This story will have you sitting at the edge of your seat before the end.Yes, the title is a mouthful. Before I get into this I just wanted to say that this review is SPOILER FREE. But, at the same time, the political stress and battles have you constantly worried. The internal conflict of the characters humanize them to a point where you will want to smack them upside the head and tell them what to do. Though, this book starts slow, it picks up about a third of the way in. Even the heroes and heroines dance with weapons and death in a way that will have you unsure of survival. Helene is plagued with the premonition that she will lose everyone she cares about. Her newborn nephew is the Emperor and her sister is Regent, but everything feels off. Helene juggles expectations from the empire, assassination attempts from Keris, and a couple of battles. It has been a slow burning attraction for a while and they must finally admit these feelings before its too late. Helene and her 2nd in command, Harper, have obviously strong feelings for each other. Though Elias portrays as an emotionless creature, she believes he is buried under the surface of the Soul Catcher, and does not give up until he loves her again or before it is too late. She hangs back, after her team walks out of the woods, to chat Elias’ ear off in effort to see if he even exists within. Laia realizes during her walk with the Soul Catcher that she must bring Elias back. She, and her team, pass through the Waiting Place as a place of safe passage from Keris. She sets out to destroy the Nightbringer, but it requires a special blade and a whole lot of work to bring the element of surprise. Laia has a personal connection to the Nightbringer and feels responsible for his rise. He must find his humanity and work with the tribes to battle and win against the jin. Through help and coercion from Laia he realizes the Nightbringer is working to destroy death, or the process of death, and that he is rotting the Waiting Place.

This makes him conflicted, trying to weigh the importance of his feelings for these friends and family but his job requires an emotionless existence.Įlias sees that the Waiting Place is rotting. He is gifted his mortal memories with Laia, Helene, and his mother, Keris, back again.

He is now the Soul Catcher, the one who walks with spirits to the river of death. Helene and Elias have been best friends and inseparable since childhood. Laia and Elias had been flirting romance by accident. On another side of the world their friend Elias has a very different path. They both recognize that they must defeat Keris and the Nightbringer jin. Laia and Helene have become friends and allies. Sabaa Tahir’s A Sky Beyond the Storm is almost a Young Adult version of GOT with political espionage, assassins, and dangerous female characters. Unlikely friendships can form the strongest bonds during times of upheaval.

A sky beyond the storm elias and laia