Awakening
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
In Awakening, the first installment in the Dark Rituals series, a former healer turns to the Death Arts to seek revenge. Seventeen-year-old Colina was born a healer. But after a horrific event forces her to leave her clan, she becomes desperate to learn the dark magic of the death dealers, mages who draw their power from the spirits of the dead. Colina was taught to fear and hate death dealers, but becoming one of them is the only way for her to get the revenge she seeks-and the only way for her to survive. Colina asks a young death dealer named Luke to help her, but he's reluctant to train her in the Death Arts. Little does she know convincing him to teach her will be the easiest part of her journey. To become a death dealer, Colina will need to undergo three dark rituals, each more terrifying than the last. At the same time, she'll have to deal with her growing feelings for her mentor. Too bad the first ritual involves him strangling her to death. As Colina undergoes the trials, she discovers an untapped darkness within herself. If she survives the horrific rituals and gains dark power, what will she become? Catrina Burgess' Dark Rituals series originally appeared on Wattpad with over three million reads. Awakening is the first book of four and was named Wattpad's Best Suspense Story of 2014.
Tags
Series
Featured Series
3 primary books#1 in The Dark Rituals
The Dark Rituals is a 3-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 2013 with contributions by Catrina Burgess.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review (Lovers of Paranormal). This was a very original story. Colina saw her whole family murdered and now she wants revenge. She is a healer that wants to become a death dealer. That has never been done before. Will it be worth the price? I look forward to the next book in this series.
What would you do if your only chance of survival is to becofme everything you were taught to hate and despise? 4 Stars for this violent and bloody piece of fantasy mixed with the right amount of action, romance and unpredictability.
I received a free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
First of all: I CAN'T WAIT A WHOLE MONTH TO READ THE SECOND BOOK! sobs
Clickety click for more sobbing over books
The story takes place in a world where people get born into different clans, each clan honing and teaching abilities. Colina is a healer. Or at least she was. She can't heal anymore since witnessing the horrible thing that was done to her family. Now she has to learn the despised death arts if she wants to stay alive and take revenge on the men who killed everyone she loved.
Luke is a death dealer and unwilling to teach her. That is until his sister gets abducted by the same men that are after Colina.
The rituals one has to undergo in order to become a death dealer are horrifying and have a good many points where they can go awfully wrong. But there isn't really any going back anymore. Fuelled by fear and the possibility of death Colina's and Luke's relationship quickly verges and develops into something more.
The road to revenge and the rescue of Luke's sister is bathed in blood and dead bodies and behind all that is a plot more gruesome than either of them could have expected.
The emotions where high in this one. Though I felt like Colina could fill a whole bathtub with her tears constant crying I really can't say anything against it, ‘cause if it was me going through all that shit I'd probably be crying buckets as well.
So, very emotional main character but it didn't annoy me like many overly emotional characters do.
The story world reality with the clans is intriguing and I can't wait to get to know more about it in the second book as this one didn't offer many details, just little crumbs of information.
And OH MY GOSH THE ENDING! I seriously didn't see that one coming! It was a punch on the stomach on the last pages and left me speechless. I can't wait for October to come so I can greedily devour the next instalment of the story.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys interesting and original fantasy with an unpredictable ending that doesn't crush you under heaps of detail about the story world but still enough to not get lost.
