Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose, the second installment of the Nampeshiweisit series. While I didn’t adore the first book, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, I did enjoy it enough to want to see where the story went next. Did I like the direction in this sequel? Read on to find out!

Anequs has not only survived her first year at Kuiper’s Academy but exceeded all of her professors’ admittedly low expectations—and passed all her courses with honors. Now, she and her dragon, Kasaqua, are headed home for the summer, along with Theod, the only other Native student at the Academy.

But what should have been a relaxing break takes a darker turn. Thanks to Anequs’s notoriety, there is an Anglish presence on Masquapaug for the first time ever: a presence which Anequs hates. Anequs will always fight for what she believes in, however, and what she believes in is her people’s right to self-govern and live as they have for generations, without the restrictive yoke of Anglish rules and social customs. And fight she will—even if it means lighting a spark which may flare into civil war.

***Thank you to Del Rey for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

Unfortunately, To Ride a Rising Storm just didn’t work for me. It doubled down on all the things I didn’t like about the first book. The pace was SO SLOW, and the story focused even more on Anequs constantly trying to convince people her way of life was better. The writing style was still horribly dry and matter of fact, which continued to make the characters feel like they were kept at an emotional distance. I very rarely wanted to actually pick up this book because I was so bored by it and probably would have DNFd it if it wasn’t an ARC.

I was so disappointed by the plot of To Ride a Rising Storm, mostly because there wasn’t much of one. After the excitement at the end of the first book, I expected the tension and action to ratchet up a bit, but it didn’t, at least not until the end of the book. There were a few moments of some political intrigue early on in the book with the reactions to the Anglish setting up a presence on the islands, but it largely fizzled out once Anequs got back to school. Then things turned back to Anequs’ struggles fitting in at school, which weren’t even really struggles because of her blunt attitude about not caring about the social niceties anymore. The story just got bogged down in the interpersonal schoolgirl stuff, and none of it was very compelling.

I think my biggest issue with To Ride a Rising Storm was the characterization of Anequs. She doesn’t really grow. Instead of having a character arc of her own, she largely acted as a change agent on those around her, which made her static and boring. All of her struggles felt very surface level because she pretty much always ended up getting her way with few consequences, which makes no sense considering how this society viewed natives and their customs. She also had more of a holier than thou attitude in this book compared to the first. Most of this book was spent arguing why her way of doing things is the best possible way, whereas before she seemed to understand that she and the Anglish just had a different way of doing things, even if she resented needing to adapt to their ways. It just felt like the narrative expended all of its effort on convincing the characters, and readers, through extensive dialogue instead of just illustrating how the two societies differed and letting people draw their own conclusions. I particularly hated how she tried to brow beat Theod into accepting a polyamorous relationship without giving him any time to think it through.

All of that being said, there were plenty of things I liked about To Ride a Rising Storm, as well. The world-building was still so interesting, and I loved all of the time spent with Anequs on the island with her family. Those were the moments that really brought out the contrast between the two societies, much more than all of the excessive dialogue. They resonated with me a lot, and I enjoyed reading about their customs in action, as well as their stories. The politics of the natives’ existence and citizenship was also quite interesting, and I wish the story had leaned further into it. My favorite thing about the story, though, had to be the growing bond between Anequs and Kasaqua. They made a special pair, and I loved getting to ride along for the moments where they accomplished new things and made some new friends.

Overall, To Ride a Rising Storm didn’t make me love the direction this series is taking. The slow plot, overreliance on brow beating dialogue to make the point, and increasingly insufferable attitude of Anequs all combined to keep this from being a stellar read for me. I do think the story had a lot of important things to say. I just didn’t enjoy the execution of it all that much. Therefore, I rate the book 3 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! My thoughts on To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose. My luck with sequels recently hasn’t been the greatest. lol. Have you been reading this series? What did you think of the second installment? Let me know down in the comments!