ARC Review: Deadly Rising (Booke Of The Hidden #2) by Jeri Westerson

Flora Reviews… Deadly Rising by Jeri Westerson. Book 2 in her urban fantasy series, Booke of the Hidden. My thanks to Jeri for an eBook to review.

What’s Deadly Rising about?

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Jeri gave me Deadly Rising as an ebook for free. However, I bought the audio version myself using my free monthly credit. I alternated between reading during the day and listening to the narration before bed, which is becoming my favourite way to “read” a book.

What did I like about Deadly Rising?

Jeri’s still a fairly new-to-me author. However, I find her writing style engaging, intelligent and easy to read. I love the way she weaves her plots; they’re complex enough to keep me intrigued without being convoluted. Plus there’s always a good balance of humour, action, tension, mystery and romance in her tales. The pace that they develop and when things are revealed just feels right.

As a narrated book, I was impressed with Suzanne Elise Freeman’s performance. Loving the pace at which she read the story and her tonal adjustments for the dialogue. I’d definitely buy books narrated by her in the future.

I loved the way Jeri crafted her world, building on the first book and its history. Finding myself back in the village of Moody Bog almost instantly. Her descriptions just brought the place to life in my imagination once again.

I really like our heroine, Kylie.

She’s intelligent and has heaps of gumption (even if she does find herself in a quandary on the romantic front during this book) and I like how she’s evolving, becoming more self-assured, looking at less supernatural sources to help solve the mysteries. Kylie’s grown since the first book and she continued to do so during this adventure. Both her skills and knowledge have grown and developed.

I love the fact that the secondary characters that Jeri created to populate her world, feel just as real as our leads.

All have strong, memorable personalities and weren’t just filling the page. Kind old Doc Boone who’s turning into quite the mage. Teen Jolene who definitely comes into her own in this story and who out there doesn’t know a person like Ruth Russell with her self-important air! I loved that Jeri’s characters have the complexities that we’d see in those around us. They have a good balance of strengths and insecurities to make them feel real, even the supernatural ones.

Deadly Rising kept me guessing and had me holding my breath at times.

I was on the edge of my seat with shocking revelations, tense standoffs and action-packed fight scenes. But fear not, good readers it’s not all tension and scares. There are giggles and a good sprinkling of tummy tingling passion to balance it all out.

Was there anything I disliked about it?

As you can tell, I did really enjoy this book but I feel I should explain why I rated it 4 stars rather than 5. In other words, what took the shine off for me?

As my regular followers will know, I’m not a fan of cliffhanger endings. Although Deadly Rising doesn’t end in a life or death situation for our heroine, Kylie Strange, it does for one of the supporting characters. PLUS we have a new threat from a big bad burst onto the scene in the final few pages! That did it for me.

I’ll also take this opportunity to remind you that as the second in a new four book series, not all of our questions or mysteries are resolved within these pages. However the monster escapees are satisfactorily dealt with before the end of this book.

So far, Kylie and her coven friends have had to deal with different Booke escapees in each book while the story-line of Kylie’s destiny/curse, the origins of the Booke and her romantic relationships continue in the background. Jeri eloquently weaves any pertinent facts regarding previous adventures into this tale. However, I feel that as the series grows, you’d likely miss the nuances of knowing re-occurring characters and understanding the dynamics of those relationships meaning that I don’t feel the books in this series should be read as standalones or out of order.

Basically, what I’m saying is…

I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t stop reading until I found out how it ended. I love it when a story keeps me guessing, makes me chuckle, puts a lump in my throat, warms my old romantic heart and sends tingles of titillation to my nether regions. Book 3 “Shadows in the Mist” is due to be released in May and I can’t wait to see what happens to Kylie and her friends next.

I’d recommend Deadly Rising to lovers of well-written tales of magic, curses, mystery and horror. Not forgetting the sprinkling of romance. It’s a perfect mix of scary, paranormal, mystery and adventure.

Has my review of DEADLY RISING (BOOKE OF THE HIDDEN #2) encouraged you to find out more? I really hope so. Click on any of the links below to check out the book yourself. Keep reading to find out more about Jeri and this amazing series.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this review of Deadly Rising. Now go add it to your TBR piles! Lol! 😉

Stay Happy = Keep Reading

Bye for now,

Flora x