REVIEW: Eye of the Storm by John Goode

Eye of the Storm by John Goode
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

CAUTION: Long Review

Book 2 thrusted Kane out of Earth and into another world, turning the series from urban fantasy to pure fantasy. A couple scenes shined for me, but the rest of the story didn’t impress me.

The Characters

+++ the MC: Kane

I continue to think Kane as an idiot. He is frequently in danger, but he rarely seems to grasp the severity of the situation. In the rare moments when he does, he acts foolishly. I wouldn’t label Kane as TSTL (yet), but sometimes I am surprised that he is still alive.

Kane tends to whine and get distracted. He rarely thinks about anything else except his boyfriend, Hawk. I love YA and I love romance, but this YA romance heavily impressed me as teenage silliness. Kane is the star of the series, but in book 2 he wasn’t more than a momentarily empowered dude in distress who relies on luck to survive.

+++ the MC’s boyfriend: Hawk

Hawk was slightly better. He annoyed me in book 1, but he didn’t annoy me in book 2. Though, that is probably because he was comatose for most of book 2.

Honestly, I discerned no character growth for the couple. Even though I hardly liked either of them, I was disappointed that they were not in the spotlight of book 2. Half of it was about the bad guys, and I disliked them more than the couple.

+++ the bad guys

In book 1, I thought the villains were lame. In book 2, I still think they’re kind of lame but now I mostly think of them as impotent. I eye-rolled at their scenes and how they thought they were better than everyone else when they were not. Neither were convincing in their role, especially Puck as a shadow mastermind.

It didn’t make sense to me why Oberon didn’t execute Puck for his insolence in court, or why Puck didn’t kill Oberon when Oberon was knocked out, or why Oberon didn’t kill Puck after Oberon woke up. The two men hated each other enough to murder one another and knew it was only a matter of time, so why the delay? There didn’t seem to be any purpose for one man needing the other alive. I wish the book rid the two characters already.

+++ the two assassins

The two assassins confused me. First they were bad guys, then they were misunderstood guys. Later, it turned out they were romantically involved with each other. They were going to kill Hawk, but then they decided to save him. Whether they did it out of altruism or as some backup plan, I have no clue. What the series wanted to do with these characters, I have no idea.

I was surprised and tired by how much of the story was in their POV. It was only a couple of scenes, but it was way more than I care to read. When something tragic happened to them at the end, I wasn’t all that sad.

+++ the MC’s friends

I liked Ferra the Viking-inspired barbarian, but her character created a plot hole. Ferra belonged to an insular, xenophobic tribe that abhorred magic to the extent that they semi-ostracized their shamans. Shamans were a necessary evil for them. In a fight scene late in the book, Ferra used ice magic. But how could she when only the ones who could work in magic in her tribe were the shamans? Ferra wasn’t a shaman; she was a warrior, and warrior are not taught magic. Thus, the plot hole.

Fortunately, it didn’t ruin the character for me; I still liked Ferra. I also liked Molly the clockwork girl. She was like a breathe of fresh air; she was a unique character I have read about in a long time, and I read a lot. She was compelling enough to star in her own novel.

The Crystal Court could have been more imaginative. It was odd that the talking gems have social constructions like genders and patriarchy. Nonetheless, I liked the Ruber’s siblings. They could have annoyed me, but they managed to charm me with their personality. I was happy to see Ruber stayed outspoken and spunky in defiant of his overbearing father.

The Plot

+++ the plot lines

Two plot lines dominated the story: (1) Puck seek to take over fairyland (2) while Kane and his band of misfits try to rescue Hawk. It was amazingly fast-paced and had a bucketful of action. The plot alternated between multiple PoVs. Though it didn’t bother me, I would have preferred the story to stick with the good guys’ PoV.

+++ the ending

The ending was a cliffhanger, but not a strong one compared to book 1’s cliffhanger. The ending felt more like a natural end point, and though there were loose ends, I was satisfied by how much was resolved. Still, the ending was cheesy with its True Love’s Kiss scene; a Disney princess movie this book was not.

In Conclusion

I rate Eye of the Storm 2-stars for it was okay. I didn’t mind how lacking the bad guys were, but I did mind the lack of character growth from Kane and Hawk. Their friends, some of whom were newly introduced, managed to outshine the couple. It should be the star of the series and his boyfriend that makes me like the book, not their cool, more interesting friends.

If you like this series, check out the Witch Eyes series: