2.5-3 stars. That was really boring and uneventful for me. I know I've been struggling with fantasy lately in general, so maybe that's part of the problem, but I just never wanted to read this. I kept having to put it down. Aurora herself was super bland and the romance made me roll my eyes. Still pretty damn confused about the magic system and storm stuff. I'll probably continue the series because it was somewhat interesting toward the end (with some heavy-handed hints about some drama to come). 
 --- FULL REVIEW --- 
 I've seen some pretty stellar early reviews for this one, plus Cora Carmack is one of my favorite NA authors... so needless to say, I had fairly high expectations! I usually would blame my negative feelings about this book on those expectations and hype, but I absolutely don't think that was the case here. I was on the fence about reading this one in the first place because the synopsis didn't really sound like a Lauren book. I decided to give it a go because of the reviews and author, but I ended up pretty disappointed. I'll keep this short and break it down by the main elements of the story. 
 Main plot: The story is about a princess, Aurora (or Ror, or Roar) who doesn't have any magic. She has a marriage alliance planned with a prince of Locke (another kingdom) in order to avoid this information getting out. She soon learns that there's a way of essentially buying magic on the black market and decides to set off on a journey with a group of stormhunters. I honestly thought the plot was kind of boring? I really didn't care what was happening and often had no motivation to pick up the book. It was a struggle. I like books where people are on the road journeying and training with magic, but this book had almost no ~major events~ I can think of. 
 Main character: On top of the pretty boring plot, Aurora was a boring character for me. Locke thought she was feisty and interesting and sooOOOOooO perfect but I just didn't see it. She didn't have any exciting elements of her personality and felt very un-Special Snowflake to me. (She had no powers as far as she could tell but still could run and ride horses and use weapons like nobody's business.) Overall, I had no connection to her. 
 Romance: You'll notice that the romance is with a guy named Locke. This is not to be confused with the kingdom of Locke, where her betrothed (Cassius I think) is from. Locke took that name because something happened to him and he didn't remember his name, so that's just where he was found? It was confusing and pretty pointless. I hope this comes up later with some big twist or something because honestly there was no other reason for it. Why not just name him after some other random kindgom instead? In any case, I wasn't a huge fan of the romance. She has some sparks with Cassius at their wedding announcement party but quickly finds out he is sketchy and is HEARTBROKEN by this BETRAYAL and TURN OF EVENTS!!!! for some reason, even though she knew him for five minutes and felt some instant attraction. So, of course, she's kind of guarding herself around Locke, and that's a little slow-burn-esque. I just didn't care anymore. 
 Magic and worldbuilding: The concept was really unique; I've never personally read a book where the magic system is based on storms and weather-related events. That being said, I'm still incredibly baffled as to how it actually works. I left the book with so many questions and just blatantly not understanding the system. There are stormhearts and stormhunters and stormlings. What the hell is all that?! Sometimes fantasy books make me feel stupid because I just can't grasp the system of magic. Unfortunately that happened here for me. 
 Overall and ending: Sooo, combining all of those elements led to a boring reading experience for me. The book felt super long because the 350+ pages of the ARC had the smallest font EVER and probably would be like 400+ pages with a normal font. I was generally intrigued by the ending because some revelations happened. There's a good setup for the next book, so honestly? I think I'll continue with the series. That's what prevented me from rating this 2.5 stars instead. It also wasn't really a cliffhanger either, so that was nice.