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Review
Initial thoughts after finishing: OHHHH SHOOTTTTT, lolllll. Famous last words, amiright?😈
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I always appreciate when books start out just about where the previous one in the series left off and that’s exactly what this one did. The group of hunters had made it back to Pavan only to find out that Aurora’s kingdom is now in complete disarray. It’s easy to tell that something just isn’t right and Aurora knows she needs to do whatever necessary to get into that castle.
This book, to me, felt quite a bit different than the first. The writing itself was just as amazing, if not more, but the story was split off into four different directions this time. While I get that they were all necessary because all were coming from very different people doing very different things, it kind of broke things up for me a little bit. I still obviously very much enjoyed myself, though.
I loved getting to see Aurora getting more courageous and strong while still making mistakes and making questionable decisions (and actually owning up to them). It was refreshing to see. I also loved that she told Kiran to stuff it more, lol. He was still pretty overprotective but she just kind of was like well, I know you don’t want me to do this but here I am doing it anyway so you can just DEAL, BUDDY. Yassss Queen.
We were introduced to some new, and very interesting characters that I can’t wait to see more of and obviously we got to spend more time with our old favorites too. (BTW I KNEW IT!!!!!) <–You all will understand that when you read the part I’m talking about. I am dying to know more about that particular part/person. Also I’m still super confused about the Stormlord. Like who TF is he. I’m guessing he’s related to someone we know but I honestly have no theories whatsoever.
Also….that ending……very very VERY VERY interested to see where *that* will take us muahahahah. That’s all I’m giving you for now. If you liked the first one, you’re definitely going to want to pick this one out as soon as it’s out!
Huge thanks to Netgalley and Tor Teen for allowing me to read an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
RAGE is available NOW!
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About the Author
Cora Carmack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of New Adult Romance and YA fantasy. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages around the world. Cora lives in Austin, TX, and on any given day you might find her typing away at her computer, flying to various cities around the world, or just watching Netflix with her kitty Katniss and her dog Sherlock. But she can always be found on Twitter and Instagram (@coracarmack), Facebook (www.facebook.com/coracarmackbooks), and her website (www.coracarmack.com).
Want to meet Cora and celebrate Rage’s release in person? Check out her tour stops below and see if she’s coming to a city near you!
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The following is an exclusive excerpt from Rage!
Excerpt 1
Two nights later it was time to make their move. They had left the
Rock hidden deep in the woods, hoping that would be enough to
keep it safe. Aurora had cried as they released their horses to the
wilds. Honey had tried to follow her to the remnant camp, but
listened when Aurora ordered her to stay. For so long, that horse
had been her only company, her only solace. She hated leaving
her behind. But it was impossible to take her with them.
The night died a thousand deaths as they waited for the perfect
moment. Again and again, the dark sky lit up like the world itself
was splitting at the seams. Perhaps it was.
Aurora wore a thick cloak, but when the night was dark be- tween
bolts of skyfire, she could still see the faint glow of her own heart
beneath the fabric. It flickered faster, reminding her with every
frenzied heartbeat that she was about to go home. She was about
to get all the answers she had been desiring and dreading. She
was not the same girl she had been last time she stood this close
to her home. She’d left powerless with nothing more than hope in
her hands, and she’d come back with a storm wrapped around her
heart.
The skyfire storm approached from the southwest, and while it was
not directly upon the city yet, she could already hear the voices of
the remnants carrying on the wind, begging at the city gate for
admittance. She ached to go back to them, to do something, but as
soon as she turned her head in their direction, Kiran was there. His
voice was a low whisper as he said, “There’s no time. We must go
now, while there’s a distraction.”
She understood that, understood that Kiran and the rest of the
hunters were doing this all for her, and she hadn’t even gathered
the courage to tell them why. But she had not realized that once
she came home with magic, she could still feel as utterly powerless
as before.
She opened her mouth to argue, but it was Duke who stopped her
this time. “We can’t fight the storm either, Roar. This is Storm- ling
territory. We would put everyone in greater danger if we tried to
interfere.”
For the thousandth time, she wanted to throw back the hood that
covered her hair and declare to the world that she was Stormling,
that she was home. That she wanted to make things better.
But just as she had been shaped into something new by the
wildlands, Pavan too had changed.
Aurora had done what she could to help in her time among the
remnants. Kiran kept scolding her for giving food and supplies
away for free rather than trying to barter, arguing it made them
stand out too much. But after that display by Casimir, she knew
these people had nothing to trade, and even if they did she would
not take it from them. Each hour had heaped more guilt upon her
shoulders, until she wondered how she could still walk upright.
Once they were inside the city, she would tell Kiran the truth. She
would tell them all the truth. Even if it meant they all left her behind.
Tonight, she had led them all through what remained of Pavan’s
famed wheat fields. They were largely scorched or otherwise
destroyed by storms, and in the few untouched areas, they clearly
had not been tended to in weeks. The land was overgrown with
weeds and other plants.
She could no longer hear the remnants over the rumbling storm by
the time they stopped at their destination, a point on the city wall
far out of sight from the gate where the soldiers’ attention was now
focused. She had been sad to observe in recent days that when a
storm hit, the men on duty seemed more concerned with keeping
remnants out than being on alert should the storm slip through the
city’s Stormling defenses, which meant the only other worry they
had were the soldiers stationed in each of the high towers facing
the cardinal directions. So they had chosen a spot equidistant from
the two nearest towers, and thus their best chance at scaling the
wall unseen.
It was a gamble. But no one expected them to have an earth witch
on their side.
Jinx knelt in the dirt, and reached into the breast pocket of her
leather jacket, pulling out a single seed. She pushed that
insignificant seed into the soil, planting each finger around it like
the roots of a tree.
It took only a few breaths before a tiny green leaf broke through to
open air, unfurling as though taking its first breath. The leaves
grew and multiplied, followed by reaching vines that moved quickly
over the earth until they found the stone wall that surrounded the
city of Pavan. Faster, the vines began to uncurl, reaching higher
and higher, winding about each other to reach the top. Roar
recognized the plant as Rezna’s rest, the same plant she’d relied
on for weeks in the wild to knock her out when she lost her
emotions to a storm. The plant seemed to whisper as it climbed,
gasping and growing in a way that reminded her too much of the
people who were even now grasping the front gates in fear,
begging for mercy, hoping just for a reprieve from the onslaught of
this dangerous world.
When the vines had grown thick and sturdy, Jinx sat back, her
normally tawny face dotted with sweat, and her skin several
shades paler than usual. “That should work,” she said in a whisper.
Ransom was there a moment later to pull her to her feet. Jinx
brushed him off with a cavalier smile and turned to look at the
others.
“Who wants to try first? It’s completely safe. Probably.” “Probably?”
Bait asked, his eyebrows raised in exaggeration. Roar stepped
forward, her voice quiet but firm as she said, “I
will.” She saw Kiran about to object out of the corner of her eye,
and she held up a hand. “I’m doing this.” After all, they were all
only here because of her, because she asked, and because they
now counted her part of their team. Her stomach clenched, and
she re- fused to let herself think about how they might feel
differently soon.
Before anyone else could object, she marched up to the thick vine
and grabbed hold. She lifted her foot, finding a sturdy notch in the
vines, and then pulled herself up a little with her arms. She wanted
to take it slow, to step cautiously, but she knew there was too much
at risk to be anything but quick and efficient. When she reached
the top, she was relieved to find that Jinx had grown the vine not
only up the wall, but down the other side. For one brief second, she
allowed herself to look out over the city of Pavan. There were
hardly any lights to be seen, and the streets were de- serted. She
knew all the people were likely hiding in shelters, but it didn’t stop
the unease she felt at seeing her city so lifeless. If she dared to
lower her shields, she could probably feel the souls of the people
below, maybe even pick up a bit of their emotions, but it was too
dangerous to risk her walls being breached.
She felt the rustle of the vine as someone else began their as-
cent, and quickly threw her legs over to continue her climb down.
When she was a few feet off the ground, she jumped, the sound of
her landing swallowed by a boom of thunder that seemed to shake
the skies.
Kiran was there by the time she found steady footing, having
dropped from the top without bothering to climb down at all. “And
you call me reckless,” she whispered. “You could have bro- ken
your leg.”
He didn’t answer, simply closed the distance between them, curled
his hand around the nape of her neck, and pulled her for- ward into
the softest kiss he had ever given her. It lasted only a moment, but
they stayed close, heads bent together, lips a whisper away. And
slowly, the frenetic beat of her heart eased, the tension in her
fingers loosened, and she felt all her fear slide somewhere farther
back in her mind, pushed away by the intensity that always rose up
between them.
She could do this. They could do this.
This man had taken down hurricanes and lived through fire-
storms, and he loved her. She would tell him the truth, and he
would understand. He had to, because she wasn’t sure how she
could get through the next few days without him. If she searched
for her mother, only to find out the worst . . . she did not know what
she would do then.
Kiran whispered, “I can feel you tensing up again.”
A thump signaled another hunter’s arrival on this side of the wall.
Roar gave Kiran the best smile she could manage and prom- ised,
“Later.”
She had been promising later for days, but this time she meant it.
She pulled him down for another hard kiss, and when they pulled
apart, he looked more worried, not less.
“I promise I will tell you everything—”
He cut her off. “But first, we have to find your mother. I under-
stand, princess.”
She winced, and hoped he did not see it in the dark. “I also need to
find out about what has happened since I left.”
“We all do. We need to know what kind of trouble we are in here.”
Trouble she had dragged them into. Goddess, she was selfish. If
she had any honor, she would tell them right here, right now and
let them leave before they got involved any further. But the greedy
part of her was not going to make it any easier for Kiran to leave
her. If she could just prepare him, and say the right words at the
right time, maybe she did not have to lose everything she had
gained in the last few months.
Kiran laid his palm over her heart, and she felt the zing of sky- fire
rise up to meet his touch. She didn’t think he could feel it, but it
always made her feel as if her heart were too full, as if it might
burst under his attention.
“What are you two up to over there?” Bait asked. Roar hadn’t even
heard him descend. He continued, “Am I going to see some- thing
inappropriate the next time the sky lights up? Because some of us
have virgin eyes. Not from lack of effort, mind you.”
Kiran rolled his eyes, and blew out a steady breath before pull- ing
away. “Nothing to see. Your purity will remain intact.”
“Too bad.” It was dark, but somehow Roar could feel Kiran’s glare
fix on the novice hunter, and by the way the redheaded teen threw
up his hands, he could feel it too. “What? I’m only saying you could
both stand to loosen up. You act like we’re breaking into a hostile
city in the middle of a violent storm during the dead of night and
could be caught and jailed at any moment.”
No one replied for a long moment. By skyfire’s streaking light, they
saw Jinx step down gracefully from the vine and head toward
them.
“What? No laughs for that one?” Bait frowned. “I thought it was
clever.”
“Now’s not the time to be clever,” Jinx said.
“It’s always a good
time to be clever.”
“No, it isn’t,” Duke said from halfway up the
vine.
The old man took longer than all the rest, and Roar watched
him as best she could in the fractured darkness. She would tell him
second, after Kiran. She was fairly certain he already suspected
her secret, but she would need him on her side if she were going to
convince the crew to stay and help her put things right here. If that
could even be done—the unknowns were unraveling con- stantly in
her mind, threatening to pull her into a panic.
Of course, Duke was not the only one among their group who
suspected Roar had been untruthful about aspects of her past. Sly,
who had somehow appeared on this side of the wall without Roar
ever glimpsing her on the vine, stood leaning against the wall. With
her arms crossed over her chest, and her eyes as sharp as ever,
Sly scanned the abandoned city around them. Roar was relieved
not to have those keen eyes on her for a change.
Ransom was the last to come down the vine, his large body
moving with surprising agility. Roar supposed she shouldn’t be
shocked—he was a hunter, after all.
Once everyone had cleared the wall, Jinx crossed back to the vine.
With a brush of her fingers and a few whispered words of peace,
the vine grew dry and brittle, and broke apart in the wind. After a
few gusts from the storm, there was no evidence of their break-in
to be found.
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