Arcana Rising

The Arcana Chronicles, Book 4

By: Kresley Cole

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Losses mount and deadly new threats converge in this next action-packed tale of the Arcana Chronicles by #1 New York Times best seller Kresley Cole.  

When the battle is done.... 

The Emperor unleashed hell and annihilated an army, jeopardizing the future of mankind - but Circe struck back. The epic clash between them devastates the Arcana world and nearly kills Evie, separating her from her allies.  

And all hope is lost.... 

With Aric missing and no sign that Jack and Selena escaped Richter's reach, Evie turns more and more to the darkness lurking inside her. Two Arcana emerge as game changers: one who could be her salvation, the other her worst nightmare.  

Vengeance becomes everything.  

To take on Richter, Evie must reunite with Death and mend their broken bond. But as she learns more about her role in the future - and her chilling past - will she become a monster like the Emperor? Or can Evie and her allies rise up from Richter's ashes, stronger than ever before? 

©2016 Kresley Cole (P)2016 Kresley Cole

Done with love triangles

Would you try another book from Kresley Cole and/or Emma Galvin?

Yes

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I am so sick of love triangles. That's all i will say! I already hate that the main character has slept with BOTH of the guys. But to have her constantly going back and forth. I'm over this series! This will be my last.

Which character – as performed by Emma Galvin – was your favorite?

Death was probably my favorite. Emma Galvin did a great job voicing all the characters. She was the bright side to this story.

Did Arcana Rising inspire you to do anything?

Yes, NEVER read or write a book with love triangles.

Any additional comments?

Evie needs to make a choice and stick with it.

Felt incomplete.

Wow... So I love this series and was so excited when Arcana Rising came out on audio.
For me this was a weak entry in the Arcana series. It felt like it was story filler but there was no real action and drama as in the previous books.
This book was mostly Evie's angsty feelings about her two loves. It just lacked the grit of previous books.

I remember thinking at a point where the book said it had 34 min remaining "how can there only be 34 min? It feels like this could only be the halfway point in the book. So wow to my surprise there was really only about 10 more min in the story with the other 24 min being a excerpt from Day Zero. Ms Cole just stuck a cliff hanger in there and that was it.
Overall I'm disappointed in the entry to the series. It should have been like a book 3.5 rather than 4. If you've ever read series that do that 3, 3.5, 4 type of thing then you will know what I mean. That's about how much story you feel like you got out of this despite its length.
I will of course buy whatever Kresley Cole publishes and I hope that the next book delivers as the first 3 did.

Loved It!

I have read the actual book a couple of times and have been checking every other day to see if the audio book had been published.
I, of course, love everything Kresley Cole writes and have even read the books that aren't on Audible.
I love the Arcana series and can hardly wait for the next installment.
You won't be disappointed with this book!

I wanted to like it...

But this book was filled with rushed scenes, pathetic prose, and ridiculousness in general. I firmly believe that Ms. Cole threw this book together in haste just to get something into print.

THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD. Here's where I had my issues:
1) The utterly pathetic Evie. Half of this book was just her whining about wanting revenge on Richter for Jack's "death." Then...nothing. No action, no plots, no schemes. She is supposedly one of the most powerful Arcana, yet she doesn't use her powers. She is wholly dependent on everyone else to do things for her. And all she does is whine.

2) Dying Granny? Oh well! Evie spent the better part of the first three books trying to get to her grandmother for answers. Now she has her granny in the flesh, but just because she doesn't happen to like what her grandmother is saying, Evie writes her off as a crazy person. And the fact that her granny is dying doesn't even seem to make an impression. In fact, when the old lady dies, Evie is relieved! WTF??

4) Jack/Death....Death/Jack. To Evie, these two men are apparently interchangeable. A few weeks of mourning the demise of her "soul mate" and Evie is rattling the headboard with Death. I understand that she's 17, but SHEESH, give the grief some realism here!

5) And baby makes three. Seriously? I can't even describe the stupidity here.

I LOVE ITTTTT

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! IT'S SO DUMB AND GOOD!!!! I own all in print, and listen through all of them every other month. I cant get enough. it's so dumb. I love it so much. The characters are so good. The narrator is so good. I make everyone I can read this so that I can discuss theories. I love it. This is so dumb. I think about it all of the time. So dumb. So good. I love it

What! Wait, I need more!!!!!

I wish I would have reread this series before starting this book. There is so much that happens in the previous book that I have forgotten, that I am now kicking myself for not listening to them all over again. I have kept notes on all 22 Tarot cards and who is who, I will share them with those others that wish they would have. I did like how this book reiterated all the major arcana's again in this book. Pardon misspelled names.

0. The Fool/ Game Keeper of Old - Matthew
1. The Magician/ Master of Illusions - Finnegan
2. The High Priestess/ Ruler of the Deep/Water Witch - Cerci
3. The Empress/ Our Lady of Thorns - Evie
4. The Emperor/ Stone Overlord - Richter
5. The Hierophant/ He of the Dark Rights - Guthrie
6. The Lovers/ Duke and Duchess most Perverse - Vincent & Violet
7. The Chariot/ Wicked Champion/ Centurion - Kentark
8. Strength/ Mistress of Fauna - Lark
9. The Hermit/ Master of Alchemy - Arthur
10. Wheel of Fortune/ Lady Luck - Zara
11. Justice/ She who Harrows/ The Fury - Spite
12. The Hanged Man/ Our Lord Uncanny - ? (we all have our suspicions who this is)
13. Death/ The Endless Knight - Arik
14. Temperance/ Collector of Sins - Calanthy
15. The Devil/ Foul Desecrator - Oran
16. The Tower/ Lord of Lightning - Jules
17. The Star/ Arcane Navigator - Unknown name
18. The Moon/ Bringer of Doubt - Selina
19. The Sun/ Hail the Glorious Illuminator - El Sol
20. Judgement/ The Archangel - Gabriel
21. The world/ This Unearthly one - Tess

And then to find out the minor tarot cards are also people. For a young adult book, I am again surprised that there are sex scenes in the series. Not that it bothers me, it is just surprising. I still reeling at the direction this book took, not what I expected. I love this series and can't wait for the next installment. I feel there will be a twist when it comes to Death in books to come, and of course this book left off with some really big questions. Narrator is awesome as usual and I would be willing to read any of her readings. Ending is at 8:20ish and there is an excerpt from Cerci's story.

Love this series!

Love the story, the series and the narrator. Can't wait for the next book! One of the my favorite series!

This series is AMAZING!!!

This series is AMAZING!!! I HAVE listened to EVERY SINGLE ONE & I can't wait for the next one!! GREAT JOB TO EMMA GALVIN & KRESLEY COLE!!!

Haven't Listened to more than one chapter

Would you listen to Arcana Rising again? Why?

Yes, because I know Emma is excellent for this series.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jack will always be my favorite character. He ads something to this series that was sadly lacking in this book because he wasn't there (*wink, wink*). I fell even harder for Jack in Cole's Day Zero novella.

Have you listened to any of Emma Galvin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, I'm sure its the same as all her other fantastic narrations of this series.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It probably will be once I finish listening to it. I'm a die hard arcana fan, so, I ended up reading the book instead of waiting for it to come out on audible. The suspense was killing me, and so, I was too impatient to wait for Cole to get things together with audible before finding out what happened next in this series. I also read the Day Zero novella for the same reason. It would be cool to see a narration of Day Zero with different narrators doing different characters, but I don't think Cole has that in the works....

Regardless, you can still appreciate this book without reading the Day Zero novella. But, I do feel like Day Zero gave more depth and understanding to the different characters. When certain new characters came into play in this book, I already knew where they were coming from and understood them on a different level than readers who hadn't read Day Zero would.

This book is pretty good, but my favorites are the first two books. Thats why I gave the story line four out of five stars. This book seems stretched thin so that this series would create four books instead of three as Cole had originally intended for this series. I learned only a few additional things about this series that I didn't know before reading it. The rest, while interesting seemed like filler to stretch the story out in my opinion. There were no more crazy babblings from the fool, or Jack's cajun French, and reckless ruggedness, which is what made the first two books interesting in my opinion. There was also less action or scary parts. Still, this book sets a darker tone/ outlook on the games, and gives good build up for the next book (the last book installment in this series).

Any additional comments?

I liked Evie's character in the beginning of this book. She was so edgy and bad ass, but then, she became super soft like puddy once she met up with death again. I know she's a sweet Southern girl and everything, but at times, she was so soft, she bordered on stupid. Then, there was her and death's relationship, which seemed forced at times. Perhaps there is a reason for that though, or maybe, its because I'm a die hard Jack fan that I couldn't get into their romance. All in all, I still hold out hope for Jack and Evie to be together again in the end. After all, she chose him at the end of the last book, not Death.

Theories: (Spoiler ALERT: I think that 1. Evie and Death will have their child, and the game will end because things will be balanced between life and death. 2. Death will sacrifice himself to end the game so that Evie can survive with his child, and she can live happily together with Jack. Or, 3. Evie will miscarry because, he's death after all. I think people forget that. How can death ever give life? Even if he's with life, his life can only mean death because he's death.- lol.

On the cajun side of things, Jack has to be the hanged man. I mean, at this point in the story, its the only thing that makes logical sense. I'll be very surprised, if not disappointed if he's not. Especially, after reading Day Zero. And especially since Jack made the decision to go incognito in this book, and in past games, Death said he never faced nor learned who the hanged man was. Also, since the beginning, Jack has constantly come between Death and Life. I don't think thats a coincidence. Cole has constantly played with this idea of something "hanging" between life and death (pun intended). Even when Jack became incognito, Evie became pregnant, thereby creating something else that dangles between Death and Life. I just wonder why a child has come into play when there is already an arcana character in place to "dangle" between Evie and Aric?

Regardless, between Jack and Death, Evie will probably be safe until the game ends. Jack will do everything out in the Arcana battle field to secretly keep Evie safe (he loves her), and Death will do everything to guard pregnant Evie from other Arcana from inside his stronghold. Only time will tell though. End of Spoiler).

My theories are just that, theories. Cole isn't one of my favorite authors for nothing. Somehow, she still manages to surprise the hell out of her readers. I know I've been critical in this review, but its only because I've had the pleasure of devouring some of Cole's more masterful pieces of literature, and know what she's truly capable of. I've read everything Cole has ever written, and each book provides something new. She's incredible, even masterful at writing a series, so, happy reading everyone. Cole likes to pitch opposites against each other, then bring them together, and she also likes to put destined female and male leads together. Death is Evie's second choice when it comes to everything romantic, and I don't think he's going to win out in the end considering other books of Cole's that I've read. Somehow though, Cole will end this book so both team death and team Jack readers will love how this series ends.

This book is a lovely addition to the series, and soon, we'll all marvel at Cole's ending (this spring with her final arcana book).

Utter Disappointment

This ends in another cliffhanger but the cliffhanger from the previous book isn't even answered. Death Aric is a master manipulator and Evie is a indecisive fool. I can't with this series. I'm done. The first book is awesome but everything goes downhill after death captures evie in the 2nd book. If you, like me, was team jack than don't listen to this book.

Another filler instalment

Really this book is just an Evie/Death romantic interlude with a little bit of plot thrown in at the end and a cliff hanger. Didn’t really need to be it’s own book

Totally recommended it!

Emma Galvin has delivered again a great narration to an amazing story. It was worth every penny.

can't wait for the next book already!

loved it, didn't want to stop listening. another great book in the series. can't wait to read day zero