The Girl Who Dared to Rise by Bella Forrest

Well friends, I’m again waiting for the next book in the series.  Ugh.  I hate waiting.  I’m not a patient girl.  At least I have the next in the Broken Lands and Echo series to keep me busy in the meantime.  Until then, I’ll leave you with my review of book four below.  You can catch up if you need to by reading my reviews of the first three as well: The Girl Who Dared to Think, The Girl Who Dared to Stand, The Girl Who Dared to Descend.

In this installment, Liana has to find a way to save Tian, her other friends, herself, and the Tower after failing to protect Ambrose.  The best way to do so is to continue to compete in the Tourney as her team’s new candidate for Champion.  Not only will this solve her issues with Lacey (who’s requiring her help to keep from releasing fake details that will lead to her imprisonment), but will also give her access she’ll need to help replace Scipio (the AI running the Tower) and to help get what’s needed for her friends’ plan to leave the Tower altogether.

I feel like this seems like a ton of balls in the air.  And it is.  But it’s not even all of them, really.  I think there’s something about this series that feels very The Hunger Games in that it draws you in and keeps the fast paced feel to it all the way throughout.  I am enjoying the book overall, but there are still a few things I thought, in my humble opinion, could be better.

• Leo is still inside Grey’s body.  This is an interesting thread, especially since it felt like there was some romantic tension between Leo and Liana last book and there definitely was in this book.  But just as suddenly as it’s shoved in your face, it’s dropped.  Forever.  Never brought up again.  Really?  I get that there’s other stuff to cover, but don’t bring it up so blatantly if we’re not going to keep it going or at least resolve it.
• The end seemed kind of obvious.  Not the VERY end, but the final fight scene.  I won’t say I saw it coming a mile away, but it wasn’t quite the shock that I think Forrest might have been going for.  I’ll hold judgement for characters’ reactions to the VERY end until I get more info in book 5: The Girl Who Dared to Lead, scheduled for release at the end of January.

Despite the couple issues, I’m obviously keeping up on the series, so there has to be plenty to love.  There is.

• First call out HAS to be that we didn’t break the 4th wall this book.  Thank heavens!  We stuck inside the story without referencing any literary tropes we’re following.  I noticed.  I appreciated.  Let’s keep with this trend.
• Liana falls to pieces at one point.  This seems absolutely legitimate.  Not only are her friends there for her, but they also call her out for trying to hide that it happened or she needed to process.  It feel legit that people would recognize you’re human, allowing for some space when there’s time, but also calling you out for not being honest.  I like that.
• Liana’s group has a big fight.  At some point tensions run high, tempers run hot, and everything turns into a free for all.  This also feels legit.  Friends are great, but at some point you get stressed and blame them for how things are, even if you recognize it’s not their fault.

I won’t give away too many details.  For those of you who enjoyed The Hunger Games or even The Maze Runner series, I’d definitely give this a read.