Book Review: Rising, by Holly Kelly

Hello Fellow Readers,

Do you know what time it is?

More book review time!!!! YAY!!!!

This is so far one of my new favourite series of books. LOVE it so much…as you will see as the post goes on.

That said…ON WITH THE POST!

In a war between the humans and the inhabitants of the sea—humans will lose. Xanthus Dimitriou—the most lethal Dagonian to rise from the ocean—is on a mission to save mankind from annihilation. But first there’s one small thing he needs to do… kill a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair.

Killing her doesn’t start out as part of his plan. He entrenches himself deep in the human world. Aligning himself with his enemies, he prepares to send them to Triton to face their punishment. Then Sara Taylor rolls onto the scene. Xanthus knows at once she’s a criminal. And her crime? Being born. She’s a human/Dagonian half-breed, an abomination. Killing her should be an easy job. All he has to do is break into her apartment, slit her throat, and feed her body to the sharks. Simple, right? Wrong. If only she weren’t so beautiful, so innocent, so sweet…

Saving the world may have to wait. It appears Xanthus has a woman to save. But protecting her may cost him his own life.

Plot: Oh my gosh. Where do I start?? I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOVED this whole novel and the plot was REALLY well written. Tons of plot twists and its own uniqueness. You’re probably thinking something like:

‘As if. It’s a mermaid story. So overdone.’

I was thinking the same thing when I looked at the synopsis on Amazon but I got it for these 3 reasons.

1.) I LOVE Mermaids. End of story. So I automatically decided that even if it was the usual, cliche, mermaid story I was gonna read it.

2.) It was free on Amazon. Why not?

3.) I LOVE MERMAIDS…..Okay I already said that but seriously…and I guess the main characters aren’t ‘mermaids’ per say… They’re actually a relative of the mermaids called ‘Dagonians’ but either way.

Anyways. The plot was amazing, really unique, well written, and overall just awesome

Genre: Fantasy.

Well, as you all know by now I LOVE all things Fantasy and Sci-Fi. I really do. LOVE IT to itty-bitty pieces.

I also love the whole mythical creature aspect to Fantasy novels. My top 3 favourite fantasy creatures are:

1.) Mermaids/Sirens, 2.) Centaurs, and 3.) Fauns/Saytrs

If the fantasy story has either one of these fantasy creatures I’m sold.

I would also maybe put it down as a Romance too?? Maybe…Okay, yeah. Probably XD Well….I don’t know. Lets just go with this:

It’s a Fantasy novel with Romance.

Done. Okay.

Moving on. 😛

Characters: Oh my goshness. We could be here a REALLY long time if I fangirl too much. So, I will try to keep it short.

Sara: Sara is the FMC of the story. Part of the story is told from her POV. (The other half from Xanthus’s.) Sara is a tough cookie and I like her a lot. She keeps to herself most of the time and tends to stay home, doing her work from there. I mean, getting around in a wheelchair, by yourself is rather hard….and dangerous considering the area where she lives. She lives in the poor area of town where there are a lot of bad people hiding around every corner waiting to hurt you in some way. Anyways. Sara is one of my favourites. She is a tough cookie when the situation calls for it (Hello, she used pepper spray on Xanthus XD ) but yet she’s not one of those leading female roles that are always like: “I’m so awesome I don’t need anyone’s help.”

Sara is a little like that at one point, though. She keeps claiming she doesn’t need help where, in quite a few ways, she does. No matter how much she denies it, she needs some help.

Anyways. I like her because she is a strong lead character but not one of those strong “I don’t need anyone’s help because I’m better than all of you” characters.

Xanthus: Tee-hee-hee. Extreme fangirl time. *GRIN* I LOVE LOVE LOVED Xanthus as a character. He’s smart, caring, and very protective of Sara. (Like REALLY protective.)

Xanthus is a Dagonian who was given the ability to turn human, by the sea god Triton, when on land so he could complete the mission given to him…Stop the humans, in any way possible, from polluting the water which is resulting in the death of millions of Dagonians.

Anyways….I LOVE Xanthus! One of my favourites. (I have a few new favourite charries in the second book too but yeah…)

Gretchen: Gretchen is Sara’s best friend (who is playing a more major role in the second book of the series). She cares for her friend and tries to help her where she can. Gretchen is the kind of person you don’t want to tick off cause she can get quite angry and a little loud. I just loved her character a lot. She was one of my favourites. She is quite sassy and sarcastic and I love it!

Other Dagonian Dude Whose Name I Currently Forget: Okay, okay. I know. Not helpful and terribly unprofessional. At all. But I can’t remember his name and he has made no appearance in the second novel (so far) so I am not reminded of it.

Anyways. this guy. (We’re just gonna call him ‘Guy’) is the antagonist of the story….and I hate him. Total stick in the mud, creepy and yeah…don’t like him.

Setting: Most of the story took place in Hawaii (where I have never been) and in the ocean, obviously… XD Anyways. I LOVED how well the setting was described. Everything was described so well that it felt like I was everywhere the characters were. It was awesome and really well done.

Other: This story is heavily influenced by Greek mythology (obviously) so if you don’t like the whole Greek gods and goddesses and stuff then I wouldn’t really suggest it.

Also, Some of the Dagonians say ‘Hades’ quite a bit. Considering that Hades is the God of the Underworld I think it is supposed to be used instead of ‘Hell’ (though there is a slight chance I’m wrong).

Overall: Overall I LOVED this book. Both this book and Descending (book 2) were AMAZING and I was totally sucked into these stories. (Trust me. I was so into these novels that, multiple times, it would take my mom a couple minutes to get my attention 😛 )

Anyways. Overall I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. It was exactly what I expected and even more so. AMAZING book. LOVED it.

So that’s it for this book review. I’ll post the link again HERE (in case you missed it above) where you can get the first book FREE.

Until Next Time!

Adriana Gabrielle