A Song in the Storm Book Review

“Men are not meant to mingle in the affair of the gods.”

Synopsis

Love requires trust. But who can be trusted when you harbor a secret the world has forgotten?

The fae king’s soiree attracts the most unlikely guests: a thief masquerading as a bard, an exiled prince, and the lost heir to an ancient kingdom.

Forced into an unlikely alliance, the bard champions an impossible heist while an army across the world crumbles beneath magic yet unseen.

Yet both events are connected. When the world forgot its gods, so too did it forget their power. And a centuries old plan has just begun to unfold.

Fionn alone can remember. Watched by the prince’s wary eyes, she must earn his trust lest she face the darkness the way her journey began: desperate, and alone.

For darkness is a tricky thing: An age old lie, a falsehood long made fact, an assassin with no face. And it has moved unseen to all the world.

REVIEW

A Song in the Storm, book 1 in Riley Knight’s The Leviathan’s Call series, is a bold and immersive high fantasy debut that rewards patience. It’s a thick book with a fantastic opening line and a story that steadily builds across multiple POVs and timelines. The first fifth moves a little slowly, but not necessarily in a bad way—it’s more of a careful setup than a drag. Once things start clicking, though, it’s impossible to put down.

What stood out most to me was how well Knight handles complexity. The shifting timelines, various characters, and layers of politics, religion, culture, and magic could’ve easily become overwhelming, but it’s all woven together beautifully. The world-building feels rich and unique in the genre, and I loved the sense that I didn’t fully understand how everything connected at first, but I could feel that it would—and it absolutely does.

There’s a small romance subplot too, which added just enough without distracting from the bigger story. I liked that there was a map to help visualize things, and while there’s also a glossary, I never needed it—the author does a great job of making terms understandable in context.

A few minor things: some spots could use a tighter developmental edit, and the whole book would benefit from a copyedit (though the story is so well done that unless you’re quite detail-oriented, you likely wouldn’t even notice this). Finally, parts of the ending are just slightly more cryptic than I prefer; however, the story is clearly meant to continue, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next one.

All in all, a strong, ambitious debut with real depth. If you like high fantasy that makes you think and doesn’t hand you everything up front, this one’s for you. Looking forward to where this series goes!

Original publication date was 26 March 2025.