Storm is the second book of Jenna Wolfhart's, The Bone Coven Chronicles, which was published Julyth, It follows Witch's Curse review link below, published Mayst, and precedes Witch's Blade due out in August creating an impressive release schedule between books, According to Amazon's Jenna Wolfhart Page see below link the first two books constitute the current extent of Jenna's library, Some of the series's frequently used book shelf tags via Goodreads includes: Urban Fantasy Vampires and Demons, Interestingly, however, neither Witches nor Witchcraft made it into the top handful, Witch's Storm's word length is,wordspages, It's bold blurb heading reads, Darkness threatens to destroy the world, And it's lurking within myself,
Author Page sitelink amazon. com/JennaWolfhart
sitelink amazon. com. au/review/RK
INTRODUCTION THE STORY:
Word of Zoe's ascension to the Enforcer rank of the Bone Coven has spread like wild fire, Her local watering hole and place of employment, the Blue Moon Tavern, now buzzes with talk of her efforts regarding rogue Enforcers and open conflict threatening the treaties.
It's a miniature reflection of the wider social climate, where brokered treaties and interracial conflict threatens to out the supernatural world, The Bone Coven is of course waning after the decimation in its ranks, Thankfully for Zoe there's one pickup, the marked coven status that has since replaced the "fairgamebloodbag" status of her best friend Laura, who had in ignorance coaxed danger, is one less thing to worry about.
Arisen as a secondary benefit from Laura's help with the spell to reverse her grandmother's curse was the saving grace as it precipitated her mark, providing protection from the heightened and addictive quality of her blood.
Demons soon start appearing in characteristics which reflect age old situations indicative of a current increasingly apocalyptic threat to the veil separating realms, The initial development could've been passed off as merely overactive human imaginations had the claims come from someone unknown to Zoe, or to someone other than her, Even then her previous fraudulent behaviours place doubts on her willingness to investigate, She'd only recently been the primary cause creating "demonic evidence" in order to raise tithes which kept her and her grandmother in secure accommodation and with food in their bellies albeit poor ones at that.
The one actual case that had panned out involved far more reliable claims by coming from the respective fae,
When Zoe visits Juno, the new confidante of her close friend Nathan, about Juno's dog repeatedly upsetting the clientele at the tavern because of the haunting quality of her dog's howling, Juno requests the assistance that'll spark off the beginning of the upcoming jeopardy to the veil.
When interviewed with Dorian in tow, Juno's testimony and appearance are recognised for what they are: classic indicators of recently being in the presence of demons, Gruesome murders had also started occurring in the manner that points to a serial killer, The first victim, like her BFF Laura, is a young female blood mage, Dorian, is the sexy hybrid work partner who at one stage was her accuser and supervisor in the investigation to clear her of recent murder charges,
Zoe's conscience regarding the killing of Vincent, which she was implicit in, is eating away at her, Whether or not she'd needed to act as she had in killing him is irrespective of the hurt it now causes her soul which appears to care little for the meaning of justified aggression in self or other defense.
Complicating the outcomes of her involvement, she's solely attributed use of her Shadow Magic as the causal link instead of attributing it to any of the external or situational contexts of choice she faced moments before using her dagger to end his life.
Knowing how conscionable her morality is, Dorian knows she'll face being in the position where her Bone Magic, her fighting ability, and the capabilities of her combatant are insufficient to the task again.
As much as he cares for the anguish she puts herself through, he still pushes her to redefine her opinion and willingness to use her shadow magic, knowing that failure to do so could end her life in any number of occasions that'll possibly be a frequent occurrence in the vocation she's chosen to pursue, say nothing of consequences of not acting for other bystanders or even himself.
Zoe allows herself to misconstrue Dorian's push during their training, even though in brief glimpses when it's viewed rationally she can see the sense of his stance, and it has therefore become a potential wedge to be driven between them if she can't give any ground.
Being a hybrid with part of his soul characterised as darkness makes him particularly well suited to get through to her in the way her grandmother had also recently done, despite her capacity to see him in ways that aren't shaped by that same darkness.
Stubbornly, she still only sees the choice as a decision that'll corrupt her soul,
Zoe's shadow powers may destroy her soul but death will do the same, especially if demons or other dark practitioners she'll face as an Enforcer are the causal link in that chain.
In her inexperience and youth, she fails to heed the obvious example staring her in the face, Zoe concurrently handicaps both herself and her partner, This is never more important than when hers and Dorian's combined Bone Magic fails, and when the resulting situations lead to the only conclusion being a return of the supernatural war: when demons roamed freely and were immune to conventional wisdom.
OPINION:
It's apparent that despite years of wisdom, our heroes and heroines are forgetting what should easily be remembered: regardless of either who summoned or controls them, demons first and foremost have their own agenda.
So whilst having cut the head off the proverbial snake, a, k. a. the rogue Enforcer Vincent, anything involving demons is guaranteed to be a hydra, Vincent might've been the felled head, or merely a part of the body, but ultimately it's redundant, Regardless of the specifics of what has come to pass, the hydra that seeks to break the veil wide open remains, and it's foolish to have thought Vincent's plans were guaranteed to have perished with him! It just goes to show that even the experts can fail their own covenants.
In the classroom knowledge rules, but in the playground even the teachers sometimes get caught up in the playing,
For the budding new Enforcer purpose continues to redefine her previous shapeless and directionless life, Zoe's life up until just recently was a matter of only existing not of truly living, As with the rules and features of her life, that is they are undergoing a metamorphosis, the rules of the world around her are changing as well, On the one hand exists all the knowledge and experience perceived as gospel, whilst more accurately on the other hand is the fact that rules are malleable and forever liquid.
Ursurpers and coupes in the political world of the covens and races expose the prior rules having given way to misdirection and revelation about the power of political authorities who control knowledge, often in the manner that reifies their position, the manner of how corruption runs so deep as to see one bad apple giving way to the next.
This is a factor of systems that outgrow the people who run them in order to prevent their abolition, and is a very real aspect
of real life organisation.
The furtherance of the path of fate for Zoe as it mimics closely that of the revelations of the prior environment of the storyline that preceded the current one, is a nice expansion denoting the symbiotic relationship of what we were already beginning to realise as it moves forward to become concurrent of her own.
The intensity of the suspenseful and action borne sequences required to manifest those changes are an appreciated dimension of the new story, The climate of the external world to Zoe's own internal one, mimics these changes with concordance, so that the reader and the central figure move forward together at the same time.
This has been reflected poorly in a number of critical reviews by other readers, wherein I disagree with the alleged simplicity and predictability stated by those respective readers.
It's important that central figures and the environment of the plot move together, with neither outgrowing the other, Often stories can make huge leaps in either plot or character development, leaving you to wonder about the interim, In addition, the storyline on the whole leads to erroneous assumptions in at least as many instances as it does correct ones, with some escaping your observations altogether which is in my opinion all that you can ask for from a mystery.
The way events are duplicitous and a mix of coincidence bestows Zoe's role in those events as a matter of fate and questions quite successfully, In as much as I'm sure a round of Cluedo leads to premature, correct, and incorrect deductions, so too does the story hell, isn't that part of the purpose of mysteries I'd caution having faith in critical opinions that rely only on alleged unilateral ease of child's play in the mystery as the reason for their low rating, given that aspect is debatable.
The backdialogue relationship between demons and vampires goes a certain way to explaining what is easily at least fiftypercent of demonvampire lore throughout fantasy fiction literature, in the stakes of the grudges and chipsontheirsoldiers and general antagonism between the two races.
Whilst it behooves me to say that neither is this outlined herein as though this suggestion is a given and nor is it a given reasoning when the particulars of this story expand to encompass the lore of other books.
Indeed, whilst the antagonistic and seemingly age old grudge between demons and vampires are concerned, either is almost always belittling the other or considering them an inferior existence when compared to each other.
So the usage of the situation as it stands in these books, well at least this most recent book in its suggestive manner, is a novel adaptation and construction worthy of noting.
Similarly, the division and distinction between two vampiric races, plus an unbounded which could be considered a third division continues to grow on me, It elicits aspects of my own imagination regarding what might be possible with a deal of thought in regards to other supernatural races throughout fantasy literature even getting back to vampiric races you could consider a fourth being that of the rare but powerful dhampir.
Having adapted elements of existing components usually taken for granted becomes novel and provocative the moment authors reconstruct them for it is something we can be taught to consider ourselves.
That this feature should be provocative enough to spur you into thinking further about how said processes can open the floodgates of other things taken for granted is thus another achievement.
The way rune magic, especially the action of drawing it on the hand, or on inanimate objects, to then be combined with particular kinds of magic, could even be a reversal of that process if for example, it were an adaptation of Cassandra Claire's modelling of Shadow Hunters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this addition and look forward to future consequences and directions of the series that has passed, Zoe and Dorian make a strong foundation and at least in Zoe's case in particular, she appears to still be operating at less than her full capacity promising an expansion in the respective areas of future titles.
Laura and her budding power, and I dare say even her budding relationship with a certain daywalker promises growth and a possible spinoff saga where she is central to the storyline is an intriguing concept.
Young Nathan and his possible future storyline should he follow a recommended by Zoe could also potentially promise a spinoff, or perhaps more suitably a companion story, All up this makes the characters perfect constructions,
Pace, anticipation, action and content, intriguing people, events, and even the world, are all great features, The style and structure are enjoyable, tying off the key places often looked at by readers, The sexual tension between Zoe and Dorian, depending on intended audience is also a further promissory of future storylines, The only constructive feedback I can suggest isn't a dealbreaker because of compensation in the body of the story leading up to it, where nonetheless I do see the final battle as one sequence where increases in its dimensions could've been beneficial.
Nonetheless, as I went withon the prior novel, I'm leaning toward a,on this one. But as that's not specifically possible, I'm going to round that up to anotherrating, .