Dawn Rising

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Dawn Rising Summary

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 savior.

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Dawn Rising Review

Dawn Rising is a dystopian urban fantasy. Aurianna comes from the future. In the future, there is no longer day, just a hazy grey sky and the cold. Aurianna, our main female protagonist, has always felt different from everyone. She’s always wanted to explore but that is forbidden by the Consil. The one time she tried to leave, her friends broke her trust and she was branded as a ‘runaway’.

This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but I barely recognized the aspects of the original fairy tale and didn’t see the references until 70% read. She was cursed, taken forward 80 years to escape this never explained curse, then brought back to save the world from the apocalypse on her 20th birthday.

Aurianna got on my nerves a lot. She was clueless about everything the entire length of the plot. She just wandered around and got no where with her training for 85% of the novel. The pacing of the novel was slow. There were few events and they were spaced rather far apart. We didn’t get to know Pharis hardly at all. His is supposedly the main male protagonist but in only in about 10% of the novel and has approximately 3-4 chapters from his PoV. Overall all of the characters could use more developing and the pacing and plot line needs work.

We did hear a lot about trivial things and not enough plot. It was very slow paced andI struggled to keep engaged. We have a big battle scene, but no “real good guy versus bad guy” magic battle and no bad guy interaction (unless you count brief glimpses then disappearing. The ‘bad guy” didn’t even show up in the novel until the last 5%. There was only a vague description of “bad guy” and no indication of what caused this apocalypse between the time lines. Then after finally getting a short glimpse of the villain, it was over. The world building itself was really pretty good. Very detailed with a good magic (or not magic) system in place that was fairly well explained.

I will read the next one to see what happens. Hopefully, some of the characters will have some growth and the pacing & plot will become more uniform. The story could have potential. But this was clearly a first book set up for the series.

I would like to thank BookSirens for sending me a free copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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About Author

Lisa M. Green writes stories of myth and magic, weaving fairy tales into fantasy. Lisa began writing at a very young age and even considered a career in screenwriting or journalism. Throughout her childhood, she drove everyone insane with her constant stories and plays. Lisa enjoys reading, writing, cooking, traveling, hiking, and playing video games that girls aren’t supposed to like.

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Awakened Series

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