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Stormwalker
by
Allyson James
paranormal fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by JA / AG Publishing on November 4, 2022 and has 370 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Hexed, Firewalker, Shadow Walker, Dragon Bites, Nightwalker, Hot for the Holidays
First in the Stormwalker paranormal fantasy series and revolving around Janet Begay, a Diné stormwalker who’s half goddess. It was originally published May 4, 2010.
My Take
It’s a story about power and using it. The good and mostly the bad. The seductive power of what one could do with it. James uses a first person protagonist point-of-view from Janet’s perspective, so naturally we see everything through Janet’s eyes, her emotions, her experiences, her thoughts.
I’m curious as to why a motorcycle-riding woman would buy a hotel simply because it was located in the town where her current case had lived. And how did she afford it? When you add in all the extras, I want to know more about her scary goddess mother and her hate-ridden family.
Then James brings in the gorgeous, sexy Mick, who does sound like a bad boy, lol. Six-foot-six-inches of muscle with a fascination for Tantric sex and a need to be there for Janet. A man who shows her how to live.
I can understand why Janet left him, though. A relationship has to be a shared partnership. Another relationship that’s been bad is that Janet has with her family. She fled them six years ago and Stormwalker begins her process of understanding more about her family. The strength of her dad and that revelation he provides Janet — it made me cry. The good things she’s forgotten even as she remembers how she was treated as nothing.
I hate Janet’s family . . . except for her dad. They’re all so cruel to her. If Janet’s stormwalker powers come from her paternal side, why didn’t her mean old grandmother teach her how to use them?
Maya’s relationship with Nash is more of an electrified one, lol.
Whoa, that Sheriff Jones is something else. How he can be so stiff and singleminded?!? He sure does like to jump on the most obvious possibilities when it comes to tracking down criminals — and somehow Janet is always at the top of his list. Fremont cracks me up with his boasting of his magical ability. Maya? Whoa, what bug crawled up her? She seems to hate everyone, although the reason does flash after Janet’s discovery, lol. Then there’s that horny magic mirror, lol.
I’ve always liked Coyote in the various stories in which he’s appeared. And he’s just as enigmatic and cryptic in Stormwalker with his threats and obsession with sex. He’s the best source for humor!
Amy is one of those good characters, beloved by everyone, a good churchgoing woman, perfect at everything. And then there’s the truth, combined with Janet’s mother’s “habits”.
An interesting bit of the hotel’s history. I know it’s inevitable, but it’s still sad when things are no longer useful.
The primary conflict is the Key. The means by which Beneath can be opened, unleashing hordes of evil onto the earth and its inhabitants. Everything else is window dressing, setting the stage for future stories in the series, introducing the core characters.
Mick’s story is a terrifying revelation for Janet. And it’s only part of the “action” that includes battles, attacks, sex (without many details), and character interactions with a good range of personalities including the duplicitous! Whew.
The Story
Six years ago, Janet first met her mother in a diner, and she’s determined to stop her. That time is now, and Janet intends to use the hotel as a fortified base to come at her mother.
Coyote and the dragons are prepared to kill the Key who can open the vortexes and allow evil gods, goddesses, and their horrors from Beneath to come to our world.
The Characters
Janet Begay has the powers of her Diné paternal line and her goddess mother’s Beneath. As a stormwalker, she harnesses the earth-magic power of storms for her own use. She has a degree in fine arts and has made her living as an arts photographer. She rides a Harley and has finally settled down. Her hometown is Many Farms where her quiet father, Pete Begay, herds sheep. Her grandmother, and her other female relatives, are headstrong. Aunt Alice is one of Dad’s three sisters. Cindy is a cousin with two boys.
The motorcycle-riding Mick Burns is a man who can manipulate fire and whom Janet met when he rescued her from a mob and whom she left, five years ago.
Magellan, Arizona, is . . .
. . . a hotbed of vortexes. It’s also where Janet bought a rundown hotel, the Crossroads, while she investigates Amy’s disappearance. Some of the people working on her hotel include Fremont Hansen, a plumber and the biggest gossip in Magellan; Charlie Jones is Fremont’s assistant; and, Maya Medina, a brilliant Latina electrician who hates Janet with a passion, is an Unbeliever. Barry owns the Crossroads Bar that shares a parking lot with the hotel.
Jamison Kee, a Navajo shaman, a well-known artist, and shape-shifter, is an old friend of Janet’s. Naomi née Hansen is his wife who owns Hansen’s Garden Center; Julie is Naomi’s deaf daughter (Hot for the Holidays: “A Little Night Magic”, 0.5). Coyote is a drifter and friends with the Kees. Heather Hansen, a witch, runs the Paradox, a shop that caters to the mystical.
The Hopi County Sheriff’s Department
The by-the-rules and sharp dressing Nash Jones, an Unbeliever, is the sheriff . . . and a suspect in Amy’s disappearance. He also suffers from PTSD after an incident in Iraq. Kurt is Nash’s brother. Lopez is one of his deputies.
The Magellan PD
Salas is the assistant chief of police where McGuire is chief.
Amy McGuire, the police chief’s daughter, has disappeared and missing for a year. Maude McGuire is Amy’s mother. Sherry Beaumont reappears in an unexpected way; John Beaumont is/was her husband. Reverend Tim is the priest at Trinity Lutheran, Amy’s church. Father Matthews is the priest at St Peter’s. Sister Margaret is the head of the convent.
The Dragon Council . . .
. . . is composed of three dragons and rules the dragons.
Beneath is a world dragons and some gods sealed off from our world. Skinwalkers and demons come from Beneath. Nightwalkers are vampires. A vortex is a place where mystical energy gathers earth, air, fire, and water magics, making Magellan a favorite tourist destination. They’re also gateways to Beneath. Tommy is/was an idiot who couldn’t take no. Harold Yazzie is a lesson. Dragons with their tremendous earth magic were created inside volcanoes and were never of Beneath.
The Cover and Title
The cover is brilliantly colorful with its reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, blues, and purples in an explosive halo around the motorcycle-riding Janet Begay with her long dark hair and leather-and-jean-clad form, lightning reaching down to her against a mountainous backdrop with an equally colorful sunset, a dragon riding the sky. At the very top is an info blurb in white. The author’s real name is in yellow with her pseudonym in turquoise below it. To the left of Janet is an epigram in white. The title is in purple, spanning the motorcycle’s front wheel with the series info in white below the title. All the text is shadowed in black.
The title introduces Janet, a Stormwalker.
