I Think Hereafter was better .. :) ( )

In "Dove finisce il buio", Amelia e Joshua continuano la loro storia d'amore nonostante le difficoltà.
Ma la minaccia dei demoni è sempre in agguato ed è difficile fidarsi di chi si ha intorno e per difendere le persone care Amelia farebbe di tutto, anche scendere a compromessi.
La povera Amelia sarà tormentata da incubi e da sensi di colpa verso chi le sta intorno, soprattutto verso Joshua, e più volte si ritroverà a fare delle scelte. Ma perchè il loro amore non può essere solo bello e spensierato come tutti?
Lasciare Joshua sembra impossibile...

Rispetto a "Se fosse per sempre" la scrittrice Tara Hudson si è dedicata molto di più all'azione che alle introspezioni di Amelia e devo dire che con questo libro mi ha catturata ancora di più.
Il libro racchiude molti aspetti che lo rendono veramente avvincente e a tratti romantico, alternando momenti di suspance che attirano il lettore, e ammetto di essere rimasta più volte a bocca aperta, il che è un bene!
Durante la lettura sono riuscita ad avere molte risposte alle domande che mi sono posta nel primo libro.
Mentre ad altre ancora non ho avuto risposta, cosa che mi rende ancora più impaziente e curiosa nell'aspettare il terzo ed ultimo capitolo di questa saga "fantasmagorica", del quale per ora conosciamo solo il titolo originale che è "Elegy".
( )

Sigh. ( )

I have waited anxiously for Arise since I read Hereafter late last year. I am thrilled to say Tara Hudson has written an exciting sequel that takes the series in a direction I didn’t anticipate. The scene described in the summary above is such a small part of the book, yet it will have huge repercussions for Amelia and Joshua moving forward.

In Arise, Amelia and Joshua are officially a couple – even if no one can see Amelia except Joshua, his sister Jillian and their grandmother Ruth. As their relationship has grown closer, however, Joshua’s friendships have fallen by the wayside which has Amelia worried. She is beginning to realize how impossible a relationship between a human and a ghost will be, as he grows older and she remains the same. Hudson is quick to bring Amelia’s concerns to the forefront, which I appreciated because I had been asking some of these questions myself. How do you maintain a relationship when one partner is aging and the other isn’t? What if you could never introduce the one you love to your family and friends because they can’t see him/her? I really couldn’t see how Amelia and Joshua could remain a couple in the long-term, and Amelia is beginning to think along the same lines. Her solution? She must break up with Joshua and let him get back to a regular life – one without a ghostly girlfriend. Before she does, however, she decides to accompany him on a road trip with his family to New Orleans so she has some memories to take with her. It is a trip that will change their relationship forever.

While a “final road trip” is a bit of a cliché, I liked the way it opened up the world to these characters. It was an opportunity to see them out of their environment and interacting with others. There turned out to be a lot of “others” for them to meet. Several of Joshua’s cousins are added to mix, along with their friend Alex, a new group of “unclaimed souls” who would like Amelia to join them, and a teenage voodoo practitioner named Gaby who might have the answer to Amelia’s predicament. With all the new characters and experiences, this book just flew by. The cousins individually were not particularly memorable, but the fact that they could sense and communicate with Amelia was. Their friend Alex, though, was pivotal since he is the one who has taught the cousins how to open their senses to ghosts like Amelia. As Alex began to interact with Amelia I thought he might become a romantic rival for her affections, but he turned out to have a very different purpose in Hudson’s grand scheme. Gaby was introduced about halfway through the book, and became my favorite new character. I wasn’t sure of her at first, but she turned out to be a gutsy, bold counterpoint to Amelia’s more quiet character. They struck a nice balance together.

Since the majority of Arise takes place in New Orleans, the colorful character of the town is on display. Restless spirits and voodoo add flavor to the story, while bringing back some of the edge that was lost when Eli was defeated in the first book. Eli, by the way, does make a brief appearance at the beginning of this story, just enough to give Amelia a warning and for us to see he is not doing well in the netherworld. I kind of sympathized with him a little in Hereafter so I’m hoping with the way things end in Arise that the next book thrusts Amelia into the netherworld and gives her an opportunity for a rescue mission. I was not expecting the voodoo angle, but with its ties to New Orleans it fit nicely into the story and provided an interesting solution to Amelia’s ghostly status – although the solution is not without its own problems to be explored in the next book. The story twists and turns its way into a climax that pits Amelia directly against the netherworld demons who seek to claim her soul.

Arise by Tara Hudson takes us to the next level in the romance of ghost Amelia and her human boyfriend Joshua. With its mix of love, danger, voodoo and fascinating new characters – all set against the backdrop of New Orleans – Arise is an exciting and fast-paced sequel to Hereafter that will leave you wanting to know where Hudson is going to take us next. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: While dealing with the problems of a paranormal relationship, Arise has higher stakes than Hereafter did and uses Amelia’s nature to build more acute tension.

Opening Sentence: The entire world had gone dark, and I had no idea why.

The Review:

I don’t want to call the person who wrote the synopsis a liar…but I’m about to. Everything the synopsis describes happens, but totally not the way they’re making it sound. I don’t know why, either, since the book is way more interesting than the synopsis makes it sound. For one thing, they don’t go seeking out Joshua’s Seer relations. Amelia finds out the netherworld still wants her — desperately enough to take her by force if it has to. Nightmares Amelia shouldn’t even be able to have are creepy warnings, but she doesn’t know what of. All she can do is try to protect her loved ones — her mom, Joshua, anyone the demons of the netherworld could hurt to force Amelia’s hand.

The Mayhews go down to New Orleans for Christmas and Amelia tags along, needing to get as far away from High Bridge as she can. During their stay Joshua, Jillian and Amelia meet some Seer-cousins who haven’t had their events yet. They can’t see Amelia, but with the help of Alexander Etienne, they’ve learned how to hear her. They accept Amelia and Joshua easily, eager to learn more about their powers and see the dead. Alexander doesn’t want to exorcise Amelia, like Ruth and her cronies did, which makes for a change. He’s charming and smart.

It’s Joshua’s Christmas present that really gets the ball rolling as far as the plot goes. A little voodoo goes a long way with ghosts. Joshua’s present does more than change Amelia’s afterlife — it has massive consequences on their relationship. Gaby teaches Amelia the rules of her new afterlife, but the danger she escaped in High Bridge has followed her to New Orleans.

There are a lot of new characters in Arise that come with the new setting. Hudson does a great job of tossing in bits of setting here and there to set the atmosphere, but every new character required an explanation of their backstory. For the most part, the pacing was fine despite these large blocks of exposition — and most of it comes back around later to be relevant to the plot. The plot of Arise is very different from Hereafter because it’s the motivation for the entire story. With Hereafter, the plot seemed much more secondary to Joshua and Amelia getting to know each other. Not the case with Arise. Tension and angst follow Amelia through the whole book, which makes it a page-turning read. Arise isn’t a “middle book” like you see in many series, but in my opinion where the series’ overarching plot really takes off. Since Hereafter and Arise were very different books, I can’t wait to read Elegy and see what Hudson has in store for us.

Notable Scene:

“Yeah, I had to celebrate No-Shave November.”

And now you’re celebrating…what? Don’t-Get-Any-Play December?”

“Dude,” O’Reilly protested, “like you have any room to talk. You haven’t had a girlfriend in, like, forever.”

Joshua’s eyes met mine for just a second. Then he looked back at the fire. “Whatever, Grizzly Adams. You look like a bear died on your face.”

O’Reilly boomed out a deep guffaw and, before he had time to remember how distant they’d been, punched Joshua roughly on the shoulder. Joshua laughed, too, the sound gusting out of him like a sigh of relief.

Boys, I thought, shaking my head. An insult and a punch and all is forgiven.

Then I grinned broadly, feeling no small amount of relief myself when they began to talk as if the past few months hadn’t even happened. Maybe, if the two of them kept this up, I wouldn’t have to worry about Joshua getting lonely.

Because you are going to leave him, aren’t you?

FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Arise. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )