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 show more 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. show less

I loved this from the beginning to the very bittersweet ending. I had never read Mitchell Hogan before, but I will definitely be looking at his other works. The story begins when Tarrik, a long-forgotten demon in exile, is being summoned by Serenity or Ren. Ren is a powerful sorceress in a desperate situation and as a last resort summons her first demon for assistance. The story is interesting because it's told from the demon's point of view. He is very demon-like and often thinks of the show more many ways he'll kill Ren when he gets free from her bonds but he slowly but surely begins to identify with Ren and her predicament even though being friendly with humans is precisely why he was exiled in the first place. Tarrik is in a constant struggle trying to decide if it's in his best interest to help Ren or not. Even though he is a demon, he's quite likeable. I loved the authors writing style, his world building and was on the edge of my seat during the intense and exciting battles and altercations. This is a great start to a new series that has me wishing that it will not be limited to just three books. I definitely recommend this book if you loved the Hobbit, LOTR and Harry Potter. Overall a great book in my opinion. I received an ARC from NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. show less

I loved this from the beginning to the very bittersweet ending. I had never read Mitchell Hogan before, but I will definitely be looking at his other works. The story begins when Tarrik, a long-forgotten demon in exile, is being summoned by Serenity or Ren. Ren is a powerful sorceress in a desperate situation and as a last resort summons her first demon for assistance. The story is interesting because it's told from the demon's point of view. He is very demon-like and often thinks of the show more many ways he'll kill Ren when he gets free from her bonds but he slowly but surely begins to identify with Ren and her predicament even though being friendly with humans is precisely why he was exiled in the first place. Tarrik is in a constant struggle trying to decide if it's in his best interest to help Ren or not. Even though he is a demon, he's quite likeable. I loved the authors writing style, his world building and was on the edge of my seat during the intense and exciting battles and altercations. This is a great start to a new series that has me wishing that it will not be limited to just three books. I definitely recommend this book if you loved the Hobbit, LOTR and Harry Potter. Overall a great book in my opinion. I received an ARC from NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. show less

I stepped over that line, I just had to do it no matter the cost. I toiled day and night, carefully inking my runes on my crafting. Then infusing it with the sorcery it needed, I finally created an intricate crafting using strong coercive sorcery and was able to procure an advanced copy of “A Shattered Empire”. I’ll say this though, I honestly didn’t know if it was going to work how I wanted it to, but in the end I was happy with the outcome.

Since this review is being posted before show more the book is released, I won’t give anything away. So, sorry anyone looking for spoilers, you won’t find them here. I will say this though, I finished the book in two days because I couldn’t put it down. I’ll admit that the beginning was akin to sloughing through a bog, slow and tedious, but after the first few chapters it sped up to my liking. Similar to the previous two books, we are following Caldan as he fights his way through the treacheries and turmoil thrown at him almost on a daily basis. We get to see him grow more and more into his new sorcerous powers that he is always discovering.

I’ll admit though, the book is a satisfactory ending to the trilogy. For me personally, it ended too quickly and in a way that I saw coming from a mile off. I think I would have been happier if the finality of the story was dragged out a bit more, but then again, don’t we always want more at the end of a series? But alas, the end is the end, and this one got the job done in an adequate way. If you loved the first two in the series, you will definitely want to pick this up and finish the saga, but be warned, it will leave you wanting more.

I received an “uncorrected proof” copy of the book, so I cannot comment on any spelling/ grammatical errors found in the book.

I can only hope that Mitchell Hogan finds it in his heart to bring back Caldan in a new series somehow…. Otherwise I might have to use some coercive sorcery again and force his hand…. show less