JULIE JOHNSON'S PAGE: The Reign of Remnants romantasy series

THE SEA SPINNER (Reign of Remnants #2)
JULIE JOHNSON
Ace Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.25*of five

The Publisher Says: Blazing with reawakened magic, a young woman challenges the tides of fate in this highly anticipated installment of Julie Johnson’s romantasy series.

Everything changed for Rhya Fleetwood in the battle of Fyremas. Her grief is heavy, her rage volatile. Caeldera lies in ruins. Her friends are dead or wounded. And Pendefyre, their newly crowned king, is shutting her out. The Remnant of Fire needs all his focus for his kingdom, his people, and—perhaps more than anything—his insatiable need for revenge.

When a twist of fate leads Rhya to the last place she expected—the Water Court—the novice wind weaver is forced to confront the limitations of her untrained power as well as her increasingly complicated relationships. For enigmatic King Soren of Llŷr is as different from Penn as sparks are from the sea. The more insight he offers into the maegic that binds them together, the more confused Rhya feels—about her future as a Remnant, about her deepest desires, and about her role in the coming war.

Enemies circle close, ready to strike. And if Rhya isn’t careful, she’ll lose more than just her heart.

She’ll lose her life.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The geopolitical forces that clashed so inevitably and so violently in The Wind Weaver (review below) are recovering from the ugliness of battles fought but a war as yet unwon. Rhya's got more than just her powers to unleash, though, as she's got her love life to resolve as well as, oh y'know just the fate of the world, so no bigs and no pressure.

Penn continues to be bloody annoying, Soren continues to be my beau ideal of a boyfriend who could turn into a spouse of the most delectable rarity and scrummyness. Hey Rhya, if you want to continue to try that "but I can fix him" shtik with the yutz Penn, can I have Soren please and thank you?

Sadly for me, not only is Soren fictional but Rhya shows more than her usual (from last outing) romantic acuity while battening of Soren's Water Court vibe of collegiality, support, and genuine appreciation for her Wind magic. You go, girl! (Does he have a brother/uncle/cousin?)

The first third of the read was pretty pillar-to-post getting Rhya where she needed to be. I'm glad now that I have a sense that Author Julie Johnson is not going to give me anything all that fast-paced because it allows me to settle my expectations on the accepting it as it comes end of the spectrum.

I also understand now, having read these stories in close time-proximity that the ending of The Wind Weaver was very intentional. I'm ready to bump up my rating on this story despite its ending. That makes it sound like it's bad, but in point of fact it's merely evil-heated and cruel: It's a cliffhanger. Those really need to be outlawed. I should be able to start a class-action human-rights violation suit against Author Julie Johnson. I get it now...the endings are going to be like this in the whole series.

So where's book three, gorramit?! February 2027 is too long to wait!

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THE WIND WEAVER (Reign of Remnants #1)
JULIE JOHNSON
Ace Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$12.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Discover a world where magic isn’t learned. It’s survived. A gritty and intoxicating epic fantasy romance.

Rhya Fleetwood is a healer, an outcast, and like the realm itself—about to die. Or so she thought.

When the ruthless Commander Scythe plucks her from the vile clutches of her executioner there’s no time to feel relief. Her new captor wants Rhya for his own secret ends and they all lead back to the mysterious birthmark which brands her as a Remnant. One of four souls capable of calling forth inconceivable elemental power.

Rhya knows she must master the wind that whispers within her and make an escape. But as she is dragged across treacherous terrain with Scythe’s formidable band of soldiers, something keeps her at his side.

Inside her, a tempest roars—terror and desire. Soon, she knows she must choose.

Follow her magic, or her heart…

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Strap in. This is a very long ride/read. I'm really not much of a romantasy reader because I want my romance between men and my maegickq absent or limited in its narrative use. Neither of those desiderata are delivered (or indeed promised) in this narrative. Still, it's a debut novel and a Sunday Times (UK) bestseller, so my curiosity was definitely piqued. Saying yes to the DRC didn't seem urgent so I did.

It's been a year since then, a second book (review above) has come out, and I'm quite surprised to report that I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Author Julie Johnson is not pushing any envelopes, nor was she touted by her publisher as doing so. I entered the reading experience hoping for a diverting low-steam, finding love and purpose at the same time, story trope-fest. I was expecting to need to skim past sex scenes disagreeable to my preferences.

Well...yeah...about that. Rhya has two possible love-matches. Penn's the main one, and goddesses below us is he tedious to read about. He's curiously unimaginitive for someone of his elevated station. Soren's more interesting because he's irreverent and funny with it, lightens Rhya's apparent bipolar-disorder moods, and generally feels like he's got main-character energy. In its most nuanced meaning. I'm happy enough to report there was pretty minimal scene skimming until we get to the topic of violence.

This story is violent.

Intentionally, carefully so; it still has a LOT of violent scenes that were almost...very, very nearly...gratuitously and salaciously, visceral pornographic gore. In a story intended as, marketed to appeal to, romantasy reading folk. These folk lean towards female identity. The violence is preponderently involving females. That felt like an odd choice, but it was not the only odd choice (see my opinion of Rhya's romantic options above): the pacing, or "how slow can you go" too.

I'm really, really drawn to the idea of being a Chosen One whose status is an ambivalent-leaning-bad one. I'm used to the social/societal trials and tribulations part of the Chosen Ones narrative but this world offers a story of the powers themselves being kind of awful and using them being a chore. (I'm a fan of KJ Charles's Simon Feximal for this reason.) A great deal more could've been done to explore this as opposed to the two skabillion words wasted on Rhya's experiences once she gets to the royal court.

In case my opinion on this authorial choice is not clear: I am not a fan of Rhya's tremendously long non-magical maladjustment to the court.

I hope you now understand my star rating above. It assorts oddly with my surprised pleasure with this debut romantasy that had few of my desiderata in that genre, has a very, very promising world to build out, and unusually powerful good fortune to find a paying audience in sizable numbers.

On to book two I now go with hope in my heart, and a (slightly strained) smile on my face!