https://theperksofbeingpeculiar.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/review-storm-season/

One of my first New Adult books! I never tend to read much new adult because I don’t enjoy books focused on romance – unless they’re gay, obviously.

The first thing that came to mind when I first saw this book was how beautiful the cover is! It’s incredibly detailed, perfect for the theme of the book, and the title overlay fits beautifully.

I really liked the pace of this book. If it had been written differently, then I may have found the book slow. However, there was a good amount of detail but not so much that it was boring or overwhelming.

Another detail of the book I enjoyed was the third person narrative, and how it was overlapped with switched points of view. I never tend to see this happen, and it was interesting how the chapters didn’t look at exactly the same events, but kind of followed on from what had happened just before.

There genuinely wasn’t one thing I didn’t enjoy about this book. It was refreshing to read a book with an lgbt storyline that didn’t focus on one or more character coming out or facing discrimination in some way, as is the case with a lot of young adult books focused on this topic. ( )

This is a very sweet romance between an urban socialite, Lien, who falls in a ravine in a rainstorm and her rescuer, Claudie, a reserved park ranger who has chosen an isolated life in her tiny outback cabin. The slow burn of the romance is supported by a slow getting-to-know-you period, as the women awkwardly share space and learn each others' habits and personalities. Lien and Claudie's romance is cut short when the roads open up and Lien can return to Sydney and her hectic social media/fashion-oriented life. The book takes a sharp turn in pacing and tone at this point as it begins to explore Claudie's past as an up-and-coming rockstar before her abrupt flight out of the scene and into obscurity. The story explores tragedy in one's past, the experiences women have in typically male-dominated industries, and lovers whose romantic, fairy-tale rush gives way to an even deeper connection, after self-reflection. I liked that a lot of the romantic conflict was external or possibly cultural (Claudie's reaction to learning that Lien had left behind a kinda-sorta girlfriend in Sydney about whom she wasn't serious, the difference in the speed of their lives and the difficulty each has embracing the other). I enjoyed and respected both characters, their choices and histories, and I also quite liked the prose in this novel, especially the descriptions of Australian countryside and city life, as well as the quiet inclusion of a protagonist of color and the inflections her race had on her life and history. ( )