Amanda
Written on Sep 15, 2011
There wasn’t anything spectacular about Tempest Rising, but it certainly held its own; after all, it was the first book I finished after going through nearly a week of not reading (and that’s rare, even for me). It was a light read in the sense that it just skimmed the surface of emotions; it was superficial without being shallow. Tempest Rising was not an all-consuming and emotional read, but perhaps that is exactly what I needed.
There is nothing really special about Jane, except that she likes to swim in the ocean off the coast of Maine…often while naked. She does her best to fit into “normal” society, but doesn’t quite succeed, and with good reason — she’s not “normal.” The back cover of Tempest Rising compares the series to the Sookie Stackhouse series, and the more I reflect on this, the more I find that I agree with it, though I do find that I like Jane True more than Sookie (sorry Sookie fans). Ryu is Jane’s love interest, and while I didn’t hate him, I didn’t love him either. There is some serious lusting in Tempest Rising but the romance was lacking, which makes me wonder if Jane will eventually switch partners at some point in time in the series (normally this would bother the heck out of me, but my apathy toward Ryu would probably mean accepting a partner switch with ease as long as the reasons are sound).
The true (why do I have to keep using that word?) charm of Tempest Rising is the world building; it is both familiar to paranormal fans while still being unique. The mystery — which was nothing spectacular, but not terrible, nor too important to the plot at this point — was wrapped up nicely at the end, though the amount of knowledge Jane (and the readers!) has is still minimal; it’s a big bad world out there, and the adventure has just begun, so to speak. While I don’t think I will go rushing out to buy the next book, I’m sure that I will continue reading the series.