Stormrise by Jillian Boehme is a magical reweaving of Mulan, twined with Twelfth Night. Rain is her family’s second daughter. She is one half of a set of twins and despite looking eerily alike, Storm is her brother. When a childhood fever attacks both, it stunts Storm’s mental growth. Now, as a teen, he is still very much a child. In a culture that prizes sons, this has left Rain feeling that he should have been the one to come out of the fever unscathed. When war is declared, and a conscription is being raised, Storm must go, and their father with him, in case he cannot adjust. 

Trained as a Neshu warrior by her father, Rain decides to steal away and take Storm’s place in the army so she can protect her twin, and father both. But if she is discovered, it means certain death. With the help of a special powder containing dragon magick that will stop her moontime, Rain blends in with the other recruits and befriends a young man named Forest. She makes enemies as well, in the form of Sedge, an arrogant misogynistic boy. Rain excels at her training, and is soon enough placed in an elite unit with a mission to take the high king to a secure location. But through it all, Rain is hearing voices, triggered by taking the dragon powder. A voice, that is. Nuaga, mate of the last great dragon-king T’Gonnen, and Nuaga wants Rain to wake the other dragons slumbering beneath the land. Can Rain keep both secrets safe or will she be discovered?

OMC, I devoured this book! I loved the Mulan reweaving elements. Hidden girl goes off to war to keep family safe, ends up a hero. The twin angle was new. I felt so bad for Storm, for how he ended up, and for Rain too, because she thought if she hadn’t been born, maybe Storm wouldn’t have ended up as he did. And maybe he wouldn’t have. Or maybe something worse would have happened. When Rain finally learns the truth behind which of the two siblings got the only dose of fever medicine, it was so sad, and yet it helped Rain heal from the inner beliefs she had over it. 

I adored Forest, the first friend Rain-as-Storm makes. He turns out to be a very good friend indeed, even though he needed a sound thwacking a few times. As much as I adored Forest, I loathed Sedge. He became Rain’s rival for no real good reason other than he needed a person to bully in order to bolster his own self esteem. This story is first person POV, and it was hilarious at times as Rain tried to learn to be a boy, and adjust to being around males acting as males. Then there were the dragons! These six-legged beasties have to be some of the more unusual dragons I’ve read about recently. 

The ending felt a little rushed and a little deus ex machina. Like, I knew where things were headed, and it still felt that way, with the final defeat of the invading nomad army. That’s just in the last little bit of the book though, and not too bad. It also felt like things between Forest and Rain changed too fast on his part. It would have been interesting to see if there was a subconscious attraction the entire time, but we don’t get his perspective. 

Highly recommended!

*****Many thanks to Netgalley & and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for providing a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. Reviewed for FFBC Tours.