Review: Stormwalker by Allyson James

Stormwalker (Stormwalker #1)
Allyson James
Published: May 4, 2010 (Berkley)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon

Reviewed by: Amber

Rating (out of 5): 2.5 stars

Janet Begay is a stormwalker: able to use a storm’s rain, wind and lightning at will. Having experience in solving weird and unexplained cases, Janet travels to Magellan at a friend’s request to help with the missing person’s case of Amy McGuire. Magellan brings her close to her hometown and the case gives Janet the opportunity to finally face her mother, an evil goddess from Beneath, hell-bent on possessing Janet and using her as a vessel on this plane.

While in Magellan, Janet purchases a rundown hotel with the intent to renovate and reopen it. Along the way, Mick, a big bad motorcycle rider with some of the most powerful fire magic anyone has ever seen, and coincidentally Janet’s old flame, comes back into her life. He’s the only one who can withstand Janet’s power and he knows of her intentions to confront her mother. He’s determined to keep her safe, from her mother and from herself, using any dirty, underhanded trick he has to.

Stormwalker’s world is new and fresh with a whole new plane of existence. It introduces an interesting history behind the realm of Beneath and how our realm became filled with new magic and supernatural beings. I would have like to have seen a little more development of the world, a few more questions answered about the rules and boundaries of their magic or just how much normal people know about the supernatural. There were a couple of characters that I don’t quite understand the purpose of, but I have complete faith that all this will be explained a little more in later books.

Between Amy’s disappearance, Janet’s mother, Mick, and the hotel renovations, I was struggling to care about any one thing as much as I could have. It was hard to find the main plot, as there was just so much going on. It’s not that James didn’t tie any of these things together, but had the focus been more on one or two of these aspects, rather than all four, my attention may not have been so divided.

Saying that, with all this going on in Janet’s life, Stormwalker never has a dull moment. What kept me coming back for more was how much I loved to hate Mick. He’s the kind of guy my inner modern woman would love to rip into. As the daughter of a powerful goddess combined with her Navajo stormwalking abilities, Janet is far from helpless but he treats her like she’s made of glass, incapable of looking after herself. To top it off, he tells her absolutely nothing about himself and disappears for days at a time. All this screamed disrespect to me. A relationship should be a partnership, not blind faith, and I have to give Janet props for leaving him in the first place.

Fortunately, Mick isn’t completely irredeemable. Once it becomes apparent that he does truly love her, and isn’t afraid to show it, we see that he doesn’t actually think Janet should just stand around and look pretty… He’ll just constantly remind her how much more powerful he is. Sadly, in the end, I really didn’t think Mick’s big secrety secret was something he couldn’t tell her about, but I found myself liking him just enough to hope that they could work through their problems for a healthier relationship.

I can’t say I’m burning to read Firewalker, but Stormwalker’s new world and exciting ending was enough that I wouldn’t mind picking up its sequel.

Sexual content: Sex