Analiese Rising by Brenda Drake Published by Entangled: Teen in January 2019
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Half-Blood meets Antigoddess in a thrilling, romantic new series from New York Times bestselling author Brenda Drake.
When a stranger gives Analiese Jordan a list of names before he dies, the last thing she expects to see is her own on it. Not. Cool. Her search for answers leads to the man’s grandson, Marek, who has dangerous secrets of his own. Both are determined to unlock the mystery of the list.
But the truth is deadly. Analiese is a descendant of the God of Death, known as a Riser, with the power to raise the dead and control them. Finding out she has hidden powers? Cool. Finding out she turns corpses into killers? No, thank you.
Now the trail plants her and Marek in the middle of a war between gods who apparently want to raise an army of the Risen, and Analiese must figure out how to save the world—from herself.
Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions shared are my own.
I thoroughly enjoyed Brenda Drake’s Library Jumpers series. (If you haven’t read that series yet, I highly recommend it!) So I was more than excited to have the opportunity to read her upcoming release Analiese Rising.
Analiese Rising follows Analiese or Ana for short who unknowingly has the powers to raise the dead and turn them into evil killers. In the story, she finds herself traveling through Europe with Marek, the grandson of a man that died in front of her eyes and mysteriously knew her, in search of answers. Little does she know, she’s about to find herself in the center of a war between gods.
Analiese Rising was a page-turner from the start. Drake did not wait at all for the action to start with a frog coming back to life in biology class, which I absolutely loved. There’s a lot that goes down in this story, as Ana and Marek try to find his grandfather’s clues. To make things worse, at every turn, Ana and Marek did not know if they were encountering someone wanting to help them, use them, or simply want them dead. It all made for quite the page-turning story.
The story also has a lot of references to mythology. I’m not a mythology buff at all, and I think most of the references were surface level. However, I enjoyed the mythology aspect, and I particularly enjoyed the fact that Drake didn’t focus only on Greek or Norse mythology. There was quite the blend in Analiese Rising. As an Asian American, I appreciated the nod to the red thread of fate, which is a story I remember hearing about as a child.
The main issue I had with Analiese Rising was that it didn’t flow as well as I hoped it would. However, it did not take away from my enjoyment of the overall plot. Also, it’s quite possible that my minor issues with the flow will be fixed before the final print. I just thought that a couple of scenes didn’t flow as well as they could have when transitioning.
All in all, I really enjoyed Analiese Rising. I found it to be a fun, page-turning read with a lot of action and some fantasy and mythology thrown in. I hope you try reading Analiese Rising by Brenda Drake when it releases on January 8, 2019. & Hopefully, there will be news about a sequel soon. Analiese Rising definitely needs a sequel.
