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 … 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.
Dawn Rising is the first book in the Awakened series.
more
Intriguing premise which captivated right from the beginning. I love a strong female lead and enjoyed the time element as well. I really look forward to continuing this series!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
4.5 stars. I really can’t decide if I want to give this book 4 or 5 stars. Lots of it is excellent – the world building, Aurianna, the side characters – but every now and then I’d hit a slower portion in the plot, so I decided to give it 4.5 stars. So like I said, the world building is fantastic! I love the descriptions of both the future world and the past world, and I think the author did a really good job of showing the past world with the wonder that Aurianna felt at seeing so many things she could only imagine in the time she came from. This is a really interesting mix of fantasy and dystopian since the future world is very dystopian indeed with the Darkness and almost no technology left. I liked the Sleeping Beauty vibes I got from the story. The time travel aspect throws and interesting twist on the classic tale. Aurianna herself is great, she won’t take any nonsense from anyone and she isn’t blindly going to follow her “destiny” just because some old guys (the Arcanes) tell her she’s part of a prophecy. I also really liked her friends, especially Sigi, although I’m suspicious of Javen – he just seems too nice. Pharis is annoying since he is always so rude to Aurianna, but I have a feeling he may redeem himself in the next couple books, but we’ll see. The end felt like it wrapped up rather quickly, but I know it’s a series so I doubt things are quite as tidy as they seem right now. I’m really curious to learn more about how the Kinetics are able to use different elements together, and I’m also curious about the elusive Fae mentioned. I definitely want to read the next book!
I received an ARC from the author through Voracious Readers Only and I’m voluntarily leaving an honest review.
I happen to be really fond of fairy tale retellings. I think it harkens back to a time in my childhood when I thought that being a fairy tale character would be just about the coolest thing ever. Of course, I’ve wizened up a bit and discovered that being a fairy tale writer is even cooler, but my fondness for fairy tales and reimaginings remains very strong. So when I read Dawn Rising by Lisa M. Green, a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, I knew it was going to be a wild ride. And you know what? It was.
1. Thoughts on the plot
Okay, first things first. You should know that this is not your standard Sleeping Beauty retelling. When I say reimagining, I mean reimagining. The basic premise is that Aurianna is living in a time when things are bleak, surrounded by Darkness, and full of questionable practises. Until one day, someone comes for her from the past and says he has to take her back. Why? Because she has to save the world. Aurianna travels back to discover a world that is fundamentally different than her own. For one, there’s magic. There’s transportation. The number of people is larger. And it is under threat. Aurianna just wants to know the truth, but everyone is looking to her to save them.
This plot is really very imaginative. The theory that Sleeping Beauty’s curse involve time travel is really fascinating. As is the threat that she must face. This takes the traditional, not-so-involved heroine (mostly because she’s asleep) and turns her into the instigator of her own destiny. I really enjoyed it, and I’m curious to see where the next books in the series go.
I will say that the ending did feel a little abrupt (from climactic battle onwards). Part of that, I know, is due to the fact that the series has only just begun and there are things not yet understood, but it was just a bit too quick and not quite in line with the rest of the pacing.
2. Thoughts on the main character
As far as characters go, Aurianna is a great one to follow. For one thing, she isn’t going to blithely go along with what she’s told about her past/future, or her supposed destiny. She questions everything, taking action when she feels its necessary and basically causing trouble. She has spunk and I like her. I do think she’s perhaps a bit grumpy at times, but it is an understandable grumpiness. After all, everything she had was left behind in the future so she could go back.
In fact, Aurianna is so well developed that she makes some of the other characters look a little flat. There isn’t a lot of this, but every now and again, we meet characters (like the Regulus) who don’t have quite the same amount of development. Some of this is because of the lack of time spent inside their heads (Aurianna is the main character) and some of it is just that we don’t yet fully understand their motives, as this is the first in a series.
Still, I like Aurianna. A lot.
3. Favourite part
The descriptions of the world were just exquisite. I think that the author managed to spend just the right amount of time on these descriptions, showing us the world in a way that we could really see the differences between past and future. The images were vivid, but didn’t overwhelm the story. I really found myself absorbed by the descriptions and thoroughly enjoyed it.
4. Critique
As previously stated, the ending of this book felt a little abrupt. As a reader, I knew that some sort of confrontation was inevitable—this was the whole purpose of the story—but it felt like the confrontation came without any real interaction with the “problem” and then ended without an actual understanding of what just happened. Again, I know that this is partly because most of the answers will come in later books in the series, but I just want a little bit more detail in that section.
Overall, I would say that Dawn Rising is a beautiful reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, taking something that is familiar and making it into so very much more. It is unique, the characters are fascinating and the world is absolutely stunning. A very good book.
What a wonderful journey! This book has everything, magic, time travel and a hint of dragons! A young girl’s life is thrown into total disarray when she discovers she had been transported into the future just after her birth, to save her from a death curse 100 years prior. Her world is dark, grey, cold and drab, from what she and her village wear, to her surroundings. A perpetual grayness with no hint of sun. She discovers a Kinetic, someone with magic, by mistake and hears how his kind tries to escape his world for a better future, only to end up in her time being captured and depleted of their magic and then killed. She time travels with a stranger into the past, to find she is supposed to fulfill a prophecy, which she has no idea how! As she sets out to learn, she unwittingly discovers she has enormous power but has no idea how to access it. So much is confusing to her but by blowing up a train, she believes she has fulfilled the prophecy and time travels back to her time, hoping that by fulfilling the prophecy, she has averted the horrors of her time and life will be better for her and her world. Or will it…Aurianna is a fascinating character, torn between what is right and the love of her aunt and friends. A truly interesting read and highly enjoyable. I can’t wait to read what comes next!
A time travel book. 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.
And 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 throughly 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. And the ending has you wondering it the next book will start there…..
I received this arc for an honest review and all thoughts are my own.