A review by lmpenguin
The Last Rising by Rachel Firasek

5.0

The Last Rising grabbed me from the very first chapter and pulled me into a unique story that I really didn’t understand at first but as each paragraph and chapter unfolded pulled me deeper into the heartbreaking and frustrating life of Phoenix Ice. I just could not put this book down. I had to know how Ice’s situation was going to turn out. The opening of this book she is face with a man on an airplane when she knows it is going to crash and he will be the only survivor. She dies over and over again saving the souls and yet unable to save her own. Ice is completely done with this and decides that her next death will be her last and beings to take steps to prepare the other women who travel with her. In Ice’s next assignment, she is to be a school teacher, something that she know she will have very little patience for. But she is stunned when she meets the father, Turner, of a young student Brodie, and he seems so familiar. He feels the same way about her. Ice is forced to try to keep her distance from Turner because she just wants him too much and knows she can’t have this. But can these two stay apart is the real question.

Rachel Firasek does an outstanding job with character building for all of the characters in her stories not just the main characters. I felt like each character from Brodie down to Grey and Sadie, all had their own story that intermingled in with the main story line of Ice and Turner and their ups and downs. Not only do the character stand up but the locations of the story as well everything from the homes to the workplaces and the plane crash for sure. They are well defined but for me personally I like to know the names of places and things like that so that would have made me enjoy this book even more.

The other thing that was a huge plus for me in The Last Rising was the heat factor. There chapters that were just sizzling. Nothing that was over the top or just too much but a honest situation for two people who should be together and are having trouble letting go what what they think they should do and what they want to do. Also, a reason why it was so hard to put it down not to mention all of the drama with Ice’s internal debates with herself.

I am excited to know that this is only one of three books in this series. I am forward to finding out what is next in store from this series.