Book Review - Storming by K.M. Weiland

​​A few weeks ago, I posted my first YouTube video about my decision to become a “plotter.” I mentioned a couple of books I was reading to help me in my endeavor. Among them are K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel. Both very much worth the read if you are an aspiring author like myself.

I absorbed the information with zeal and am now moving through the companion workbooks. However, I found myself wondering if I should perhaps read some of Weiland’s fiction to see how her method played out on the page.

I had been visiting the amazing website Helping Writers Become Authors for a few months and I’d been following Weiland’s series "What I Learned Writing Storming." I had also seen the book trailer for the dieselpunk novel and I was caught. I actually pre-ordered the ebook before it was released. It was easily one of the best novels I’ve read in a good while and the clear choice for my first official book review on this blog.

To keep things short and sweet I’ll give the book an overall rating, share the things I liked and didn’t like, and leave you with a couple of favorite quotes.
 
My ratings will be as follows:
1 star     *             =             I don’t recommend this book. Save your time.
2 star     **         =             I disliked more about it than I liked.
3 star   ***         =          There were definitely things I liked as well as things I didn’t. I might recommend                                                                  this book to the right person.
4 star     ****     =          I liked it! I would recommend it!
5 star   *****    =      I loved it so much that I will want a copy on my shelf. I will probably reread it (if I                                                                 ever have the time for rereading.)
 
I give Storming by K.M. Weiland an enthusiastic * * * * 4 stars!

Click to view at Amazon.com

I loved this fun story of barnstorming pilot Hitch and the strong-willed, misplaced Jael. Set in 1920s Nebraska, it is a dieselpunk adventure complete with thrilling aerial stunts, hijackers of the sky, storms that bend to the will of men, family drama, corrupt establishment, and budding romance.
 
What I Liked:

• Weiland proves her ability to “do” as well as “teach,” crafting a solid, well-researched story that anyone who has read her advice blog or her non-fiction books would expect.
• There is such artistry to Weiland’s prose. Each word is placed with care and each image is rich. She manages to write beautifully while still being succinct and quick-paced. It’s a wonderful balance.
• I didn’t catch a single spelling or grammatical error. (One would think this would be a given, but a lot of the books I’ve read recently have proven otherwise.)
• Her characters seem to walk/fly/parachute off the page. Their voices are unique and true, they behave in a believable manner, and they seem like the type of people I would like to know (or punch in some cases) in the real world.
• Her research and scene-building is solid. Nothing jerked me out of the reading by being outside the time period or realm of possibility.

 
What I Didn’t Like:

• Hmm. Hem and haw. Um.
• I guess if I have to choose something it’s that it was a bit tamer than my standard fair and didn’t quite make it to the 5-star-I’ll-have-to-read-it-again level. Nothing is stopping me from adding all of Weiland’s other fiction to my reading list.

 
Would I Recommend This and to Whom:

• Yes, definitely. To anyone. That is perhaps my favorite thing about this book. Although it is packed with adventure and excitement, including some violence and tragedy, it is still a good, clean read that I could recommend to my grandmother, my neighbor, or my neighbor’s teenage daughter. I’ve even recommended it to my husband who is a pilot (which says a lot because usually I can’t even watch a movie that has a plane scene with him.)

 
Favorite Quotes:

• She fiddled with her cuff. “This pretending, it is not better than never to be belonging?”

          He shrugged. “Everything comes with a price.” [Jael and Hitch]

• “… Planes are like people. If you love ‘em, they’re beautiful.” [Hitch]
• “If you gotta give trouble to somebody, might as well give it to me. I should know what to do with it if anybody does.” [Hitch]
• But a family would have staked him to the ground, and he wasn’t fool enough to believe that being the stake was any better a life than being the one who was staked. [Hitch]
• “I think… running away is also kind of cage, yes? How can we ever run far enough to run away from running away?” [Jael]

If you’re an aspiring author like me, I recommend Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel.
​(Click the covers to see them on Amazon.)
​They have changed the way I look at storytelling. And all the information on her website,​ 
Helping Writers Become Authors, is priceless. (Follow the link to check it out.)