Blog Tour Book Review: Rise (The Order of the Krigers #1) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: May 17, 2016
Author: Jennifer Anne Davis
Publisher: Month9Books
Length: 300 pages
Source: eARC from Publisher

The people of Nelebek live in fear of persecution from the evil Morlet, who reigns with a dark and destructive magic. The kingdom’s only hope lies with the Order of the Krigers—twelve warriors with mysterious powers linked to magical weapons.

For over a century, Morlet has been annihilating the Order, picking them off one by one. Eleven Krigers have been hunted down, tortured, and imprisoned in his dungeon. Now, only one remains.

Sixteen-year-old Kaia survives by keeping her head down and minding her own business. But when she finds herself in the middle of a public execution where the mysterious Morlet is in attendance, an odd compulsion she can’t resist comes over her.

Kaia looks into Morlet’s eyes.

Soon, an ancient power awakens and Kaia can no more blend into the scenery. Will she heed the call of the Krigers or will Morlet’s dark magic destroy the last of the Order?

    

Review:

Protagonist: Kaia has always known to keep her head down and out of trouble. However when she finds herself in running an errand to save her sick father she comes face to face with the evil tyrant who runs the kingdom she lives in she can no longer fade into obscurity. Now she's on the run from a terrifying enemy and learns of her destiny to help eleven others band together to fight and ultimately bring down the fearsome Mortlet. I really like Kaia, she's stubborn and fierce with a caring side to her. It's really hard to describe because she's more than just those things, she's a very well written and developed character.

Romance: So the romance in this book isn't a large plot point, and I was completely okay with that as it let this incredible plot shine all the more. So, I'm trying to figure out how to describe the romance without giving some rather large spoilers away, so I'll say this, while there isn't really a love triangle in this book, at least not one that I can take seriously, there is more than one person that comes into Kaia's life that will contribute in one way or another to the romance. The romance between Kaia and her main love interest is great though, it's slow moving, and has a lot of great tension in it. It didn't take too long for me to really start to root for them.

World-Building: Wow, this world is incredible. I said on twitter, not too long after starting this book, that the prologue to this story is incredible, it hooked me so easily and never let go. In this world there is magic, though humans don't have it unless it's given to them. Which is how the Krigers were born. They each have a weapon that links them to their magic which I found to be an incredible idea. I was eager to see how Davis would handle a magic system, since her True Reign and Reign of Secrets series don't have a magic aspect, and I have to say she did a phenomenal job. Then there's the world itself and while we don't learn too much about it, what we do learn is very well presented and there's some hints at things that I think we'll discover more in the future.

Predictability: So I'm going over in my head all of the twists in this book and there aren't all that many. There are some sudden turns in the story that I didn't quite see coming that were incredible, and even the twists that I did see coming I still really enjoyed. The sort of big twist to this story was actually pretty easy to guess, though not until after learning a key piece of information, but even then with the twist so obvious, the author didn't really try to continue to hint at it beating it over our heads, in fact even the main character starts to catch on to a few things. In the end I was probably more excited with how things fit together than whether or not I was surprised when they were finally revealed.

Ending: This ending did not take the turn I thought it would have. While I knew in my mind where the logical end point for this installment was, there were things in it that just seem to happen almost too soon. There are two more installments in this series and now I'm extremely curious as to what the next installment is going to bring. The final climax of this book had quite a few twists and turns in it, some I saw coming and a few I never quite expected. This all leads up to a rather killer cliffhanger.

Rating:

Wow, going in to this book I expected to like it, but I seriously can't wait to see what's going to happen next. The world is so richly developed and I feel such a connection to so many of the characters. If you're a fan of fantasy, this book is a must read!

About the Author:

Jennifer Anne Davis is the award-winning author of the bestselling TRUE REIGN series. After graduating from the University of San Diego with a degree in English and a teaching credential, she married her high school sweetheart. Jennifer is currently a full-time writer and mother of three highly energetic children. Her days are spent living in imaginary worlds and fueling her own kids’ creativity.

Author Links:

Website † Twitter † Facebook † Instagram † Goodreads

Giveaway:

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Book Review: In the Shadow of the Dragon King (The Chronicles of Fallhollow #1)

Release Date: May 31, 2016
Author: J. Keller Ford
Publisher: Month9Books
Length: 403 pages
Source: Digital Review Copy via the Publisher

Seventeen-year-old, Eric, is a kick-butt squire to the most revered knight in Fallhollow. Well he would be if Sir Trogsdill allowed him to do anything even remotely awesome. Determined to prove his worth, Eric sets out to find the mythical paladin summoned to protect the realm from the evil lurking nearby.

Sixteen-year-old, David, spends his days collecting school honors, winning archery tournaments, and trying not to fall in love with his scrappy best friend, Charlotte.

Right when things start to get interesting, he is whisked away to the magical realm of Fallhollow where everyone thinks he's some sort of paladin destined to fulfill a two-hundred-year-old prophecy. He's supposed to help kill a dragon with some sort of magic key. The same key that happens to adorn the neck of an annoying squire who's too wrapped up in proving himself to be much help to anyone.

With egos as big as the dragon they need to destroy, Eric and David must get over themselves, or watch everything they know and love, burn.

    

Review:

Protagonists: This book is told in alternating points of view between Eric, a young squire, who after constant coddling sets out to prove himself, and David a boy from a world much like ours who finds out that he holds an immense destiny in Fallhollow. A lot of Eric's character development stems from the fact that Sir Trogsdill, the knight he serves, and all of Trog's friends handle Eric with kid gloves. They are so overprotective of him that at one point in the story he snaps and does whatever he can to show them that he can not only handle himself in the face of danger but succeed. On the whole I rather liked Eric, he could be pig-headed and stubborn but he was still a very likeable character at the end of the day. Then there's David, my biggest problem with David is that he feels like every bad thing that happens around him, even those out of his control are his fault. This is a character trope that I hate above all else. Really it makes for a really annoying character who believes that they should have been in control of not only their actions but the actions of others as well. There is development with him though and hopefully he'll be a bit more levelheaded in future installments.

Romance: So this romance really bugged me. First off while it's not necessarily a pre-established romance as the characters aren't dating prior to the start of the book, they may as well be. Seriously David and Charlotte act like they're dating but never actually call it that. Then when their feelings do come to light David has the world's worst excuse as to why they can't be together. It just felt very contrived and even if David had a good reason for them to not be together, I still couldn't root for them because I never felt that chemistry between them, except for maybe in one scene. The author did a lot of telling instead of showing. Constantly reminding the reader that Charlotte is the love of David's life without really showing us why he fell for her or why he loves her.

World-Building: So I have to admit, the description of this book really confused me to what this story was going to be. From the description I assumed that somehow Eric and David were going to venture out on a quest together and get on each other's nerves before eventually succumbing to friendship and saving the world. That however didn't happen. I'm not mad though, I was just confused since that was the vibe I got from the synopsis. Instead it's almost two stories in one that only truly interconnect near the end. The world of Fallhollow was really interesting, the political intrigue and magic system were particularly interesting. My biggest problem though was the writing. I mean for the most part it was okay, great even, but there were times when things were still a bit rough, things were revealed in such an out of the blue or jarring way, or things were resolved way too quickly. It could just be that I got an earlier version before these rough spots were buffed and polished. Finally there were moments that I felt like I was missing something, even going back in the text to double check that I didn't, which really bothered me.

Predictability: So, there was actually quite a bit about this book that I couldn't predict. In fact other than a few vague things I didn't guess any of the huge shocks in this book. The funny thing though is that the author sort of sets up what's going to be revealed without the actual reveal, leading me to lots of crazy conspiracy theories, and even some way out of left field theories. Though when things are finally revealed most of the time I was shocked that I at least got part of the reveal right. The one thing that bothers me though is that there are things set up, things that I felt were supposed to be revealed in this installment that weren't that sort of bug me since it also feels like they were just dropped from the storyline, and they still bug me.

Ending: So the ending isn't at all what I expected it would be going into this book, though going into this book I hadn't expected David and Eric to meet at the end. So going into the final climax of this book everything was very high intensity and the action and battle started to almost go by too fast. While I understood what was going on there were a few moments that either felt way too convenient or that I wasn't quite sure how something got from point A to point B. When we got to the cooldown period though was when I got the most confused. A character was very certain about one thing that made no sense, I mean I guess it made sense just that there wasn't exactly anything to hint at this thing happening, I'm sorry if I'm confusing you I just want to avoid spoilers whenever possible. Let's just say the ending has some confusing and anti-climactic moments.

Rating:

So I debated really hard on this rating. On the one hand this story is incredible the world is exciting and rich, on the other though the writing is rough, the romance sadly underdeveloped, and there are just some things that don't quite add up. At the end of the day though I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next installment.