Review: The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson

The Wind Weaver (Reign of Remnants, #1) by Julie Johnson

Series: Reign of Remnants #1
Published by Ace on April 8, 2025
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 544
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Magic and adventure swirl through this spellbinding romantasy where a young woman reignites the embers of an ancient prophecy, unleashing a storm that could save her realm or doom them all.
Fear of maegic plagues war-torn Anwyvn. Halflings like Rhya Fleetwood are killed on sight. But Rhya’s execution is interrupted by an unexpected savior—one far more terrifying than her would-be killers. The mysterious and mercenary Commander Scythe. In the clutches of this new enemy, Rhya finds herself fighting for her life in the barren reaches of the Northlands. Yet the farther she gets from home, the more she learns that nothing is as it seems—not her fearsome captor, not the blight that ravages her dying realm, not even herself.
For Rhya is no ordinary halfling. The strange birthmark on her chest and the wind she instinctively calls forth means she is a Remnant, one of four souls scattered across Anwyvn, fated to restore the balance of maegic…or die trying.
But mastering the power inside her is only the beginning. Desire for the Commander—a man she can never trust, a man with plans of his own—burns just as fiercely as the tempests beating against her rib cage for release. Rhya must choose: smother the flames…or let them consume her.

 

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Have you ever read a book and yet the more you think about it, the more you dislike it?

Rhya Fleetwood is a halfling (half fae/half human) in a world that wants anyone with a drop of magic eradicated. Rhya has no magic. Eli Fleetwood, her adopted human father, did his best to keep her hidden from the world at large. But when an army came to town and started burning their tiny seaside village, Eli told Rhya to run and not look back. Rhya fears she may never see her father again.

But even on the run, Rhya can’t hide her pointed ears forever and the army is closing in.  She keeps ahead of them for days but she is ultimately trapped.  Now she’ll hang and her body burned to ash–who really thinks dead fae can resurrect from a hanging?  Standing with a noose around her neck, waiting for the arrival of one of the generals, she almost wants them to just get on with it already as the iron shackles are burning her wrists.  Except when the general known as Scythe shows up, it isn’t Rhya who he kills.  He turns on his own men, cuts Rhya down and throws her over the back of his horse.   Barely hanging on to the back end of a horse is just slightly better than the hanging tree, especially when your rescuer doesn’t slow down or feel it necessary to explain himself.  As far as Rhya knows, they are racing to turn her over to a different fae-hating kingdom for a worse fate than death.

Yet when they arrive in the Northern Kingdom, Rhya is surprised to find that her rescuer believes she is the prophesized wind weaver, who with the fire, water and earth weavers, will save the Kingdom from the coming destruction.  Rhya doesn’t believe any of this, especially not for a no-magic halfling like herself, but if she confesses that, will he dump her body into the next ravine or leave her to the trailing enemy army?

THOUGHTS:
Let’s be fair. While reading this story, I was engrossed in the story as the whys and wherefores were unfolding. I wanted to know why Rhya was saved by Scythe and why he attacked his own men?  Why was he treating her so badly while still having moments of kindness? Why Soren, the water wielder, had such a tension-filled adversity to the fire wielder? What Rhya’s wind weaver magic is and can she wield it? I was intrigued while reading the story.  It was only when my brain went back over some of the scenes where things didn’t make sense.  I am dropping most of my thoughts into a spoiler so as not to ruin things if you like to go into a story without being swayed by other opinions.

View Spoiler »Let’s start with the fact that Penn (Scythe) has been undercover for years with the Southern kingdom to find the missing wind weaver.   He finds Rhya and then instead of grabbing a horse for her from the army’s corral, he let’s them all go and then tosses Rhya on the back of his horse.  Yes, his horse is awesome and fast but wouldn’t they go faster with Rhya on her own horse riding days at a time? And maybe sitting upright like a normal person.   Can you even ride on a horse when you are thrown over the back end behind a saddle like a dead body?  I want to find a stable and ask if I can try to flop over the back to see if it is even possible without falling off.   This is the person he has been looking for, so why would he treat  her so badly?  Yes, she’s filthy as she has been crawling through bogs trying to outrun an army but his treatment was very dehumanizing.  This is someone who is part of the big, important magical square and someone you need to be working with.   So WTF?   We do find out that both the fire weaver and the water weaver had a thing for the prior wind weaver who was killed.  Even if he didn’t want to fall for the new wind weaver, you wouldn’t treat an animal so shoddy.  It doesn’t make sense.

We also have the age gap in characters as only a Fantasy can provide. Penn and Soren are both over 100 years old and Rhya is 20. When she meets Soren, he is shocked Rhya knows nothing about her abilities at all and he is very derogatory to her that she hasn’t mastered wind weaving while he sits there doing party tricks with water. He has had 100 years more to practice and prepare, but he calls her pathetic because (remember-raised by humans) she doesn’t know how to wield properly.

We also have that moment when Rhya is on the run an Penn catches up with her, confesses his attraction and kisses her, convincing her to return with him.  Then he spends the next few week avoiding her because suddenly he doesn’t want to get close and lose her like he lost the last wind weaver.  Dude, you won’t cry less if she dies you will just cry harder that you missed the opportunity to be with her.  I hate when we have that romantic moment of connection, and suddenly in the next scene, we jump back to the hated or enemy level.  Once you confess that you no longer hate your enemy, unless they actually stab you in the back, move forward.

One final complaint, Soren indicates his ex-brother-in-law is King of the Southlands and very jealous of those who wield magic and is now performing black magic, stealing that magic from others in sacrifices.  Soooo, why were halflings being rounded up, hung and bodies burned rather than rounded up and brought to the king for sacrificing?  Seems quite the waste of battery power for his black magic.
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Some of these are the usual Fantasy tropes of the young heroine doesn’t know of her abilities/raised ignorant of them. In this case, everyone in the North knows about the prophecy but no one in the South seems to know.

Soren (water weaver) also tells Rhya that they haven’t seen an earth wielder in generations but no one seems to notice that there are increasing earthquakes which are moving closer to them.  They think it is an indication that the world failing.  I am guessing that is the earth wielder who is floundering with her own emerging/increasing powers.  Yes, her as there are currently two boys and one girl. What’s a romantacy without  more couples.  There is also discussion that fire and wind are more drawn to each other, where fire and water, aren’t buddies.  This would leave earth and water to be our next romantic couple.  Probably.

This is noted as Book #1 but no indication if it will be a dualogy or a trilogy.   Am I going to grab the next book?  Yes, I am.  Even with the flaws in this story, I want to see where it goes and if it improves.

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