Review 'Seasons of the Storm' by Elle Cosimano

Seasons of the Storm is a heart-wrenching story about fighting for the ones you love and how far you're willing to go to keep them alive.

I don't even know where to begin because I'm still drowning in a whirlwind of emotions after crying for the past hour while reading this book's ending.

When I started Seasons of the Storm, I did not expect to get hit by a truck of feels like this. Or that it would leave me feeling like I just buried a loved one.

This book had doomed romance written all over it, and that was clear from the very start. But damn if I'm not a sucker for doomed romance.

We all know the story of Romeo and Juliet and how it ends. Seasons of the Storm has that same kind of doom to its romance; two characters, forced to hate and kill each other. The only difference is that the two main characters fight with everything they have to keep the other alive. The main thing that drives these characters is desperation. They desperately want to be free, for the other to be alive and happy. They desperately want to be together. Throughout the whole story, that desperation to keep their loved ones alive drives them to do the extreme.

I won't lie, I love angst. The more a book makes me cry, the more I love it. I love doomed romances and everything that surrounds it. It makes me unable to stop reading. And in this case, I could not put the book down. Chapter after chapter, I was pulled in by how deeply I felt each emotion radiating off these characters. They took me by the throat and refused to let go. It made for a very intense reading experience. I found myself shaking at times, out of breath from trying not to panic or cry. I was drawn in by the deeply layered pain that each character radiated off the page. The empath in me could relate to that deep sense of feeling lost in your pain while simultaneously wanting to comfort all these characters who were fighting so hard to get a better life filled with happiness.

Something I found really unique about this book was the romance. In your typical YA book, you get to experience as the characters slowly fall in love. But here, they were already in love before the story started. And although that took me by surprise at first, I did not mind it at all. To me, it was clear from the very first scene how deeply the characters care about each other. It was portrayed in the longing, the yearning, the fear of losing them, and the dream to be together.

While the romance between the main characters was fierce, it did not take away the spotlight of the romance between the sub-characters, which I found to be equally intense and adorable.

While the story is set in the real, present world, there were some great fantasy/dystopian elements added to it that gave it that extra notch of creativity. But what I loved most about it was the traveling across the US. It almost felt like a road trip among friends if they weren't haunted by the villain. Overall, I loved reading the descriptions of the landscape they passed and the places they stayed in.

Seasons of the Storm is essentially a love story. But not merely in the romantic sense. Also in the way of friendship. An all-consuming love story that seems doomed to fail.