Burning Roses (Chosen Storm, #2)

First part of review is vague to try and give an idea of the book without spoilers. There will be a warning point.

This is close to being really good, but just like in the first book Riley has this instantly close bond with everyone that just doesn’t make sense. You can make an exception for Caleb because of the soul mate thing, but with everyone else it just doesn’t make sense. There are some continuity problems like continuously flipping back and forth between how long Riley has been with her new family, some times its a month, sometimes it’s months, or they will talk about how it will be physically painful to be separated from your bond mate for more than an hour at this stage, and then Riley and Caleb separate for hours. Her family seems to constantly forget she has been severely battered. Sometimes it happens in a way that is genuine, but then the exact same scenario will present itself and the family is like what we can’t believe this triggered you. And sometimes the continuity problems are in relation to the character, namely Caleb where he acts in a way that is contrary to his character, and it is to cause a point of tension in the book, but.it doesn’t make sense for the character the way it is written. Similarly sometime the “kids” are written as much younger than college age, coming off more like high school students, like when they whine and get grounded. Also, the family and her people (I forget what they are called) seem to have very little concern for the danger she is in, with one exception. Perry is also relying on the shopping trip a little too often, it makes the characters seem a little shallow, a lot shallow, when there are at least three massive shopping trips in one book.
On the other hand, where their relationships are being built, mainly with Cassie and Riley and Caleb and Riley, if you cut out the points where the plot point doesn’t fit the character, I’m loving the relationship building. Cassie is proving to be a really good friend for Riley and the person most in tune with her needs. Caleb, for the most part, is sweet, and with a couple of exceptions, when he screws up you are like yeah forgivable. The exceptions are just, in my opinion, bad writing because they divert from the character too far, and if you put those flair ups on someone else or tweaked the situation a little so it was more Riley misreading the situation based on her abuse you could still be in line with Caleb’s character and get that tension. Perry also do, with one exception, a really good job carrying the fact Riley was severely abused through out Riley’s experiences. A lot of writer will create broken and damaged characters like Riley and then drop that whole aspect of their personality as soon as they meet their guy and friends like that trauma isn’t a part of them, but Perry does a good job of carrying it through and having Riley working out how her knew life fits into the world as she sees it and where she might need to change her world view.
Overall, it’s enjoyable, and with some tweaks it would be amazing.

Spoilers:

First of all, how are they confronted with hey this is the chosen one who is supposed to ensure the survival of our kind, and probably all of humanity, and no one from their counsel is like huh, maybe we should take Riley into protective custody and get her training with our best teachers. I mean they have a freaking secure building and send their kids to special schools, they are organized. Even if they aren’t like hey maybe we should keep Riley here in our secure facility you would think they would send her home with guards and send their best teachers / trainers to work with her, but instead they are ah you are our savior, well good luck then. Not even a hey well read you the official version of the prophecy. I mean come on! And her family has the same sort of blase attitude towards it. Well, we just found out you are the Chosen one meant to save all elementals, and someone has already tried to kidnap you once, but let’s go to the zoo and antique shopping, and no boys, the girls do not need protection when they go out shopping, it’s not like the very continued existence of our people relies on Riley, the gods have warned us the other side will try to kidnap Riley and if they can’t turn her to their side kill her, and there has already been one attempted kidnapping, oh wait…

Speaking of the fallen, how did they find Riley at the random truck stop, the hotel, the mall, and why are they just hanging around and not trying to grab her again. Also, why is her family not at all concerned that the fallen when able to find her when she moved states? There is like zero sense of concern or urgency here and it is really annoying. The only person who shows any legitimate concern, outside of Caleb’s blanket statement of no I don’t want her to be the Chosen because I don’t want to lose her, way to make this about you Caleb, is Jaxon who is like um she needs to learn how to protect herself and get over her issues and be protected and everyone rails on him for this.

Then there is the fact Caleb repeatedly yells at her or says she can’t have the cat, like he would ever yell at her after seeing her freak out at being yelled out by Jaxon or freak out when her dad said end of discussion, he wouldn’t, it isn’t in his character. Yes he is going to make mistakes, but those go beyond mistakes and aren’t the type of thing you keep accidentally doing. And there is no way Caleb would put up the slightest battle to deny Riley anything that didn’t put her in harms way, especially not a kitten, even if he thinks they are devil spawn. He might swat at the kitten and keep it away from him, but he wouldn’t tell her she can’t have it, even for a half second. That whole scene would have made so much more sense if Cassie had been holding the kitten and said look at our new pet, Caleb had gone off on his tirade not letting Cassie get a word in edgewise, Riley still has the internal monologue about having to get rid of the kitten, and then Cassie interjects hey a*****e it’s not my kitten, it’s Riley’s, you know your soulmate who can talk to animals who heard the kitten crying out for help.

And with Riley’s tendency to run off when she gets freaked out, and the money these people have, how have they not bought her an activity watch and just conveniently not told her it tells them where she is so they can find her. it can be a watch that tell them her general vicinity so there is still some searching, and when she is inevitable kidnapped by the fallen it can fall off in the trunk she is thrown in and the guys can go on a little bit of a wild goose chase trying to find them, as they follow the car not knowing the fallen already dropped Riley off and is now on some other mission, but this is set in modern times with people with lots of money, this is something they would 100% do.