Review: Rise

RISE
Nightshade Prequel #2
Andrea Cremer
Paranormal Young Adult
432 pages
Philomel/Penguin
Available January 8th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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.

MY THOUGHTS
Rise wastes little time returning us to the dark changes taking place in Ember’s world, the promise of answers as to how the wolves of the Nightshade series came to be teasing us until our curiosity ensures we turn the pages with record speed. While the Nightshade world was intriguing (though I confess to only having read the first book), there’s something even more appealing about both prequels; perhaps the fact that we’re starting at the very beginning–the moments just before and the moments of creation–of the wolves that satisfies our inquisitive minds more fully and completely, giving us intimate knowledge that can only enhance Calla’s story should we read the books in chronological order rather than order of release.

Though we switch back and forth between multiple storylines, we spend most of our time with young Ember, a woman we admired immediately in Rift for her desire to step outside what’s deemed “appropriate” for women of her station and embrace a more challenging destiny. She both maintains and strengthens our admiration in this second installment, her desire to fight and protect tempered by her affection for Barrow to make her into a beautiful blend of appealing characteristics. She’s strong without being reckless, thoughtful without living too much in her own head, and in love without all the drama and fanfare, and we know with certainty that she’ll make choices that, though difficult, are ones that are best for all and not simply herself or Barrow.

While there’s no true love triangle in Rise, Ms. Cremer does a spectacular job of depicting Ember’s troubled relationship with childhood best friend Alistair–their every interaction thick with layers of truth and deceit stemming from years of history–and we can’t help but be drawn into their painful web, held in place as a captive audience to their hurt. Even as we despair of the man Alistair is becoming, we cling to the last few remaining vestiges of hope we have that he’ll shake loose from Bosque Mar’s influence and return to the teasing friend and treasured confidante he once was, but each page challenges our stubborn hold on hope, and we look toward the next book with a touch of dread, wondering what fate has in store for him.

Overall, Rise suffers from very few of the pitfalls that plague many a sequel, answering as many questions as it raises and giving us our first glimpse at the intricate and terrifying transformative process for the wolves, something the part of us that constantly asks “how” and “why” is extraordinarily grateful for. Ember’s story is one that can’t be put to page quickly enough, and I will certainly be counting down the days until the next leg of her journey is in my hands.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Rift

RIFT
(Nightshade Prequel #1)
Andrea Cremer
Paranormal Young Adult
431 Pages
Philomel/Penguin
Available Now
Received at BEA

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!

Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.

With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.

MY THOUGHTS 
Rift sprints from the gate as though the evil contained in its pages is nipping at its heels, immediately enveloping us in its dark and richly atmospheric world and continuing to coat us in layer after layer of complexity until we are so thoroughly ensconced in the life of the Guard that we dread the next page because it brings us one step closer to reaching the end. The time period is integral to the success of the story, the absolute control Ember’s father feels he has over her life instantaneously raising our hackles as we want nothing more than to speak out against the injustice of being treated as a commodity rather than a person. Additionally, the constant threat of zealotry from the townspeople surrounding Tearmunn as well as the Church itself–where whispers of witchcraft or an allegiance with the devil are enough to sentence any member of the Guard to a fiery fate–hangs heavy over our heads to ensure we’re fully invested in the health and welfare of Ember’s new Guard family.

Ember is an admirable heroine, choosing to embrace the path the circumstances of her birth dictated for her and throwing herself into it with a fervor that brings a smile to our faces. She's a young woman who fights what’s considered a female’s “role” in this time period, wanting to pick up arms alongside the men rather than be married and safely tucked away with a swollen belly, and she is determined to prove her mettle to the predominantly male Guard. There are times when her young age is readily apparent, mostly when she’s frustrated and takes to stomping her foot as a physical expression of that disgruntlement, but for the most part she’s someone we can easily support in her every endeavor–whether it be physical or romantic in nature.

Ember’s relationship with Barrow, her mentor in the Guard, is the kind of relationship that keeps us up late reading, following a mantra of “just one more chapter” to see if the tension thrumming between them will finally snap before we drag ourselves off to bed. They go from strangers to training partners to friends to something more at a pace designed to tease, their every interaction heavy with things left unsaid, and their every gesture garnering our intense scrutiny to see if we can decipher some meaning beyond the superficial. While there is a third player to the romance in this tale, Ember’s preference for Barrow is made clear to both us as readers as well as the other young man attempting to win her affection, therefore sparing us the formation of an actual triangle.

Readers, like me, who haven’t read the Nightshade trilogy in its entirety will have no problem settling into Ember’s world, and while we may miss some of the smaller details and hints as to what’s to come due to our ignorance, our overall enjoyment is not lessened as a result. We’re left on the last page at what’s clearly a beginning, the darkness that’s been set loose finally reaching the doorstep of Tearmunn and forcing the Guard into action, and the time until Rise is released cannot pass fast enough.

Rating: 4/5