We’re excited to host the bundled giveaway for the audiobook editions of the Rise Up Trilogy (Henrik Wilenius)!
Read on to find out more about the author, the books and the giveaway!
About the Author: Henrik Wilenius
As a child, Henrik devoured stories of faraway lands. Through them, he discovered that the pathway to understanding people from different cultures was to look for things they had in common rather than what set them apart. Finding connection to people became his passion. In his early teens, he left his safe little bubble in Helsinki and ventured out to the great big world, eventually landing in Paris.
At the age of twenty one, Henrik returned to Finland and enrolled in the Helsinki Business School. Two years later he founded a contemporary art sale and services company, but despite the initial success he had to close down the business after five years when the whole western world fell into a deep recession.
Henrik decided to go back to school to study philosophy. One morning as he was working on an essay on rhetoric, it dawned on him that he was actually writing his first book. It was a philosophical study into his own coming-of-age. End of Restlessness was published by a Finnish publisher (WSOY) and after publishing another book, this time a young adult novel, he switched to English.
The Rise Up Trilogy was inspired by his fifteen-year stint as a volunteer in Helsinki Red Cross Youth Shelter. In a world that is turning into an increasingly hostile place for any minority, what people need is stories that evoke diversity, friendship, human decency, and the courage to listen to one’s heart.
Besides his husband, Henrik loves novels in Russian about the Soviet life, French pop, snowboarding, sampling vegan delights across the world, and spending time with their brazen, eclectic group of friends and family.
For more information, go to henrikwilenius.com
About the Book: Catch You If You Fall
High school best friends Hashim, Alex, and Maryam must confront real-life issues that loom for Gen-Z today, including the climate crisis, corrupt politics, and racial and gender equity.
When Hashim turns eighteen, he receives a grant from his Mosque that will send him to an Ivy League in New York. His devout Muslim family couldn’t be more proud. And to support their young son on his journey, they arrange a wife for him. There’s only one problem: Hashim is gay.
Hashim’s best friend Alex is struggling with a difficult home life, a non-present father, and financial issues that prove particularly painful when all his friends are planning to go off to college and leave him behind.
Standing confidently alongside these two boys is Maryam, a headstrong Muslim girl who bucks her traditional roots by becoming a vegan activist.
It doesn’t take long until certain evil forces start to draw these three even closer, as their futures and the wellbeing of their community and the world is threatened. They are called to act.
The first book in the Rise Up Trilogy, Catch You If You Fall is a page-turning and suspenseful story as well as a deeply moving ray of hope amidst the hardship and deep loss our youngest generation must face in order to find their place in this world.
Check out Merry Farm next in the series.
Title: Catch You If You Fall
Author: Henrik Wilenius
Release Date: December 3rd, 2023
Publisher: Henrik Wilenius
ISBN-10: B0CP2Y67SH
ISBN-13: 978-952-65160-2-8
Genre: YA coming of age
Age Range: 14-
About the Book: Merry Farm
In the second installment of the Rise Up Trilogy, best friends Hashi, Alex, and Maryam stumble upon a huge government coverup. When more people get sicker and sicker, and nothing about the outbreak makes news, it becomes clear the corruption goes up high.
As the three attempt to expose and stop a tragedy that could kill thousands, they end up framed as the bioterrorists responsible for this exact crime, and a team of hitmen is dispatched to hunt them down. As they grapple with their own growing pains, Hashi, Alex, and Maryam hurry to outrun the disaster, prove that they are innocent, and do what they feel is right.
The Rise Up Trilogy is a coming-of-age story about three best friends on the threshold of adulthood. Before they can find their place in this world, they must come to terms with their past, as they are confronted by intolerance, ignorance, and corporate greed that threaten to rob them all of their future. Suspenseful, fast-paced, and heart-wrenching, this book is a call-to-action for all us.
Title: Merry Farm
Author: Henrik Wilenius
Release Date: March 8th, 2024
Publisher: Henrik Wilenius
ISBN-10: B0CXG364LW
ISBN-13: 978-952-65160-5-9
Genre: YA action thriller
Age Range: 14-
About the Book: Collusion
Now a well-known activist, Maryam, along with her two best friends Hashim and Alex, is chosen by the President of the United States to draw up a proposal to help fight climate change, mere weeks before superstorm Roxanne makes landfall in the Northeast.
After the President’s Future Rescue Advisory Board hears their climate proposal to set heavy taxes on meat, dairy and carbon emissions, and someone leaks it to the press, chaos spreads across party lines. A few months since they stopped a deadly virus in its tracks, the three uncover a conspiracy on the highest level of the legislative branch.
While the deadly hurricane wreaks havoc along the eastern seaboard, destroying the U.S. Naval Command in Norfolk, Virginia, and hitting New York City with devastating force, Maryam, Hashim, and Alex grapple with forces beyond their control in the government.
How will their stories unravel? What do their futures hold as they mature into adults in a world that may not accept them? Find out in this last book in the Rise Up Trilogy.
Title: Collusion
Author: Henrik Wilenius
Release Date: April 22th, 2024
Publisher: Henrik Wilenius
ISBN-10: B0D2FBZKHX
ISBN-13: 978-952-65160-9-7
Genre: YA thriller
Age Range: 14-
*GIVEAWAY DETAILS*
Five (5) winners will receive audiobook copies of the Rise Up trilogy! (Henrik Wilenius) ~US/CAN Only!
(Catch You If You Fall, Merry Farm, Collusion)
*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway*
