Dark Rise

2 stars The bright star holds, even as the darkness rises.Unpopular opinion... I was so excited for Dark Rise but it was such a disappointment for me. The magic system was interesting and I did like the world building. The character were sort of bland but I did like James the most, even though he appeared in 20 or so pages. I mean I was sort of expecting a bit of romance but there was almost none. I think the romance is going to be built up more in the second instalment. The pacing of the book was extremely slow for me. It only really picked up after page 400 and that didn't even save the book for me. I wasn't a big fan of the different POV's from the characters in each chapter, especially Katherines' POV. The plot twist did take me by surpsise, but it still wasn't enough for me to like it. Will I be reading the second book when it releases? Probably. Are my expectations for the second book lowered? Definitely.

I read this for an traded buddy read. We give the other books we have already read.She gave this 5 stars. I can see why. This book surprised me and was a lot more like what I read, than I thought it would be.The fantasy elements and the magic were definitely things I was down for. I loved the characters.The plot itself was intriguing and kept my attention.There were some aspects at the end that I was not a fan of. Iykyk.However I will continue this series now.4.5 Stars.