Format: E-Galley, 300 pages
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: YA, Fantasy
The people of Nelebek live in fear of persecution from the evil Morlet, who reigns with a dark and destructive magic. The kingdom’s only hope lies with the Order of the Krigers—twelve warriors with mysterious powers linked to magical weapons.
For over a century, Morlet has been annihilating the Order, picking them off one by one. Eleven Krigers have been hunted down, tortured, and imprisoned in his dungeon. Now, only one remains.
Sixteen-year-old Kaia survives by keeping her head down and minding her own business. But when she finds herself in the middle of a public execution where the mysterious Morlet is in attendance, an odd compulsion she can’t resist comes over her.
Kaia looks into Morlet’s eyes.
Soon, an ancient power awakens and Kaia can no more blend into the scenery. Will she heed the call of the Krigers or will Morlet’s dark magic destroy the last of the Order?
Rise is the first
installment in author Jennifer Anne Davis' The Order of the Krigers trilogy. Davis creates a story that is set in a fictional country of Nelebek. Nelebek is ruled by a megalomaniac
King named Morlet who is obsessed with finding and killing all Twelve members of a group known as the Order of the Krigers. The problem is that he needs all Twelve together, but he is missing the Twelfth member who remains elusive to his attempts to capture them.
16-year old Kaia is the series protagonist. Kaia knows that surviving is the one and only goal of living in Nelebek. Her father, who works as a guard, has trained Kaia to fight and survive while living in squalor. Thanks to his efforts, and Kaia's hard work, she is more than ready for what comes next. Kaia knows that King Morlet has an obsession with the warriors known as the Order of the Krigers, but couldn't for the life of her have imagined that she is the Twelfth
member of the Order.
But, after staring down Morlet who is tearing the country apart looking for the Twelfth Kriger, something awakens inside. She feels energy in her hands, and she knows that something has changed. She is forced to go on the run with an assassin named Anders who saves her life more than once, and becomes her staunchest supporter. It has been foretold that when all Twelve members are together, they will have the ability and magical powers to bring down the evil King who has ruled Nelebek for a century.
In a quest to understand why she is apparently the Twelfth member of the Order, and why she may be the most important cog in defeating Morlet, she will also discover her strength, her courage, friendship with two men who are bound by a curse, and danger at every turn. She will be forced to face death in the face, loss at at an personal level, and begin to question if what is written about her is even half true.
Even though Kaia is young, and idealistic at times in not liking when Anders kills to save her life, but she doesn't run and hide. She opens herself up to being swayed by Morlet, and in the end, questions how a man so evil, can have any feelings whatsoever for her. One could say that the line between good and evil is truly blurred in this story. Morlet is an evil man. He does sick and twisted things to get his way and find the Kriger's. He took to black magic like a fish out of water, but apparently hasn't gone full Sith Lord since he finds different ways to make the reader question his behavior.
Anders is another one who blurs the line. He is a blood thirsty assassin. He's done some really bad things since he was cursed, yet he finds a connection to Kaia. For me, Vidar remains a question mark. He is not truly bad, but I'm not sold on his being pure good either. Let's hope the sequel called Burn reveals even more.
Woo, I just read another review of this that made me interested in it. Nice to see you think its worth checking out too :) Ty for sharing
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