Rift: A Nightshade Novel [Hardcover]

Andrea Cremer is in a tricky position with RIFT. Those who read the original trilogy know exactly where things are going. But new readers, like protagonist Ember, are new to this world. Cremer must try to satisfy both sets of readers.

Ember is a noblewoman pledged to Conatus since one of their healers saved her and her mother during a difficult birth. She's perfectly happy to join the monastic order, but her father would prefer to marry her off in order to forge an alliance. But Conatus is not any old order. The members secretly fight against witches whose dark magic imperils the entire world. And one of the highest ranked members, Eira, is being tempted by that magic.

I enjoyed that there wasn't a love triangle in RIFT. There are two guys in Ember's life, but one she's actively pursuing and the other doesn't understand the word no. I don't consider that a love triangle, although some might. It's a scarily realistic part of the book, relevant to issues today despite being set in medieval times. Alistair is the ultimate Nice Guy.* While there is nothing wrong with being nice, Nice Guys think that being a girl's friend entitles them to have sex with her. Since Ember tries to remain his friend after shooting him down, Alistair still thinks he has a chance and doesn't back off. It's classic creeper behavior and I wish it weren't so recognizable.

But I do wish we got a little less of Ember learning to use her weapons and hanging out with Barrow and Alistair. Nightshade trilogy readers might already know about Eira and her twin Cian, but they're still the most interesting figures in the story. They're the people who go down in history. But despite having a few chapters through their points of view, they remain ciphers. Eira is motivated by power. Cian not so much, since she doesn't go along with her sister. I also wonder whether Ember's sister will show up in RISE. The beginning half of the book teases her secrets, but she disappears completely after leaving Ember with Conatus.

Cremer's fans will enjoy RIFT. Like NIGHTSHADE and its two sequels, it has a dynamic heroine, an intriguing and consistent world, and good action scenes. The medieval setting is well researched and provides a nice change. Most of the main characters are progressive thinkers, but the thoughts of the world outside of Conatus seem in line with the times. Ember is religious, as usual for a woman of her time, even if she does want to learn to be a warrior.

Cremer is in a tricky position, but RIFT is a pageturner that should satisfy both old and new fans.

In Rift: A Nightshade Novel, the prequel to Andrea Cremer's Nightshade series, readers get a glimpse into the origins of the Keepers and the Witches War of the 15th century. The daughter of a noble, Ember Morrow must leave her family after her 16th birthday to serve the mysterious order of Conatus. Though most fear the knights, Ember readily embraces the life of battle and purpose the order provides. Once training begins, she finds not only her skills tested, but also her wit and her heart. Dark powers soon start to infiltrate the group, and Ember must decide where and with whom her allegiances lie.

Though I had a rocky relationship with Cremer's other Nightshade books, I really enjoyed RIFT once I got past some slow parts in the beginning. Ember was an able and spirited protagonist with a strong sense of self. Though a bit reckless at times, she doesn't complain or expect others to rescue her. Action scenes were well-described and plentiful, and the author's prose painted beautiful images of the Scottish highlands cloaked in gray fog. The slow-building romance was another highlight with its swoon-worthy love interest who was both strong and masculine but also considerate and effusive. Even though it's a prequel, RIFT can also be read on its own as the satisfying start to a new series, and the story ends in a place where a reader can look forward to the next installment without being left on a terrible cliffhanger.

As mentioned, RIFT was slow to start, however, and I felt bogged down during the first 100 pages by some character interactions and historical information that wasn't always clearly explained. Ember became too adept as a knight too quickly to be believable, and the romance blossomed from little sparks to full devotion in too short of a time near the end to feel truly natural. The story line about the split within Conatus also wasn't nearly as engaging as hoped, and I found myself rushing through those sections to get back to Ember's story. Overall, the story just felt a bit light on content where there could have been more development.

While I might have found a few stumbling points, RIFT is the best thing I've read by Andrea Cremer, and I'm already looking forward to the sequel (Rise: A Nightshade Novel). In it, I hope Cremer develops the swoony romance even more and provides greater tension to the emerging story about the split that leads to the Witches War.

Note: This review refers to an advance review copy.

It's no big secret that I love Andrea Cremer's books - her debut, NIGHTSHADE, was my book obsession of 2010, and I enjoyed the whole series so I was very much looking forward to reading RIFT when I heard about it and knew it was a prequel series. The nice thing about RIFT, as a prequel, is that you can read it without having read the NIGHTSHADE series books, but if you have read them, you'll see some of the connections being made hundreds of years in the past. I have to say that I think this was my favorite of Andrea Cremer's books and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I'm a sucker for strong female main characters, and Ember is a kick-butt heroine who is strong and determined (another trademark of Cremer's books). She's not willing to just go along with the status quo, she wants a better (and more interesting) life for herself. She does have vulnerability, too, in fact, the relationship she builds with her horse is really special. I'm not normally a horse person, but the way in which their horses were their own characters in this story, and so important to the people, added a dimension of relationships to this story that was unexpected. As per usual in Andrea Cremer's books, there is a cast of intriguing, entertaining, maddening, and interesting supporting characters as well.

There is also action in this book with the training scenes and the fighting, but I was almost wishing there were more training scenes. I wanted more fighting with the awesome weapons that come up in this story and the way in which Ember was trained by Barrow was a great way to build tension and develop their relationship. Speaking of their relationship, one thing I was wondering was how old Barrow actually is. Ember is 16, and this takes place a long time ago, but I was picturing Barrow as quite a bit older, so I was having a bit of trouble believing the relationship. Early on in the my reading the book, I asked on twitter because it was throwing me off, and Andrea responded that Barrow is 23. That helped me in reading RIFT because he seemed a lot older to me at first (to which Andrea Cremer reminded me on twitter that he was "raised in a militant order so he has more gravitas than a typical lad"). I have to say, he may be one of the most considerate romantic leads I've read recently. He's a good guy in a time when we need more good guys in YA books!

One of the things I really like about Andrea Cremer's writing is that I am instantly sucked into these worlds she creates, and I don't want to leave them. I experienced it with NIGHTSHADE, WOLFSBANE, and BLOODROSE, and I experienced it again with RIFT. She definitely knows how to write some great scenes with romances developing, while still staying appropriate for younger teens, too. Cremer also builds a world well-steeped in history, and it comes across as well-researched and accurate (which I know was kind of her day job that she has a PhD in, so that makes sense), but still interesting and drawing me further into the story. I did notice (which I remembered from the last series) that there are quite a few scenes of conversations that serve as exposition and I have to remember to pay careful attention to them so I know what's going on with the backstory/history of the world, but as long as I remember that, I can stay in tune with the story. One concern I did have was that I thought one of the major plot points was a little predictable, or maybe obviously foreshadowed, but then when I read the synopsis, I realized it mentions it, so it's not meant to be that much of a surprise.

RIFT is just as good as NIGHTSHADE (if not better), but a totally different kind of story. The historical world of this fiction is well-drawn. I really, really liked some of these characters and the relationship journey that Ember takes in this book. I also liked the completeness of this as a book on its own, but also how it clearly sets up for what comes next, but it didn't feel like a cliffhanger ending that would make me crazy - it has its own ending that feels complete. But, I still can't wait to read the next book in this series, RISE, releasing in January!