Blog Tour Review: RISEN by Cole Gibsen

Welcome to my stop on the Risen blog tour, hosted by Entangled Teen! I was initially drawn to this amazingly atmospheric cover, but I was immediately swept away by Gibsen’s unique take on vampires: a dangerous world where the violent clash among three different vampire clans is made even more complicated by a human girl with strange powers. You can read my review below, and if you live in the U.S., don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post for a cool swag pack!

About the book:

Fans of Vampire Diaries and Twilight will be thirsting for this latest vampire addiction…

My aunt has been kidnapped by vampires, and it’s up to me to save her. Only…I had no idea vampires existed. None. Nada. I’m more of a reader than a fighter, and even though I’d been wishing to escape my boring existence in the middle of nowhere, I’d give anything to have it back now if it meant my aunt was safe.

Then there’s the vampire Sebastian, who seems slightly nicer than most of the bloodsuckers I’ve run into so far. Yes, he’s the hottest being I’ve ever come across, but there’s no way I can trust him. He swears he’s helping me get answers, but there’s more to his story. Now I’m a key pawn in a raging vampire war, and I need to pick the right ally.

But my chances of surviving this war are slim at best, when the side I choose might be the one that wants me dead the most.

Risen by Cole Gibsen
Series: Blood Eternal #1
Published by Entangled Teen
Release date: March 27 2018
Pages: 300

My review:

The nitty-gritty: Surprisingly dark and violent, Risen is a deliciously moody take on vampires, softened by a touch of romance and unexpected friendships.

I hold my gun out as well, though it shakes in my grip. “We’re going to die,” I say.

“Probably,” she answers back.

“Nice pep-talk.”

“Go team human,” she replies.

I almost smile. This strange, violent girl—I kind of like her. “It’s too bad we can’t be friends because of our impending, gruesome murders.”

She chuckles. “I would have liked that—being friends.”

I’m always on the look-out for a unique take on the vampire tale, and I’m happy to say I’ve found one in Risen. Risen is the start to a series, and by the end of the story I was left with more questions than answers, but I’m definitely intrigued by this first installment and I’m already looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Charlie lives with her Aunt Rachel and her German Shepherd Jax in a remote cottage in the woods, ever since her parents died in a car accident when she was a baby. Aunt Rachel keeps them away from any outside interference and even refuses to let Charlie have a cell phone. Clearly she’s scared of something, but all she’ll tell her niece is that she’s trying to keep them safe from the “monsters.” Charlie doesn’t believe in monsters, but she knows one thing for sure: all she wants is to leave home and start her life.

But one night, two strangers come to the door, and before Charlie realizes what’s happened, Aunt Rachel has been taken away and Charlie is left in the care of the younger man, who turns out to be a vampire named Sebastian. Sebastian, after discovering that Charlie has a strange ability to make him remember flashes of his mysterious past, decides to take her to a “safe” house, which turns out to be the compound of another vampire clan. Despite the strangeness of discovering that vampires are real and her life is in danger, Charlie is determined to rescue her aunt, who is being held by a rival vampire clan as a political pawn in a potential vampire war. Together with Sebastian and a vampire hunter named Opal, Charlie embarks on a dangerous mission that could end in disaster.

You may be oohing and ahhing over the beautiful, moody cover, but don’t let the heart-shaped tree fool you: Risen does have a budding romance between a human and a vampire, but it also has a fair amount of graphic violence that took me by surprise. And hey, I’m not complaining! There’s nothing I love more than discovering a story about vampires who are just plain evil. In Gibsen’s world, there are three different vampire clans, each with different abilities and proclivities towards drinking blood. Sebastian is a Mentis, a clan who survive entirely on human blood, and they are known for their “farms,” where humans are basically treated as livestock and used as vampire snacks. The Anima are your kinder, gentler variety of vampire who only drink from willing humans (think hippies in a commune). And finally, my favorite of the three, the Corpus are pretty much what their name suggests: decrepit, rotting creatures who are strong and deadly, killing everything in their path without a second thought.

I enjoyed the characters for the most part. Charlie has a sarcastic sense of humor which I appreciated, and in my opinion her personality is way bigger and shines brighter than Sebastian’s, but I was OK with that. Their inevitable romance is a slow burn and doesn’t overtake the rest of the story. The focus is firmly on the growing unrest among the three clans and the ways that Charlie and Rachel figure into that unrest (which I will not talk about in this review, so you’ll just have to read the book for yourself!) When Opal is introduced, I thought she was going to turn out to be your typical “girl gone bad” character, because she’s very scary and intense at first. But I loved how Opal, Charlie and Sebastian are forced together by necessity, becoming an unlikely trio, and I ended up loving their scenes together.

If anything, Risen felt a bit short to me, mostly because Gibsen packs a lot into her story. And yes, there are a couple of typical YA tropes, for example, Charlie discovers she has a special power that affects the vampires, but I was so invested in the unique world-building, that the tropes really didn’t bother me. Although the book resolves some things at the end, Gibsen also raises new questions which will hopefully be resolved in the next installment. (For example, what’s up with Charlie’s dog Jax??)

If you’re looking for a different take on vampires, then Risen might be just what you’re looking for.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

About the author:

Growing up, COLE GIBSEN couldn’t decide what she loved more—dogs or books. Rather than choose, she decided to devote her life to both! Dog trainer (wrangler) by day and author by night, she’s the author of more than ten books with more on the way.

Find the author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram

Buy the book: Entangled Publishing