Book Review

The Rising (Release Date: January 2017)

From acclaimed thriller-suspense novelists Heather Graham and Jon Land comes a story of action, mystery, and the endurance of young love.

Twenty-four hours. That’s all it takes for the lives of two young people to be changed forever.

Alex Chin has the world on a plate. A football hero and homecoming king with plenty of scholarship offers, his future looks bright. His tutor, Samantha Dixon, is preparing to graduate high school at the top of her class. She plans to turn her NASA internship into a career. When a football accident lands Alex in the hospital, his world is turned upside down. His doctor is murdered. Then, his parents. Death seems to follow him wherever he goes, and now it’s after him.

Alex flees. He tells Samantha not to follow, but she became involved the moment she walked through his door and found Mr. and Mrs. Chin as they lay dying in their home. She cannot abandon the young man she loves. The two race desperately to stay ahead of Alex’s attackers long enough to figure out why they are hunting him in the first place. The answer lies with a secret buried deep in his past, a secret his parents died to protect. Alex always knew he was adopted, but he never knew the real reason his birth parents abandoned him. He never knew where he truly came from. Until now.

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My Thoughts…

Heather Graham is a name long associated with suspenseful thrillers, so this team up with Jon Land is a huge departure from what we usually expect from her. Yes this book is thrilling and yes it’s action-packed, but it also stars two highschool students which gives “The Rising” a distinct YA flavour. Not ony that, the plot of this story is more science fiction than thriller, which is why I picked it up in the first place.

I quite like this book but the beginning is a bit confusing, jumping from character to character with only vague references to what the subject matter actually is. If you dig in and stick with it, the story does improve immensely and gets really exciting. I particularly enjoyed “Sam” and “Alex” as typical teens thrust into extraordinary circumstances.

As I mentioned, the plot can get a little convoluted but it’s a decent read that I think many of you will enjoy. It’s nice when our favourite authors branch out and try something new. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t (Ahem… JK Rowlings…Cough) but in this case, “The Rising” is worth a read.

Rating… B