Rise – Andrea Cremer

Title: Rise
Series: Nightshade Prequel, #2
Author: Andrea Cremer
Published: Philomel, January 2013
Source: bought a copy
Links: [goodreads][amazon.com][The Book Depository]

The sequel to Rift  and the prequel to the New York Times  bestselling novel Nightshade.

Everything Conatus stands for is at risk. Hoping to gather enough resistance to save their order, Ember and Barrow attempt a desperate escape. But fate offers little mercy. When their mission is exposed, the couple face relentless pursuit by the supernatural horrors that act on the commands of Eira’s ally: the mysterious Bosque Mar. A shocking revelation forces Ember out of hiding, sending her back into the heart of dark magic at Tearmunn keep, where she must convince her old friend Alistair of her love or face dire consequences. Ember’s deception offers the only chance for the resistance to succeed, but what she discovers in the shadows beneath the keep will shatter her world and bring about the Witches’ War.

Richly sensual and full of magic, action and danger, Andrea Cremer’s fifth book set in the Nightshade world is an edge-of-your-seat page turner.

Rise  renders me speechless.

No, the story didn’t upset me.  I like Cremer’s writing style.  But with all the scheming and conniving going on, I felt saddened by the deception, lies and betrayals that happened in the book.  To me, reading the story was like entering into the fog – I knew the fog would soon pass but while I was in it, I felt taken over by the gloom.

So, what’s the gloom?  The gloom is something that I felt and I bet if you read the story, you’d feel it too, but if you run a search for the word “gloom” in Rise,  you’ll find that this word has never appeared, not even once, in the entire book.  I guess you could say that’s a great example of “show, not tell” here but that’s not the point that I’m trying to make.  What I’m trying to say is that I totally felt the helplessness of what Ember suffers and while there are people who are not afraid to die for a good cause, their deaths feel tragic, and I hardly sensed any heroism in the act.

In the story, Bosque Mar, being the Lord of the Nether realm, knows how to exploit weaknesses and satiate the hunger for power of those who have been submissive for almost their entire lives.  Many are tempted and in the process, lose the sacred talents that they once cherished the most.  It’s chilling to see how far people are willing to go to deal with the devil and I felt sorrowful for the consequences that they have to pay.

Fast-paced, dark and imaginative, Rise  offers answers to how the Guardian wolves come about in the Nightshade  series.  If you’ve been wondering about what may have led to the existence of these ferocious Guardians, you’ll definitely want to get hold of a copy of Rise.

Rating:   ★★★★★

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