Kalyn Josephson Archives - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

I recently read The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the Advanced Reader Copy, sorry I’m late with this because–pandemic). It is the second book in The Storm Crow duology; as a result, there are spoilers. If you haven’t read the first book, you can read my review of The Storm Crow instead. This book wraps up the duology nicely.

Thia has left Illucia; the queen is dead-set on waging a war against her people and she needs allies. Meanwhile, she is also conflicted in her feelings about Ericen. Can he be trusted? Does she care about him?

The Crow Rider does an outstanding job of covering the emotions one might go through in a traumatic situation (or even a ::cough cough:: pandemic). Thia went through a deep depression in the last book; now, she’s dealing with feelings of inadequacy in the face of insurmountable odds. She’s not the only person in this book to deal with trauma. Even Res, the crow, goes through a period of difficulty. The villain’s past, and how she became the horrible person she turned out to be, is explained here (but not in an infodumpy type of way).

Another thing I loved about this book were the battle scenes. They were well-done and I could imagine them in my head. There were no guarantees either. In a couple places, I thought that perhaps all was lost.

The Crow Rider answers questions and adds new magical depth to the world. Where did the crow magic come from in the first place? Why can only certain people hatch eggs? If you’ve been wondering this and other questions, they’re answered here.

The only downside to this book that I can think of is that it has a huge cast. If you haven’t started the series yet, I would recommend you read The Storm Crow and The Crow Rider in a short time span. There were some characters I had forgotten about that get re-introduced later in the book and it was a little confusing. Ms. Josephson does do a good job at explaining who they are, but still–the cast seemed a little large.

Conclusion

If you liked The Storm Crow, I recommend you finish reading the duology with this great book. I don’t recommend The Crow Rider if you haven’t read the first book; a lot of things in this book are dependent on events from the first book. It captures emotion well, has a realistic teen protagonist, and wraps up everything nicely.

I recently had the opportunity to read The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire). I enjoyed it a lot, and plan on reading the sequel sometime after that one comes out.

Things are going badly for Thia, the princess of Rhodaire. One day, she’s a mischievous teen about to become a crow rider; the next day, all her dreams fall apart. Worse yet, her sister expects her to marry Prince Ericen from the enemy’s kingdom! All Thia wants to do right now is lay in bed all day. The situation looks hopeless, but if that was the case, this wouldn’t be a very good story.

What I Liked

Thia becomes depressed in this story. She doesn’t have chronic suicidality (I know someone with this problem), but she has a situational depression that can occur after a traumatic event. After our house fire years ago, I felt pretty upset and anxious, although not to the point where I was in bed all day. Still, I can see where she was coming from. I liked how Thia was able to rise above her depression and become the heroine that her kingdom needed her to be.

I like how things aren’t always as they seem to be. The characters that are portrayed as bad guys might not actually be that bad. In addition, there was a revelation that happened towards the end of The Storm Crow that surprised me. I won’t say what it is because… spoilers.

The Storm Crow also had some pretty good friend rep. Thia has a best friend, Kiva, who gets to stay with her, even when Thia is forced to travel into the enemy’s kingdom. Yes, Kiva does work as Thia’s guard, so she’s kind of a subordinate, but they both have a friendship kind of respect for each other, and Kiva isn’t afraid to kick her friend in the butt every now and then shen she needs it.

What Was Not Quite As Good

Although I really liked the story, it did kinda get off to a slow start. The really exciting parts happened towards the end of the book. The last part of the book flew by for me, while I wasn’t as excited about the book during the first part of the story.

Conclusion

I enjoyed The Storm Crow enough that I plan on reading the sequel at some point whenever it comes out. Although the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there are several unanswered questions that I’d like to know the answer to. I don’t know when it’ll come out, but I added it to my TBR.

This book doesn’t come out until July 9th, but you can pre-order it now.