about this book: At the end we got a bunch of POV chapters, not just Rierson.
What I really hated about this book: The use of the trope where if people will just take time to talk to each other instead of being cryptic (or following up if things are busy) then things would go better for the protagonists. I know sometimes we need certain tropes “so the plot can happen!” (to paraphrase Pitch Meeting YT) but this one is just SO annoying and seems the most unlike real life. If something is that important - like lives on the line important - then you keep following up.
What I thought of the rest of the book: Meh. It was a middle of the series book. Not much can happen. The first two books are introducing us to bigger and bigger problems for the protagonists as we learn more about what’s actually happening in the book. The next two books will be the climax and falling action. This one…this one needs to mostly tread water. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the island equivalent of the trope of A Planet of Hats. It felt arbitrary and odd. There was some decent world-building and some minor character growth. But overall it felt like we were on a treadmill - lots of work without getting anywhere. Also, compared to the Besgayeth (however it’s spelled, I listened to the audiobook) antagonists of the first two books I found the antagonist this time to be pretty impotent (unintended pun for a romance book).
Also for plot reasons there was less sex in this book - I don’t care since that’s not what I read this series for, but if that’s why you read it…it’s definitely. Or maybe it was the same amount (I didn’t keep count), but the book definitely gave the impression that there wasn’t much as the characters (again, for plot reasons) were mostly sexually frustrated during this book. Lots of ink spilled over how much Violet wasn’t getting any.
I gave it 3 stars (“liked it” according to the tooltip on Goodreads) because the book redeemed itself in the 3-5 chapters and because I understand (from a meta point of view) that a middle book of a sprawling narrative can’t resolve much. There is a resolution to at least one plot point in this book, but it wasn’t one of the plot threads I felt invested in.
If you’ve read the first two books and like the overall fantasy story, the character’s personalities, and Violet’s found family of riders (that’s what I like about it) there’s no reason not to continue. If you just want sexy time, might not be the book for you. If you were iffy on book 2, definitely not the book for you. I look forward to the fourth one…whenever that is.