Some sequels tread water. This one rides the swell. Picking up in the ash-choked aftermath of the first Storm Weaver book, Tides of Fortune by Lauryn Hamilton Murray pushes Blaze Harglade out from behind palace walls and into open country, where a crown means far less than the wits it takes to keep breathing. It is a bigger, wilder, more restless story than its predecessor, and though it stumbles in a couple of familiar places, it holds a reader close the whole way down.
Picking Up the Thread
Fresh off surviving three brutal trials to claim the Aquatori throne, Blaze should be preparing to rule. Instead she slips away on a hunt for the Eye of the Soul, an object of terrifying power that King Balen, the usurper circling the empire, would love to hold first. The premise is clean and the stakes are personal, which spares newcomers from sinking under backstory while still rewarding anyone who read Heir of Storms, the series opener.
Rather than one narrator, the book braids three. Blaze carries the road plot. Her brother Flint supplies the sharpest comic timing in the cast. And Elva, a serf hiding a dangerous gift inside the golden heart of the court, threads a quieter tale of spycraft and survival that slowly ties into the main knot.
What the Book Does Well
A few strengths stand out early:
- Flint could carry a book of his own. His one-liners cut the tension without cheapening the grief underneath, and his loyalty to his sister gives the story its warmest pulse.
- Blaze is prickly in the best way. She questions everyone, trusts almost no one, and grows into her power without shedding the chip on her shoulder that makes her fun to follow.
- The prose moves. Written in close present tense, the pages have a breathless, right-now quality. Short chapters snap shut on hooks that turn “one more” into a lie you tell yourself past midnight.
- The world has teeth. Fire, water, earth and air courts sound tidy on paper, but Murray hangs real cruelty on the frame: bonded serfs, stolen children, a conquered people written out of their own history.
More Than a Love Story
That last point deserves its own moment. Underneath the crowns and the near-kisses, this book keeps circling questions about who gets to be free and who pays for someone else’s throne. Elva’s chapters are where that weight lands hardest. Her fear, her hidden magic, and her memories of the whip give the empire a human cost that most romantasy skips. It is uncomfortable in a way the genre rarely bothers to be, and it gives Tides of Fortune a spine that many of its shelfmates lack.
Grief runs through the whole cast too. Blaze buries hers. Fox refuses his. Watching two guarded people recognise the same wound in each other is quietly one of the book’s finest achievements.
Where the Tide Pulls Back
No book earns unqualified praise, and this one has soft spots worth naming honestly:
- The middle wanders. Once Blaze reaches the Wildlands, the story settles into a loop of ride, camp, train, repeat. The training scenes are charming on their own, but a run of them starts to blur, and the central quest can feel like it has paused to catch its breath.
- Three voices, uneven weight. Elva’s court plot is thematically the richest thread, yet for long spans it reads almost like a separate novel. Readers hungry for Blaze may find themselves flicking ahead to her chapters.
- The tropes are comfortable, not fresh. A charming rogue with a bloody reputation, forced proximity, a single bed at a crowded inn, an enemies-to-something slow burn. It is all handled well, but seasoned readers will see several beats coming from a league away.
- The lore comes thick and fast. Etheri, Magi, Demari, the three Eyes, a dozen courts and kings. If book one has faded from memory, the opening chapters ask a great deal before the reader finds solid footing.
The Romance: Slow Burn, Familiar Heat
Fox, the infamous Earth Cleaver, is the engine of the love story, and he runs hot. He is quick, guarded, maddening, and clearly hiding more than he lets on. The push and pull between him and Blaze is the book’s most reliable pleasure, built on sparring both verbal and physical rather than instant swooning. How much you trust him shifts scene by scene, which is exactly the point.
Does it break new ground? Not quite. Fox fits a mould that plenty of readers already adore, and the arc of thawing suspicion follows a path they will recognise. What rescues it is the craft. The wit is real, the tension is earned, and the wanting stays unresolved long enough to genuinely ache.
Should You Read Tides of Fortune by Lauryn Hamilton Murray?
Yes, with a couple of caveats. Read Heir of Storms first, because this is very much a middle book and assumes you already know the players. Come for the voice, the humour and the slow burn, and forgive the saggy midsection. If you want a sequel that raises the stakes, deepens its themes and leaves you impatient for the next installment, Tides of Fortune by Lauryn Hamilton Murray earns its place, even as it plays a few notes you have heard before.
One more thing to flag: the ending is a setup rather than a resolution. That works beautifully if you love a hook and stings a little if you crave a clean close.
About the Author and the Series
This is the second novel from Lauryn Hamilton Murray, a Scottish writer with a background in English literature and creative writing. It follows her debut, Heir of Storms, which opened the Storm Weaver series and built the readership that has followed Blaze this far. On this evidence, Murray writes fast, feeling-forward fantasy with a sharp comic ear and a soft spot for characters who hurt in interesting ways.
If You Loved This, Read Next
Readers who enjoyed Tides of Fortune by Lauryn Hamilton Murray will likely find something to love in these:
- Twin Crowns by Katherine Webber and Catherine Doyle, for royal swaps and dual heroines with bite
- Powerless by Lauren Roberts, for trial-forged romance and a forbidden pairing
- The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, for a morally grey love interest and courtly knives
- Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin, for enemies bound together against their will
- Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber, for lush prose and dangerous bargains
- To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, for sea-soaked peril and a barbed slow burn
Final Word
Murray has written a sequel that grows in ambition even when it reaches for the familiar. The humour lands, the world hurts in the right places, and Blaze stays a heroine worth the salt water. This one rewards patience with payoff, and it sends you into the wait for book three with your loyalties happily, helplessly divided.