I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book FOREVER…when it’s actually only been six months since I read Rift. But I just love Ember and Barrow so much and I needed to know the end of their story!
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.
I am going to start this review off by saying I have not yet read Wolfsbane and Bloodrose. And it’s been two and half years since I read Nightshade. Therefore I have completely forgotten any connections between the two timelines that I would’ve known…and I wouldn’t have known all that many of them.
And I LOVED this book! I will say, I did not love it quite as much as I loved Rift. But I believe this can be chalked up to two things. One, it is a prequel and suffers the way all prequels do in that there isn’t really an ending. The good guys are downtrodden at the end and the bad guys are prevailing.
Secondly, as much as I loved every single scene Ember and Barrow had together I wish there had been more. There was one scene in particular that I wanted to happen near the end. I don’t want to spoil anything but lets just say that Ember comes up with a plan and I really thought that SOMETHING would happen between them before the execution of said plan to reaffirm that what was happening in the plan was all a farce.
Is that vague enough?
And I don’t (necesarily) mean…uh…the consumation of their relationship. Just SOMETHING. A private converstion. Some making out that wasn’t done in front of Ember’s father. Something.
I continue to love Ember’s strength, though there was less battling in this book. I loved that her strength was shown in her love for her sister and her friends. In her willingness to do whatever is needed for others.
Even though I haven’t (yet) finished reading the original trilogy you can really see, in Rise much more so than Rift, how the two stories meet up. It was fun seeing the origins of the Guardians, the Keepers and the Searchers. I kind of wish the two storylines had happened a little closer together so that Ember and Calla could meet and kick ass together. Alas. I understand why it was not to be so.
I’m terribly excited for the ADULT books that Andrea Cremer will be writing in the world of the Witches War…mostly because I need to see more of Ember and Barrow together and I’m pretty sure there will be at least one story with them.
Surprisingly enough I think my favourite part of this book was when Bosque was talking to Cian about being her baby daddy….not in so many words. I just couldn’t help but think of it in those terms and it made me giggle uncontrolably.
Now I must read the first three books…last three books…the original books (I hate how prequels make that confusing) to see how this all ends. Thankfully I already own them.