Review--War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

 

Victory comes at a price.

Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal’s betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart—and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her—Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all… starting with the crown on Maven’s head.

But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal’s powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolishing everything—and everyone—in his path.

War is coming, and all Mare has fought for hangs in the balance. Will victory be enough to topple the Silver kingdoms? Or will the little lightning girl be forever silenced?

In the epic conclusion to Victoria Aveyard’s stunning series, Mare must embrace her fate and summon all her power… for all will be tested, but not all will survive.

 

I finally made it to the end of Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series with War Storm! War Storm brings us to the epic conclusion of this quartet and it was something all right! I'll admit, I was struggling a bit with this series as I finished it up, there was so much described or happening that did nothing to move the story forward. I felt like things were being drawn out to create that long epic fantasy feel you get with the long epic fantasy reads. It's not to say I didn't enjoy the book as a whole. I did like it and I plan to read more from Victoria as she writes, but I have to say, this book would've been just as exciting with about half the pages.

War is coming, that much we all know. The regions are becoming divided. Everyone has their own idea on how the status quo between Reds and Silvers should be. Mare, along with the Scarlet Guard are wanting to change that and have more rights for Reds. Cal is now readying himself to be the true king once more, they will have to remove Maven from the throne and Mare worries that Cal just wants things to go back to the way they were before, with Reds being subservient to the Silvers.

Before much can be done, Mare, Cal, and his once again fiancee, Evangeline must gain recruits to help them in the war to come against Maven. But that's only the beginning of their journey in this one as the upcoming battle is going to take everything and everyone they have in their arsenal to come out the victor.

This book was epic in a sense that so much was trying to be done with the state of things in the world which Mare lives in. Fighting for equality and the rights of Reds against their oppressing Silvers. I mean, at one point Silvers were complaining about having to cook their own meals and the lack of flavor they had since the Reds up and left them. I guess that's "royalty" for you that that was such a big deal for them. Cal's sort of flip-flop stance on the whole matter didn't really endear him to me either. He wanted things to stay the way they are but with exceptions and trying to be more fair to Reds, yet still not giving them better opportunities. 

Needless to say, this book got pretty political in the fantasy sense. Perhaps that's why I felt like things were taking so long to move forward. Though pacing was another issue I had with this book. Things just didn't move forward at a fast pace. Every moment was analyzed down to a conversation, to a warmup battle, to a small battle and beyond. I just felt like you could still get the points across with less description and time spent on analyzing every angle.

The relationship between Mare and Cal only continued to worsen in this one it seems. What with Cal readying to be king again and not take much of a stance on bettering things for Reds. You can imagine the hurt Mare was going through, but naturally that didn't stop the two from having their moments together. That kind of annoyed me too. I mean, you hate the guy because he's not willing to give better opportunities for your people, yet when things get dangerous you go back to wanting to be with him? It just ruffled my feathers you could say. Mare and Cal are definitely one of those couples that go hot and cold.

We did get more points of view in this one, Cameron kind of fizzled out it seemed in this story, but we get Evangeline, Mare, Cal, MAVEN, and Iris. I was particularly excited to get Maven's point of view, but alas, there wasn't much from him. Maybe 2 chapters? I just wanted to know what this boy was thinking and though he was villainous and abhorrent in his treatment of Mare, I sometimes found myself feeling sorry for the guy. It was few and far between, mostly in teeny tiny increments that didn't last longer than 2 seconds, but there it is.

The ending was something that left me a little conflicted. Things are mostly resolved, we know where mostly everyone is at and where things are going for them...except, Mare. I mean we got most of that but we don't really know what her future will entail beside a few idealistic hopes and dreams. I guess I was just hoping for a little more along the lines of "happily ever after" after all the pain and turmoil that Mare endured, but it's mostly left up to the reader to imagine where Mare's path will take her.

Overall, War Storm was an exciting read and gives a decent conclusion to the series. There's room for more, I suppose there's always room for more. While I was left a little heartbroken over a few matters here and there, it was still a pretty good read. I just wish things could have been paced out a little better to make the pages really fly.

Overall Rating 3/5 stars