Arise

Title: Arise (Hereafter #2)

Author: Tara Hudson

Genre: YA/Paranormal Romance

Release Date: June 5, 2012

My Rating:

♥♥♥♥

New Orleans
Saint Louis
Number One Cemetery
A night there can change a life . . . or a death.

Increasingly worried that dark spirits will carry out their threats and hurt the people she cares for most, Amelia is ready to try anything to protect them. And for his own very different reasons, Joshua has come to this cemetery at midnight to join her in a powerful ritual.

Both know that once Amelia steps inside the Voodoo circle and the beautiful girl from the Conjure CafE begins the cere-mony, everything will change.

Tara Hudson's enthralling sequel to "Hereafter" escalates the danger and excitement, bringing a new dimension to her already mesmerizing story of a haunted love.

Via Goodreads

 
My Review:
Arise is the interesting sequel to Hereafter by Tara Hudson.
Arise takes place about two-three months after Amelia banished Eli to the netherworld.  In the beginning, the story does start off a bit slow, but quickly gains momentum the farther into the plot you get.  I love Louisiana, so I was tremendously excited when I found out that Arise took place in one of my favorite states.

It's interesting how Hudson incorporated old voodoo traditions and spells and all that jazz into the story.  It did seem a bit far-fetched when I read the summary, I mean, I didn't really expect the series to take this drastic of a turn.  But I guess she was trying to find more ways to fit in some diverse bad-guys.
Amelia does start new friendships; some end happily, some end strained and tearful.  I completely fell for some of the new characters; some were sweet, some were snappy.
Amelia and Joshua's relationship didn't seem to flow as it did in Hereafter, where everything felt natural.  But in Arise their interactions felt too mechanical, too forced.  It might just be me, but that's how I felt.

There was definitely more drama in Arise than in Hereafter; all of the running, escaping, and magic-playing really made it more exciting to read.  There was even some mystery and suspense, and I am a girl who craves mystery, so this pleased me very much.

Overall, I'm giving Arise a 4/5 because I adored the new additions to the crew and the mystery/suspense, but I would just label this book as 'average YA fiction', not 'star-slapping-amazing.'
Although, I will be purchasing the third book in the trilogy, Elegy.