Dawn Rising by Lisa M. Green – a Review

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Book Depository

Description:
Once upon a time, a girl was born. A hundred years later, she grew up.

Aurianna must rewrite the past in order to save the future. She was supposed to be the answer to an enigmatic prophecy discovered on the night of her birth. But a terrible curse changed her life forever.

That is, until a mysterious stranger arrives to break the spell. He awakens Aurianna to the truth of her past and the powers she never knew she had.

When he sweeps her back in time, she discovers there is more to her life than she ever imagined. The world she encounters is both strange and familiar. But learning to control her newfound elemental powers will be the least of her problems.

She must race against time to uncover the truth about a catastrophe that will leave the world broken, divided, and at war.

Aurianna just wants answers. But the people need a saviour.

Review:

Dawn Rising by Lisa M. Green is a time travel book and the 1st book in her new Awakened series. Not my usual genre, but I’m always open to new authors and their ideas. The back cover intrigued me, so let’s go….. 

People come out of the darkness, we should be scared, they are dangerous. But if captured they can be drained and then killed. But you need to burn the bodies. But who are the people? Are the citizens aware those people are drained and burned? There are lots of questions that need answering. 

Aurianna knows she’s different, she doesn’t act the same as other, she can remember when the sun came out, when there was warmth in the air. But now there is only grey days and darkness. I did find Aurianna a little annoying at times, acting like a grown up one moment and then childish. 

When a stranger comes to town, she begins to put pieces of a puzzle together. A time traveller, Aurianna is then told she’s the key to a prophecy, she can help the future, but it means she has to go to the past. 

Pharis is a traveller, coming to the future is a dangerous thing, no one has come back yet, so it’s all resting on him. Meeting Aurianna didn’t go the way he expected, and trying to convince her to go to the past with him proves interesting.

What happens next is a fast paced race through this book. Going back to the past to change the future, sounds easy right? Wrong! And they have to train Aurianna to use her powers, but I also get the feeling they are leaving a few things out! And what is the darkness? Do Aurianna and Pharis need to be wary of it?

I have to admit i thoroughly enjoyed the book!

First books in a new series need to be finely balanced, too much information and we get stuck, not enough information and it doesn’t keep the readers interest. This had it. And it kept me turning the pages. 

But I felt the characters needed a little more work, they felt a little stiff. I know we are in hard times, but there doesn’t seem any lightheartedness. And the like/hate/love between Pharis and Aurianna needed just a tweak, they almost seemed to gel, then they’d lose it. 

And we have a twist I didn’t see coming. The ending has you wondering it the next book will start there….. 

Reviewed by Julie

Copy supplied for review