Date Read: June 18 - June 27 2019
Date Released: June 11 2019
Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia
Source: Review copy via publisher
Genre: Paranormal
My Rating:
Date Released: June 11 2019
Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia
Source: Review copy via publisher
Genre: Paranormal
My Rating:
Synopsis:
"Eighteen-year-old Trinity Marrow may be going blind, but she can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Her unique gift is part of a secret so dangerous that she’s been in hiding for years in an isolated compound fiercely guarded by Wardens—gargoyle shape-shifters who protect humankind from demons. If the demons discover the truth about Trinity, they’ll devour her, flesh and bone, to enhance their own powers.
When Wardens from another clan arrive with disturbing reports that something out there is killing both demons and Wardens, Trinity’s safe world implodes. Not the least because one of the outsiders is the most annoying and fascinating person she’s ever met. Zayne has secrets of his own that will upend her world yet again—but working together becomes imperative once demons breach the compound and Trinity’s secret comes to light. To save her family and maybe the world, she’ll have to put her trust in Zayne. But all bets are off as a supernatural war is unleashed…"
When Wardens from another clan arrive with disturbing reports that something out there is killing both demons and Wardens, Trinity’s safe world implodes. Not the least because one of the outsiders is the most annoying and fascinating person she’s ever met. Zayne has secrets of his own that will upend her world yet again—but working together becomes imperative once demons breach the compound and Trinity’s secret comes to light. To save her family and maybe the world, she’ll have to put her trust in Zayne. But all bets are off as a supernatural war is unleashed…"
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I do wonder if JLA puts crack or weed or some kind of drug in her books because they are freaking addictive. I literally had to physically tear myself from the book every time I needed to put it down. Side note I didn’t realise Storm and Fury was a spin-off of The Dark Elements and I should have finished that series before picking up this one because now I know how TDE ends… welps. Storm and Fury is essentially the story that Zayne got since he didn’t get the girl – I’m actually bitter about that because as much as I loved Roth, I shipped Layla with Zayne. Now that’s off my chest, on to the actual review.
Trinity Marrow is a human who’s grown up protected in the Warden compound. I’m not going to lie, I could guess who she was pretty early on so it wasn’t a big WOW when the reveal happened. I enjoyed her character, to an extent. By now I’ve kind of gotten the gist of the kind of female MCs JLA likes to write: really good at combat, witty/snarky sense of humour, a girl who stands her own ground, manages to attract trouble, wants to help others and is stubborn. Trinity fit right into that mold and it almost felt the same as reading Alex from Covenant. I think they’re basically the same person just in different bodies. Katy and Layla also displayed similar traits however I really likened Trinity to Alex. Although Trinity sometimes annoyed me and I don’t actually know why. The main difference from Alex was Trinity’s physical appearance and her vision impairment. I thought the vision impairment was the most interesting aspect of her character as it’s not every day a supernatural book has a combat-competent MC that’s vision impaired. I would have liked to see more of this actually – rather than her randomly tripping I wanted to know if she wore contacts or glasses and how this affected her day-to-day life. I got the impression she sometimes wore glasses and I would’ve liked to see how she fought with glasses because that’s got to be a hassle – considering how I can’t even do downward dog without them slipping down my nose I can’t imagine dodging punches without them flying off.
Now Zayne is even broodier than in TDE. More broodier, more sullen, just as sweet and hot (but nobody beats Aiden St Delphi. NOBODY). I don’t know how the scary looking stone gargoyles on buildings can be hot but JLA makes them hot. Especially a fine specimen (statue?) like Zayne. I really liked the way JLA wrote his character in that he hasn’t miraculously gotten over the events of TDE. His wounds are still fresh and Layla is still a touchy subject. Moving on is never easy and we get to see Zayne’s progression through Storm and Fury. Seeing his character unfold through Trinity’s eyes was also interesting considering the way we perceived him in TDE – both Layla and Trinity pine for him but in different ways. One’s been in love with him from the beginning, the other was sceptical of his character and only physically attracted to him. Makes for an interesting dynamic.
There’s quite a few appearances from TDE which I enjoyed seeing and how they play into the events of the Harbinger series will be an interesting one in the future books. I do love it when authors include much loved characters into other books *rubs hands together* just as long as they stay happy ya know? Poor characters had their fair share of turmoil in their own books, now they must rest.
I liked the diversity explored in Storm and Fury – there’s a same-sex couple who have a healthy relationship, as well as characters with different ethnicities and skin colours (still waiting for an Asian though). They’re not used as plot devices, these characters just are, which is the way society is so I was on mega board with this.
Plot-wise I’m not sure I follow with how big the impact is made out to be. Like I’m getting the impression this is Armageddon (ya know Harbinger giving me the End of Days/Judgment Day vibes) but the ways the characters are playing out seems lowkey. I’m hoping for the significance of some characters to be revealed later on because they seemed to be arbitrarily selected in Storm and Fury for convenience rather than destiny/fate playing out in epic proportions. That made more sense in my head. I’m trying to make the connections of certain characters to the overall plot and how all the pieces were strategically placed eons ago to be played out. Got to wait and see I guess.
Overall, Storm and Fury is another addictive paranormal story in JLA’s repertoire. I’m hoping we get more differences in Trinity’s character development and the plot expands to the Biblical heights it forebodes. The characters show potential and the Harbinger series is promising thus far so I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel.
I do wonder if JLA puts crack or weed or some kind of drug in her books because they are freaking addictive. I literally had to physically tear myself from the book every time I needed to put it down. Side note I didn’t realise Storm and Fury was a spin-off of The Dark Elements and I should have finished that series before picking up this one because now I know how TDE ends… welps. Storm and Fury is essentially the story that Zayne got since he didn’t get the girl – I’m actually bitter about that because as much as I loved Roth, I shipped Layla with Zayne. Now that’s off my chest, on to the actual review.
Trinity Marrow is a human who’s grown up protected in the Warden compound. I’m not going to lie, I could guess who she was pretty early on so it wasn’t a big WOW when the reveal happened. I enjoyed her character, to an extent. By now I’ve kind of gotten the gist of the kind of female MCs JLA likes to write: really good at combat, witty/snarky sense of humour, a girl who stands her own ground, manages to attract trouble, wants to help others and is stubborn. Trinity fit right into that mold and it almost felt the same as reading Alex from Covenant. I think they’re basically the same person just in different bodies. Katy and Layla also displayed similar traits however I really likened Trinity to Alex. Although Trinity sometimes annoyed me and I don’t actually know why. The main difference from Alex was Trinity’s physical appearance and her vision impairment. I thought the vision impairment was the most interesting aspect of her character as it’s not every day a supernatural book has a combat-competent MC that’s vision impaired. I would have liked to see more of this actually – rather than her randomly tripping I wanted to know if she wore contacts or glasses and how this affected her day-to-day life. I got the impression she sometimes wore glasses and I would’ve liked to see how she fought with glasses because that’s got to be a hassle – considering how I can’t even do downward dog without them slipping down my nose I can’t imagine dodging punches without them flying off.
Now Zayne is even broodier than in TDE. More broodier, more sullen, just as sweet and hot (but nobody beats Aiden St Delphi. NOBODY). I don’t know how the scary looking stone gargoyles on buildings can be hot but JLA makes them hot. Especially a fine specimen (statue?) like Zayne. I really liked the way JLA wrote his character in that he hasn’t miraculously gotten over the events of TDE. His wounds are still fresh and Layla is still a touchy subject. Moving on is never easy and we get to see Zayne’s progression through Storm and Fury. Seeing his character unfold through Trinity’s eyes was also interesting considering the way we perceived him in TDE – both Layla and Trinity pine for him but in different ways. One’s been in love with him from the beginning, the other was sceptical of his character and only physically attracted to him. Makes for an interesting dynamic.
There’s quite a few appearances from TDE which I enjoyed seeing and how they play into the events of the Harbinger series will be an interesting one in the future books. I do love it when authors include much loved characters into other books *rubs hands together* just as long as they stay happy ya know? Poor characters had their fair share of turmoil in their own books, now they must rest.
I liked the diversity explored in Storm and Fury – there’s a same-sex couple who have a healthy relationship, as well as characters with different ethnicities and skin colours (still waiting for an Asian though). They’re not used as plot devices, these characters just are, which is the way society is so I was on mega board with this.
Plot-wise I’m not sure I follow with how big the impact is made out to be. Like I’m getting the impression this is Armageddon (ya know Harbinger giving me the End of Days/Judgment Day vibes) but the ways the characters are playing out seems lowkey. I’m hoping for the significance of some characters to be revealed later on because they seemed to be arbitrarily selected in Storm and Fury for convenience rather than destiny/fate playing out in epic proportions. That made more sense in my head. I’m trying to make the connections of certain characters to the overall plot and how all the pieces were strategically placed eons ago to be played out. Got to wait and see I guess.
Overall, Storm and Fury is another addictive paranormal story in JLA’s repertoire. I’m hoping we get more differences in Trinity’s character development and the plot expands to the Biblical heights it forebodes. The characters show potential and the Harbinger series is promising thus far so I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel.
