The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

*Spoiler free*

In the tropical kingdom of Rhodaire, magical, elemental Crows are part of every aspect of life…until the Illucian empire invades, destroying everything. That terrible night has thrown Princess Anthia into a deep depression. Her sister Caliza is busy running the kingdom after their mother’s death, but all Thia can do is think of all she has lost. But when Caliza is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the crown prince of Illucia, Thia is finally spurred into action. And after stumbling upon a hidden Crow egg in the rubble of a rookery, she and her sister devise a dangerous plan to hatch the egg in secret and get back what was taken from them.

Crows seem to be everywhere in books these days! I’m not sure what it is, but I don’t really mind. Crows are cool and I find them even cooler after reading this book. (Oh, yeah nice segway Chloe.) This is stunning and I heard that the main character in this book struggles with depression. I knew I wanted to give it a shot, even though it made it me a little nervous.

This book turned out to be absolutely amazing and I really, really loved it. It deals with heavy topics and so much happens, but it almost seems softer kind of? I’m not sure if that makes sense. It just does a lot of things really well.

I thought the depression rep was done really, really well. I struggle more with anxiety than depression, but I’ve had hints of it here and there. The way the Thia thinks, the way she feels, and how battles her depression was really similar to how I think sometimes. It was cool to see. It was cool to see her struggle with it and it was cool to see her fight it. While she made so much progress throughout the book, she knows it might not fully go away. And that is so true and so real. It was a really nice progression. It didn’t fully disappear overnight and there were days that were better than others.

I really liked the relationships. There were so many kinds, a lot of which were really complicated, but they were all really well done. There was a strong bond between Thia and her sister Caliza. They struggled to fully understand each other, but they love each other all the same. There was an amazing female friendship! Kiva and Thia are so supportive of each other and I really liked seeing them interact. The romance is kind of insta-love, but I actually liked it! That’s pretty rare for me. It seems like such a sweet and healthy relationship and I’m glad the romance took this route. It’s different from other books and it’s just really, really nice.

There is so many complicated feelings that so many characters have to figure out. I liked seeing everyone try and find out what they best thing for them was. To try and see what they wanted their world to look like and how they could make that happen. And how things might not work out how they thought. There’s growth and disappointment and anger and acceptance. It was amazing to see it play out.

The plot was also really awesome. It was simple, but really spectacularly done. It might’ve been a little bit predictable, but the execution was amazing. I can’t wait to see what happens next and how things are going to play out.

There was also a cat! I loved Gio. He was adorable. There were so many adorable scenes in this book. There’s scenes about fighting and dueling and then there are scenes about cuddling and really well done humor. It was a really nice blend!

The writing was fantastic. It was so strong and so easy to read. Everything was so vivid, from the fight scenes, to the descriptions of rooms.

There were a lot of casually queer characters, which I really appreciated!

I can’t wait for book 2! I think it’s going to be a lot more intense (in a battle is coming sort of way) and I’m really looking forward to seeing where the plot, characters, and world goes.

The Storm Crow comes out July 9, 2019! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy in the meantime!

Thank you for reading!