REVIEW: The Rising by Kristen Ashley

The Rising by Kristen Ashley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

Once upon a time, in a parallel universe, there existed the continent of Triton. The land was filled with beauty, but it was also splintered by war. Out of the chaos grew a conspiracy to reawaken the Beast, a fearsome creature who wrought only tragedy and devastation. The only way to stop him was to fulfill an ancient prophecy: Triton’s four strongest warriors must wed its four most powerful witches, binding all nations together and finally bringing peace to the land.

This is the story of their unions: the quiet maiden Silence and the savage king Mars. The cold warrior Cassius and the fiery witch Elena. The steadfast soldier True and the banished beauty Farah. And the pirate king Aramus and the mysterious queen Ha-Lah. Their unions will not be easy, but each couple must succeed, for the fate of their world is at stake...

I’m undecided on if this is a 4 or 5 star read for me. On the one hand, I was fully invested. I didn’t want to put it down. It invoked all the emotions and I even cried a little. These things scream 5 star read to me.

But…

On the other hand… I’m annoyed. I had read some reviews so I knew Teddy wasn’t going to make it. To be completely honest, until close to the end of this book, I didn’t care. Then it came about and with the epilogue, my feelings changed and I found I did care. Quite a lot. Honestly, I feel like he died so Moira Saturn and Faunus could be a throuple. And like in the other books, the first especially, I felt like the themes from the honey series were shoved down my throat. Now, I enjoyed the honey series. If memory serves, they were all 5 stars for me. But I CHOSE to read them, going in knowing what I was getting. I’m not against those themes, quite the opposite. But this series wasn’t about that. But it was and I don’t know how I feel about it. Mostly because, it seems like all her new books have those themes when that’s not what she was about before the honey books. It just irked me. I also didn’t like the simple fact that Teddy died and his three loves moved on together. 💔😭

I’m not sure how I feel about the big battle not being told from any of our 4 couples povs, but it seemed almost anticlimactic. The events leading up to it had my heart racing and I was anticipating it completely. In the end though, it was dramatic and I guess there was just so much happening at once it would have been hard to have it bouncing from one to the next so it kinda also worked we got it from Teddy’s pov.

I loved how all the couples came together to fight the beasts and worked as a team. I also loved the epilogue and getting to see their happily ever afters.

Overall I enjoyed this book as well as the entire series. I hope we get stories from The Mystics.