PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE DARKNESS RISING SERIES AS THE RISING IS THE FINAL BOOK IN THE SERIES.

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong (UK cover)

Title: The Rising (Darkness Rising Book 3)
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Atom (2nd April 2013)
Blurb:

Maya Delaney is a skin-walker – a supernatural who can “Shift” into the shape of a cougar. But her gift comes with a terrible cost. With every transformation, she risks losing touch with her human nature – for ever.

Maya and her friends are on the run from the people who experimented on them and transformed them into supernaturals in the first place. They know they must confront their enemies if they are to have any hope of a future. In order to succeed, Maya will need to use her dangerous, unpredictable powers – but they price for freedom could be too high a price to pay . . .

Rating: **** (4 star)
Review:

The Rising brings to an end The Darkness Rising series by Kelley Armstrong. In the previous book The Calling Maya and her friends were involved in a helicopter crash and ended up on the run as they try to reunite with their families. In The Rising Armstrong brings The Darkness Rising series to a conclusion as we witness Maya and her friends struggle to remain free and plot what to do next, as they contemplate their futures – can they go back to a normal life, or if they will be on the run forever?

To be honest, I was quite nervous about reading The Rising because I am a HUGE Kelley Armstrong fan and she recently finished her Women of the Otherworld series so I’m sad to see the end of The Darkness Rising series too. It doesn’t help that there’s a slight crossover between the two series as they are set in the same world, although none of the main characters in either series cross paths. Interestingly The Rising seems to be set a year prior to the events of Waking the Witch and probably pre-Frostbitten too – I think it’s intriguing anyway, but that might be because I follow both series.

Maya was as always an interesting and compelling main character. Although she’s only sixteen, Maya is very mature in this book and tries to do her best for her friends. I also think she was very brave. Armstrong also did a good job writing Maya’s friends, and showing them to be strong secondary characters. I thought how Armstrong chose to handle the “bad guys” in this book was particularly interesting, especially considering the resolution of the book.

Kelley Armstrong did a good job ending this series. She answered all the questions I had, and the resolution of the book and series itself was interestingly handled – the ending wasn’t perfect, but I thought it reflected the compromises we all have to make. I really enjoyed how Armstrong chose to tie up the loose ends in this book, and there were some fascinating revelations along the way that I was not expecting at all! I like a good twist. The Rising was a really readable and enjoyable book, and I am sorry to say goodbye to the characters and world but I cannot wait to read what Kelley Armstrong does next.