Unfortunately this book didn't give me everything I needed. It tried to do too much too fast and was perhaps overly ambitious for a first book. It had a really slow start full of characters and world building and I struggled with this, it needed a faster pace throughout as by the time it picked up I had lost the drive to read it.
I think if this had of been a little longer it could have been very well developed as the actual story was really interesting.

This is an enjoyable read with a good mixture of action and Magic.

The characters and the world are well developed and it certainly left me wanting to read more.

This is the first book I have read from this author.

Rising was carefully crafted and simply a delight to read.

Synopsis:
When Marrington Castle is overtaken by a dark and ancient evil, Abigail Cross finds herself in the precarious situation of protecting Queen Rachel the Fourth. Her journey to safety quickly transforms into a quest to save Queen and country. Charged with finding the artifacts to raise The Champion to defeat the world's most powerful enemy, Abigail finds herself traversing the perilous continent--from the roaring waterfalls of Aithos to the scorching heat of the Optato Desert to the freezing fog of Mount Karn... Will Abigail succeed in uniting the kingdom and summoning the Avant Champion to save them all?

Unfortunately, this book really did not come together for me. It has moments of great description, but these are often lost in tedious passages with too much information or distancing scenes where the prose style keeps reminding me that I'm reading.

It opens with an intense scene that turns out to come from more than 60 percent into the book. From there it swaps to a very slow and heavy opening that provides excessive background information about the MC and her world.

Parts of the worldbuilding with the diverse races and cultures is interesting, but then we get a setup that is almost preachy about humanity.

I did like the MC, although she was ridiculously blind to the developing situation and what everyone else knew. Why did everyone else know it and she didn't? As widely studied as she is, it doesn't really make sense that everyone else knows this and she doesn't.

Finally, the story continues far past its natural conclusion. The goal was to defeat the evil. But once that is done, it drags on and on with all this other stuff.

A good start for a new series: interesting world building, well written characters, an engaging and entertaining plot.
I look forward to reading the next installment in this series.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I loved this a great classic style fantasy, action, adventure, a bit of romance, great characters. A thoroughly enjoyable read , would recommend as older readers around 15+ , I will definitely be looking out for more by C B Samet now

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

*I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

2.5 stars

It’s a slow start so far. There’s lots of descriptive writing which is slowing down the plot for me. Sometimes it’s great to describe lots of things but the writing feels choppy.

I got half way through the book when I lost interest. This book wasn’t for me. I found myself thinking just one more page it’s going to speed up but it just didn’t.

For me a lot of the book was over excessive descriptive writing. Sometimes you just need a few details. I really hoped the writing wasn’t like that for the whole book because it was bugging me but it seemed like that was the style of writing.. Too much description can be bad.

The plot was interesting and it isn’t a familiar trope which I liked. It was original and new. The plot is a bit confusing and sometimes it took me a minute to figure out who is who. It just seemed a bit confusing and messy and I got too caught up in the descriptive dialogue.

Joshua and Abby were my favorite. I loved their relationship and slow burn. However since I only got half way before I lost interest I don’t know much about the other characters. Joshua and Abby seemed to have a bit of life to them.

Even though I did loose interest. I will try picking this book up again sometimes in the future and try to finish it since I do want to see where Joshua and Abby end.

Really enjoyed this. Refreshing read, great job. Full review on the blog coming shortly. . Really great job!