TL;DR Review: More magic, more action, and all the spice and steam you could ask for. A spectacular “opposites attract” romance.
Synopsis:
“All you see is that I run. Why haven’t you realized I always come back?”
She is lightning and storm. A spy, driven out of her home by a tyrant ruler. He is granite and earth. A guard, ordered to keep her contained.
To protect herself and her family, she’s learned to go unnoticed, unseen. Suddenly a refugee in a land that once was enemy and now must be home, she isn’t certain where she belongs, or what her duty is beyond her family. She can’t protect them alone this time, but the only man who can help her is the only one she cannot ask.
He’s sworn his loyalty to the Sultana since she lifted him out of the gutter that made him. The arrival of a foreign spy loyal to the new prince makes him question himself and his orders, and his mistakes threaten the life of the ruler he swore to serve.
War will force choices of them both. She—to remain a spy, or stand and lend her powerful, untamed magic to the Sultana of Tamar. He—to remain a loyal, unquestioning guard, or learn to trust his instincts, and his heart.
They are magic in opposition, earth and sky, steady and mutable. One immovable as stone, the other fast as the wind. Balance, sometimes, is chaos.
He needed the storm and wildness of her, he needed the way she broke him apart.
Full Review:
Reign and Ruin introduced us to the city of Narfour and its Sultana, Naime, who is struggling to wrest control of her father’s kingdom from the schemes and plots of the wicked (incredibly Jafar-esque) Vizier Kadir, with the help of handsome warrior-prince Makram. Storm and Shield brings us right back into the fray, but with a whole new perspective.
The characters in this story are:
Aysel, daughter of Makram’s most trusted ally (and mentor/father figure), raised to be a sneak and spy. She may be small, but she has personality, wit, courage, and cunning in ample measure.
Bashir, Commander of Narfour’s city guard, charged with keeping law—which Aysel immediately breaks on her first night under his watch. For all his immense size, he is a gentle giant at heart with a soft interior few ever get to see beneath his stony façade.
The two are opposites in every possible way—size, temperament, even their magic (air is quick and uncontrollable, earth is solid and immovable)—and that makes them a pairing that is an absolute delight to read.
From their first encounter, Aysel delights in giving him seven kinds of hell, using her sharp wit and airy humor to put the stern commander in his place. For his part, Bashir can’t seem to keep this flighty thief/spy under control, and that infuriates him—even as it draws him to her.
While Naime and Makram’s pairing had all the gravitas you’d expect from a Sultana and warrior prince, Aysel and Bashir’s romance is a great deal of fun. Aysel is the sort of person who laughs and schemes and dances her way through life, which contrasts deliciously with Bashir’s deliberate, thoughtful, orderly personality.
What made me love this book so much was how similar to my own life it was. My 5’3” wife is a firecracker (to put it mildly) who loves to dance (literally) circles around me the way Aysel does around Bashir. I, on the other hand, have the same solid, longsuffering personality of Bashir that makes for the immovable object around which my favorite unstoppable force can blow like the whirlwind.
Romance aside, the plot continued to be epic and interesting, with high stakes for both Aysel (assassins hunting her family) and Naime and Makram who we first fell in love with (that Wheel-damned Vizier and his schemes!). We get an expansion of the Wheel of magic, a look at another House of magic (Air, where Makram was Destruction), and an advancement of both Naime and Makram’s story.
Though Storm and Shield followed new characters, it did an amazing job of keeping to familiar territory and pressing forward on the previous book’s plot. It even incorporated those new characters into the overarching scheme and showed the continuing development of Naime and Makram’s romance.
All in all, a second-in-series that not only lived up to its predecessor, but enjoyed itself a lot more while still keeping to the spirit and tone that made Reign and Ruin such a delight.
Epic plot, spectacular characters, and a world that feels instantly familiar and engaging. I’m giving this book ALL THE STARS.
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