Rise Reviews

Since reading Danika Dinsmore’s Brigitta of the White Forest a year ago, I’ve been looking forward to the sequel. When offered a chance to read and review an eARC for The Ruins of Noe, I jumped on the opportunity. The book did not disappoint. It continued the delightful tone, characters, and setting of the first book while standing apart with its own strengths and perspective.

As Brigitta continues her training to become an Elder for the village, she is drawn into a larger problem facing the White Forest. As the spirits of the dead do not pass on and children are born without destinies, Brigitta is shown a prophecy that foretold this and included her as the one who had to go out and solve it.

Shorn, by Larissa Niec, is a standout piece of fiction, especially from a small press. Niec’s prose is rich, evocative and gripping. She has created a rich and interesting world that she describes with a deft hand. Without much exposition or outright explanation, I soon had a sense of how the culture and cosmology of her world worked. The biggest criticism I might level against the book is that it is clearly the first in a series. After the last page I felt as though I had only read the opening act of a much larger tale, with no sense of satisfaction after the first book.

The setup for Shauna Robert’s Like Mayflies in a Stream, is a compelling one: an archaeologically-accurate retelling of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Hearing that alone was enough to make me order a copy immediately. But while the book is excellently written in many regards, I didn’t connect very well with the characters.

Focusing on the city-state of Uruk during the early reign of King Gilgamesh, it opens with a land oppressed by a juvenile tyrant. The king is restless, which results in men left broken after Gilgamesh wrestles them and brides brutally raped on their wedding days. Shamhat, a priestess of Inanna, is sent out by Gilgamesh to find the wild man Enkidu. The king’s prophetic dream implied that Enkidu will be the peer that will soothe the king’s restless heart. But Nanna-Ur-Sag, high priest of Inanna, has also had a prophetic dream. In the high priest’s dream, Enkidu will be the man that humbles the king and brings justice back to Uruk.

Amber Redgrave is a private bodyguard for Ms. Hawkins, an elderly woman who believes her late husband had enemies. Amber doesn’t really believe that Ms. Hawkins is in danger; the woman was described to her as a nutter. But one day while shopping together at the mall, Amber’s cushy guard job is sorely tested.

Angry after the horrific turn of events, she questions her boss and ex-lover, John Richmond about what went wrong. He can’t or won’t give any details, and turns the discussion to a new mission he’s about to embark upon. When he leaves the room for a moment, his phone rings and Amber answers it. One of the men on John’s team was pulled off the mission. Without hesitating, Amber volunteers herself.

In her debut novel, Nearly Departed in Deadwood, Ann Charles weaves a fun romp of romance, mystery and the occult. The pages are brimming with eccentric small town characters that brought the setting to life. Though not quite as paranormal a romance/mystery as I had hoped it would be, I would gladly read more tales in her Deadwood Mystery series.

Violet Parker, the book’s protagonist, is a single mother and struggling real estate agent trying to land her first sale before getting fired. But eccentric customers, haunted houses and workplace harassment all threaten to defeat her at every turn. On top of all this, girls have been disappearing from the town of Deadwood. And the girls all bear a striking resemblance to Violet’s daughter. Afraid that her child could be next, Violet starts to play amateur sleuth to find the abductor.

Amanda Givens is a white witch who lives a quiet life in the woods of Canaan, Connecticut with her familiar, a cat named Amadeus. Amanda is still grieving the loss of her husband, Jake, who recently died in a car accident. Although Jake was aware of her powers and didn’t mind them, Amanda keeps her secret from her friends and the people in town.

But when an evil cult, lead by Rachel, a black witch from the past, begins tormenting the town and its citizens, Amanda knows she must do everything in her power to help. Especially when the cult kidnaps and harms her best friend Jane’s little boy. But the townspeople only see her powers and think she’s evil.

There are many ways Danika Dinsmore’s debut novel, Brigitta of the White Forest, could go wrong. As a concept, a young adult novel about a world almost entirely populated with fairies by a debut author is something I would hesitate to pick up. Yet I found myself quickly charmed by her characters and setting for what proved to be a wonderful read. Dinsmore weaves a coming of age story through a world that is both fantastic and believable.

Brigitta and her younger sister, Himalette, live in the enchanted and protected realm of the White Forest. Each season cycle the Elders must perform the ritual that restores the Hourglass of Protection that keeps intruders out of their peaceful land. Before the ritual can be performed, a magical attack incapacitates everyone except for the two sisters. Desperate to save the White Forest before the sands in the Hourglass run out, Brigitta and Himalette must leave the forest and seek help from the only fairy that may have a way to fix things: Hrathgar, the dark fairy that lives in exile after trying to take over the White Forest.

It’s hard to know how much scrutiny to apply to a novel like Karen Anne Webb’s The Chalice of Life, the first in her Adventures of the Carotian Union. To a younger, or perhaps less jaded, reader this could very well be a fun light-hearted read. For me, this read like a rough draft written by new author, with the manuscript needing a lot of revision. It is filled with passion for the material but I found the book frustrating to read in many places.

Set in a universe with high technology and magic, seven heroes are chosen by the goddess Minissa to rescue a lost prince who is trapped outside of space and time. They will need to travel through seven portals to seven different worlds in order to rescue this prince. This first book details the adventure they have in the first world to which they travel. Upcoming sequels will each cover another world.

Archaeologist Shep Smythe has based his entire career on proving that Cleopatra was murdered. He goes to Mexico after a statue of Cleopatra is unearthed at an Olmec dig site. Instead of finding proof of his theory, he gets caught between Victoria Kent, a famous international thief, and Dmitri Kronastia, a Russian mobster nobody wishes to cross.

Victoria has stolen rare, priceless items from the dig site, including any proof Shep may have been able to use in proving that Cleopatra was murdered. Dmitri must find those items before it’s too late – Dmitri and Victoria are part of an ancient world of gods, the supernatural and history. Shep must help Dmitri find Victoria and the artifacts, and put together the puzzle that will prevent the end of the world on 12.21.12.

Roarke by Frances Pauli Divine Destinies, 2010 $3.99 (ebook) Frances Pauli cranks up the tension right off the bat with her sci fi romance, Roarke, with a lot of questions begging for answers. But what hints at the beginning of a nail-biting thriller instead turns into an introspective story where the problems are more about [...]