The story:

Ember Trouve, missing for three years in Trinity Forest, has been “rebirthed”, in the form of a controversial mega-pop-star, Oshun. This process is supposed to remove all prior memories, but Ember’s personality fights to break free. Meanwhile, Ember’s brother Jared and best friend Maddie continue to search for her. While the world around them crumbles due to the dark powers behind it all, can Ember finally reclaim her identity?


What I loved:

As in Book One of the series, Ember Burning, Ms. Alsever’s writing style flows very well. The plot is very complex and layered, told from multiple POVs, yet most of the characters are well-realized. Jared, in particular, is willing to sacrifice everything to find Ember, even if it means going off the deep end to chase every lead, no matter how ridiculous or tenuous.

In my review of Ember Burning, the dark power behind Trinity Forest was never fully realized. It most definitely was here, so I’m glad to have gotten some answers.


What I didn’t love:

Much of the story dealt with the dual personality of Ember and Oshun, but the reason behind the decimation (enslavement?) of humanity remained very murky. I didn’t find the stories of Xintra or Tre as compelling as those of Ember/Oshun, Jared, and Maddie, and I found Dax’s POV to be unnecessary.


My Final Verdict:

Oshun Rising, though well-written, is a bit unbalanced. Parts of the story that needed expounded on were not while more ink was given to other parts than were necessary. Though I enjoyed many of the characters, some parts of the plot seemed a little too wafer-thin for me to give this a higher rating.