Book Recommendation: Dark Rise & Dark Heir

Dark Rise Trilogy

Young Adult Heroic Fantasy

by C.S. Pacat

I thought this was a complete duology, but it is a trilogy and book three isn’t out yet. Now I’m sad. I’m sad because I really enjoyed the books and I don’t want to wait! 

There was a lot of hype about these books, and, admittedly, I wasn’t sure I understood the hype until I got to book two. I don’t want to spoil anything, but trust me when I say book two was very interesting. It flipped so many tropes upside down and really explored them with an intriguingly fresh take. 

It starts off as a standard chosen one story, where the main character, Will, is destined to stop the big bad evil. Now, I’m not going to lie, I love a Chosen One trope (*cough* Catanya *cough*). But this story deserves some mega props for how it handled the trope in a really new way.

There’s also a LOT of sexual tension in the book with almost NO explicit content (I think there is one kiss in each book – that’s it!) I’m a little amazed at how the author managed to make it so spicy with nothing explicit. That’s a masterclass in writing tension, for sure. 

Why I think you might like it:

• It’s YA, but it doesn’t have that cookie-cutter YA feel.
• Friendship theme! You know I’m a sucker for a friendship theme right? (DIYAH!) Will and Violet are an awesome friendship that I hope gets explored more in book three. 
• LGBTQ2S+ characters. Will is bisexual, and there are other main characters who are queer. There’s also some gender fluidity happening (hopefully more in book 3).
• Historical but also not – I love a story that takes place in a historical time period with a fantasy twist. This is 1800s England (and Italy), with added magic and magical creatures. There’s also less racism, misogyny, and homophobia than the real 1800s (less, but not zero).
• High stakes – people die. I like it when an author isn’t afraid to hurt my feelings.