Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly this read disappointed me and left me wanting more. I really enjoyed the first book in this series but this one lacked the action and suspense of book one. The plot also got quite confusing at times. I found the main characters extremely annoying in this book. However, I really enjoyed Britt and her subplot!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an early copy in exchange for my honest review! Full review can be found on Goodreads.

🧟‍♀️The story🧟‍♀️
After waking up an 'army' from the dead, Cressa and her friends have to deal with the aftermath of what happened in the last book.

Just like in the last book, I enjoyed the idea of the story. What still bothers me, is that nothing is explained! So many characters were introduced, who were all different types of magic users, but none were really explained. I still don't have a clue what a draugr is - or what he can do, what a kitsune can do, how Mr. Padlo's powers exactly work, what a chaos demon can do, what on earth a maenad is, etc.! So much is still unexplained and vague. It kinda seems like the author doesn't really know their powers herself, and just makes up things when it comes in handy. Like the random Voodoo woman and the woman Cressa saved from prison; it seems like these characters are just introduced to help out Cressa, but aren't actually important to the story at all? Maybe they'll come back in the next book(s), but they just seem random now.

I did however like this book more, because there was more action. First of all, I like the idea of the setup that was mentioned, and I can't wait to find out what's going on! I really enjoyed all the action in this one, although this was obviously a second book that's just a set up for the next book. I hate cliffhangers, so I didn't love the way this ended. I don't know how I feel about that whole hell subplot, I don't really love that. I also must say that I loved the little bonus chapter about Rome and Yuki, I must admit I enjoyed that so much more than Cressa's chapters!


🧟‍♀️The characters🧟‍♀️
🔪Cressa🔪
Cressa is so freaking exhausting to me, and it's kinda funny how I dislike both of the main characters in these books, but love the side characters. They are just so much more interesting or something? The development of Cressa's powers are really cool to me. What does still bother me, is her lack of questions. She avoids asking ANYTHING because she might not like the answers, and I hate that so freaking much. Like with her mother and with Noah, she knows he’s hiding something but she just doesn’t freaking ask him??? Dude, that frustrates me so much. Besides that, she behaves like a child most of the time and she's so freaking overdramatic in my opinion.

🔥Noah🔥
Honestly, I still don't know anything about the guy. Seriously, I know more about Rome than I know of Noah. I just don't love the relationship between him and Cressa, it's pretty much all based on lies, and their love doesn't make any sense. They literally don't know each other? I like Rome and Britt a lot, but Noah and Cressa are so insta-love, I feel like they barely know each other and don't have a lot of chemistry. They remind me more of a brother and sister than a couple. I don't know, I'm just not a fan.

❓👿Other characters📚🦊
I enjoyed the Britt subplot, and I can't wait to find out more about her backstory. I'm honestly more invested in her and Rome than I am in Cressa and her constant stupidness. River still seems cool, don't know that much about him (like pretty much all of the characters), but he's good. Yuki has potential too, although I don't understand exactly what she can do - but from the little bonus chapter, it seems like Rome doesn't either. Like I said, many characters with potential, but just not a lot is explained.


🧟‍♀️Writing🧟‍♀️
There are again quite a lot of mistakes in writing, please contact me if you want to know which ones there were, since I bookmarked the ones that stood out.


🧟‍♀️Overall conclusion🧟‍♀️
There was more action in this story, which I enjoyed. There's a big diversity of characters (no LGBTQ+ I believe?), although they're not all explained that well, and not all of them seem to be important to the actual story. There are still a lot of things left unexplained, and the lack of information is making me feel stupid; like I should know what all of the mythical creatures can do without explanation. I do recommend this, since the premise of the story is interesting!

A big thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of Dead Men Rising to read and review.

To start off, as I said in the first book's review: I liked the idea of the story. But here are some things that caused me to give it a 2-star rating (note that this is only my personal opinion and that you, as a reader, might see it differently than myself, so I still encourage you to read the book for yourself before formulating any judgments).

1. This book answers a lot fewer questions. In fact, nothing is really explained about the different creatures that we see and I'm still wondering about the war that caused the Imperium to become a thing in the first place.
2. It lets off on a cliffhanger just before the rescue mission for Noah. That was really disappointing and confusing because not only does it leave us with more unanswered questions, it literally feels like the story was published in a rush and the author forgot the last chapter.
3. The storyline was flat and so confused. It felt like the author had too many ideas for the story which caused it to be a whole jumbled-up mess with no start and no finish. There were whole parts of the story that could have been avoided altogether to be included because they didn't bring any assistance to the plot (ie. the part where Carmen sends her to her friend's house). Additionally, we see an introduction to new characters who don't seem to have any long-term purpose.

All in all, I get what the author was trying to do, but I believe book 2 of this series falls as short as the first one does.

Surprise!Surprise!This book was full of ups and downs.But it was good and interesting.
I told myself that i have to read this one so i could understand a few things about this world ,but all i got were more questions.
I liked what i've read(even if it took me a few days to read it).It was fun to read more about Cressa,Noah,Rome,River and Brit.But what the heck happened?Where did Noah go?What will Cressa do?Eh,those are only two questions ,but i have more.Yikes.
Good story.Interesting characters.But..Complicated as hell.
What i thought about the characters,just in a few words.
Cressa:
Was a bit out of control.After reading a few things ,how the story evolved,i can say that i understand her.
Brit:
Lunatic,but she had a good point.Yet i want to find out what really was happening to her.
Noah:
Full of secrets.Many,many secrets.And...Where did he go?Yikes.
Rome:
I started to really like him,but i've got to admit that he was a little clueless.
River:
Not sure about him.
The Imperium:
I don't really know what they were planning but it got complicated ASAP.And they got the wrong pheonix.I want to read more about them and what they planned to do next.

From the beginning until the end a complicated mess.An interesting mess i want to read more about,yet i hope that this one will make more sense,because right now i'm still trying to really understand what really happened and a few more things.

Really enjoyed the series! Had to read the first book in order to read this one & im grateful for this opportunity.

Reading Dead men rising took me way longer than I would normally like to admit however I was not really enjoying the read. The book reminded me the fanfictions I used to read as a teenager. It is repetitive and at times the characters will think things right before they are spoken aloud. Phrases and expressions are recycled and the characters themselves are flat. This book might be more suited for younger audiences however I would not recommend it to anyone over the age of 15.

I want to thank Net Galley for giving me an ARC of Dead Men Rising. This book was okay. It’s not something I see myself reaching for but I enjoyed Cressa and her character development. It is fantasy and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. Over all it was okay.

Recieved a digital copy of this book through Netgalley

2,25 stars

I read this book pretty quick, because it was short. Not because it was particularly good.
To be honest this book was all over the place, and not much of it was very well explained.

Also the thing that annoyed me about the first book is still there. None of the charaters actually answer any questions.

And somehow every character we meet is some type of new magical creature. Then again nothing is explained about the different sorts of creatures, and their particular powers or abilities.

Overall i would say this series is not worth it.

3.5 stars

Dead Men Rising was an unexpectedly interesting read. I was a bit lost to start off, just because I didn't realize this was a sequel (that's my bad), but overall I really enjoyed it.

Cressa is a strong willed necromancer that sacrificed her anonymity by raising an army of the dead to protect her family, and must deal with the consequences of using her magic. Now on The Imperium's shit list, she has to make some hard choices and sacrifices that could have the potential for her to lose everything and everyone she loves.

Dead Men Rising was a ride and I cannot wait to see how this plays out!

I don’t know what to think with this one. I wasn’t drawn in like I usually am. It was good but not one of my favourites. It was interesting and there were some elements that I did like. Like the magic system that was fun to read.
2.5/5

A really great read! While I'm a bit sad that I didn't read the first one, I'm glad I read this book in the series. I love all the prose and the wonderfully descriptions. The character development is excellent and the world-building is really mesmerizing.