Mitchell Hogan

Raven: Reawakening is action-packed and fast-paced from start to finish with. There are tons of great, visualizable fight scenes. There is a high body count, but no excessive gore. I loved the protagonist: a kicka** female ex-assassin named Raven with intelligence, a conscience, and a willingness to kill to protect herself. The plot was compelling and had me on the edge of me seat the whole book. There were some great surprise twists that I didn’t see coming but definitely made total sense. No cliffhanger ending. The primary plot of this book was resolved, but there were definitely new plot lines introduced that are going to be continued in later books of this new series. I’m going to go crazy waiting for the next book in the series to come out.

Raven is not only formidable, kind, and ruthless when necessary, but she also carries her pain and vulnerabilities with her in everything she does. And it doesn’t make her weak, it fuels her. When assassins come to kill Raven years after faking her own death to escape her old life as an assassin, she not only escapes, she sets out to find out who tried to have her killed and take the fight to them. To do so, she adopted her old assassin identity, Raven, once more. She survived her own government experimenting on her against her will with demon blood to make the perfect magical assassin. They changed or took almost everything: her body, appearance, name, and most of her memories. She escaped. She survived the losing of her baby daughter. She’s still standing. She’s still a fighter. She may be smart, competent, and have a conscience, but she’s also far from perfect. Sometimes, she is morally grey, gets fooled, and makes impulsive choices. She’s a fantastic strong female heroine!

This book is written in a minimalist style: the concise bare bones of the story. Normally, I’m not a fan of this style because it tends get in the way of different characters having distinct voices, leave you confused or lacking crucial details, and leave you unable go visualize the content well. Thankfully, none of this was the case here! In this book, the writing is concise, precise, and well-crafted enough that the minimalist style avoids all those pitfalls, keeps the story moving along at a fast pace, and creates a relaxing reading experience. All the information you need for visualization, characterization, and clarity is simply packed into concise sentences.

Warnings: mentions of loss of a baby, violence, descriptions of past non-consensual magical/medical experimentation on humans.

Great book. I received a free e-copy via NetGalley. I am writing this review voluntarily and honestly.… (mehr)