Rise of Gaia by Kristin Ward on August 24th 2019
Also by this author: The Girl of Dorcha Wood (Daughter of Erabel, #1)
Goodreads
Beneath rock and soil, trees and oceans, she lies.
Under concrete jungles and poisoned rivers, she slumbers.
She is Mother Earth.
And mankind has turned its back on its mother.
The visions begin on Terran’s seventeenth birthday. Horrifying images pummel her brain, while a voice commands her to see beyond the world she thought she knew and into the heart of it. Gaia has awakened, brought to consciousness by the greed of a species that has tainted every aspect of her being in a tide of indifference. With this awareness, comes rage. Gaia calls upon her children to unleash her fury, wreaking vengeance on humanity.
Terran will emerge in a world on the brink of collapse, to face a being whose wrath is beyond imagining.
I read Rise of Gaia by Kristin Ward for a book tour hosted by The Write Reads. Dave provided a free copy of the book for an honest review and I couldn’t be more excited. You might remember I reviewed another of Kristin’s books last year and it didn’t click. But this one very much did. I love seeing authors grow and that’s why I won’t write off (indie) authors when one series wasn’t for me. Another series just might be your thing.
Rise of Gaia is another eco-focused book in which Gaia uses her chosen one to start a war against humanity. Terran (great name, but spoils it a little) has to come to terms with her new destiny. I love the internal conflict. She already loves and cares for nature more than a regular human, so she agrees partially with Gaia’s mission. But the execution is something she doesn’t agree with. Her struggles are real, feel real and that’s what makes this book so good.
The secondary characters are a bit lacking. There’s Shane who makes a few appearances but I don’t see why he’s here. Is he adding to the story? Then there is Celeste, Beth’s mother. She’s very prominent in the beginning but as soon as Terran meets Silas, she’s out. This is especially noticeable in the second half of the book as if the author wanted to rush towards the ending. There is one event planned with Raife present, then Silas says he’s not coming. The reason why is so random, I don’t see the point of it. If he wasn’t supposed to be there, change it before they planned it. It’s small things like this that make me look up from the pages.
It reminded me a lot of my favourite paranormal romance/urban fantasy series, Wicca by Cate Tiernan. I saw much of the same themes and tropes in Rise of Gaia. This is good, in my opinion. I read the whole Wicca series more than six times and it’s fifteen books! So if you liked this book or Cate Tiernan’s series, check out the other. You won’t regret it.
I give Rise of Gaia four stars. I really enjoyed it, but there were still some little things that kept me from giving this a five star. They’re teeny, tiny, but I value immersion and those things pulled me out of my flow.
