Storms of the Forest (Forestborn Book 2)

This is book two of the Forestborn series and continues to follow the story of main character Genesis, of the Arnazuri tribe, as their people’s problems with the King continue. He has now decreed that only his tribe can rule the kingdom out of the four tribes that make it up and he will rule for the rest of his lifetime. Genesis has been named as the killer of Prince Jason and is being hunted by the King’s Guard. She is finally reunited with her father and the scrolls Jason gave her, are shared with the Hawks and other tribe members in the hideout. One of the tribe is able to read the prophecy contained within the scrolls, having been taught in secret by his family. It leads to a surprising decision as to who the prophecy has chosen and brings about a series of unfortunate events. Genesis, Remington and Zane leave to try and get guns from some King’s Guards near the city. While they are away, someone else in the tribe takes advantage of the youth of their newly chosen chief and puts his agenda into play. When Genesis returns, she finds all the females, whether Hawks or not, are now to do menial housework jobs and are no longer allowed to have a voice!

This new chief also decides nothing should be done when Remington and another Hawk are picked up by Guards, after they attack one of the Hawks secret training grounds. This doesn’t sit well with Genesis, especially after all she has gone through so far and the dangers she has faced. The tribe are being spread further apart, rather than closer together under their chosen and prophesised chief. He won’t even allow any contact with the other two tribes, who could be allies to face the King and his army. Even the one person who helped Genesis get away from King’s men, is now being held as a prisoner, as she comes from a different tribe! Even her own parents and Remington, as the elected leader of the Hawks, are not being listened to and the right hand of the new chief seems to be running matters and done a good job of brainwashing the young chief. Even his mother gets to lord it over the other women of the tribe, doing nothing but ordering them about. A dark cloud is coming over their chances of ever defeating the King and his army.

Genesis has to take her own stand, along with some other females from the tribe, to rescue Remington and the other Hawk, but doing so will bring the wrath of the King upon them. They have to work out where the King may send his forces and a mistake her could mean the end of her tribe completely. One part of the plan works well, but they find a lot of devastation in their wake as they pass through their normal village locations. Reaching the Hawk hideout, all of them are called traitors for ignoring the young chief’s orders and are about to be imprisoned, when the young translator of the scrolls steps forward. It seems that some of the language of the scroll and their ancestors could have been interpreted wrongly. Their tribe is one where everyone has an equal standing and men and women are treated as equals, unlike how their new chief and his aide are running things. Their history uses the same description for son or daughter of someone, but one descriptor that was missed, was that of the first born! This will now change matters completely, but we have to wait for the next book to find out what happens next. I can’t wait! I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.