Heir of Thunder tempted me: it had magic, powers, a destiny and various groups of outsiders that come together. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to those expectations.

The main issue was the characterisation. Due to inherit the throne on her eighteenth birthday, Evie is just coming into her powers when she is forced to flee her home while it is under attack. It makes sense for her to be frightened and weak at the start. But Evie remains trusting, naïve and foolish the entire way through. Even by the end, she herself refers to some of her outbursts as tantrums: she doesn’t shake off the spoilt princess mantle.

The worst part is that she thinks she does. There is nothing more annoying than a character that stands there and reflects on how much they have changed and developed throughout the narration. If done properly, the reader sees that for themselves – they certainly don’t need it thrust upon them when there has been no evidence to support the development. Evie manages to cope on her own better than she thinks she can, but she doesn’t lose that naivety that made me find her annoying.

The secondary characters are marginally less shallow. I quite liked Gideon and his moodiness but even he didn’t ring true. Telling Evie he will “hunt her down” as a way of stopping her from running off, even in jest, spoke of a controlling character – and not in a good way. Evie’s polar-emotions when it comes to Gideon also made it impossible to truly get to know the character.

With the odd exception, the majority of the characters were shallow. None of them are given the chance to develop or do things that make them relatable.

It wasn’t only the characters. I couldn’t work out the world. The places are all given fantastical names but I could relate them to part of Europe, especially when the foreign “language” was Spanish, just without the correct punctuation for that language. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a future/past world that should be relatable to today’s continents or not, which meant it grated on me. I thought a new world was being established given the opening, then pieced together what they were describing. Either way would have worked – if it was clear that was how it was supposed to be.

Even the magic wasn’t explored properly. There was one scene where she consciously uses her powers to help others (which reminded me so forcibly of the Stardust film it was absurd!) and the rest of the time the magic just seems to be linked with her tantrums. There was the potential for so much more.

This is only the first book in the series, meaning that some of this potential could be utilised in the following books. But the complete lack of development, plus not being able to connect to the characters, means I won’t be following the story further. A disappointing read: it could have been more.

This book deposits you straight into the action from the beginning, and the pacing is amazing.

This is the first of what appears to be an enjoyable series.

The main character, Evie is left homeless by the death of her father. Concealing her identity she goes on the run with Gideon Faust.

I really enjoyed this book and will look out for the others in the series. 4*