Rise (Trifecta, #1) Review

**Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book in return for a review. 2 stars!!! I don't what it is but I seem to be finding books that are extremely unsatisfying. The book starts off with a bang and that got me pretty excited. Plus, it showcases witches and vampires. I'm a huge sucker for paranormal reads. But after the first few chapters, the story just devolved. It went from bad to worse. From the blurb, we gather the following. The story is about a girl named Alexia who comes from a family of witches. Every year the most powerful witches from the 3 covens - Allerium, Malerium and Xelerium undergo a series of Trials where they are pitted against each other. The story then follows on how she prepares for the trials and so on. Well, from this I guess you'd be thinking "well, that sounds interesting enough". Maybe it's like a paranormal "Hunger Games". Well sadly, no because the blurb is very misleading. Instead what we do get are the points discussed below. A story that is very bland with no plot progression. Where do I even begin? I will give points to the author for writing because I thought it was done well. But besides this, there was no plot at all. The story reads like the diary of an average teenage girl who happens to be a witch. Chapters are filled with the mundane boring high school life of Alexia and that was it. I was so bored by page 50. I was wondering when the story was going to end or go somewhere. To top this off, there are some twists which are just left hanging. Something is introduced and then is just left. The characters don't bother chasing down a lead or anything. This makes for a very lack luster read. Even the Trials were boring. It gets over like in one or two chapters. That's it. There is some traction in the story towards the end but by then, I was just skimming and not reading in detail at all. There's too much of info dumping and no character development. As the story is about covens and their politics, a lot of information is thrown at the reader but not built upon. There was hardly much of worldbuilding going on. I also found the rules for the Covens very confusing as when something is mentioned, it is just left there and some other side plot shows up. There are also a lot of characters introduced without any backstories. I can't even frame what I thought about the MC Alexia. She is a bit of a Mary Sue. She hardly has friends and hangs around with her siblings a lot which is weird. Minor characters make cameo appearances and then fade away. There are no real relationships and interactions between characters. They are like happenstances. The only relationship that felt authentic to me was when Alexia was with her family. I liked how even her parents were a part of the story. But that was it. I think the main reason for this is because the author wanted to introduce a lot of elements but was unable to connect them altogether to make a successful story. Sadly, there was a major disconnect between things. I also found the romance to be very cringe-worthy. It was just placed in the story because that's what all YA novels require. The love interest Kaleb was very Edward Cullen-esque. It reminded me too much of the "Twilight" series which I wasn't a fan of. Plus, the relationship was way too clunky and forced. I mean Alexia hardly has any interaction with this guy but then suddenly, he says that he "likes" her. Where did even come from? How has this relationship even progressed when they weren't even friends? The other thing, and I promise it's the last, is that this book had no central storyline. There is no real villain mentioned until the very end which was the main reason I feel for the meandering storyline. There was no real focus. With a major villain, a story needs to go somewhere and all points lead to it. This would have really helped to give this novel direction. All in all, a major disappointment. The story initially had potential but doesn't live up to the first couple of pages. I am not at all excited about the next book. I think this would be a skip for me.

#witches #paranormal #vampires #youngadult #LuisAlmonte