I adore Veronica Rossi. Her Under the Never Sky series is one of my all time favorites, and if you haven't read it, you need to. Obviously, I was tremendously excited for Riders, even though it's definitely a departure from UTNS in virtually every way. But that's okay! I feel like it shows a lot of versatility on the part of Ms. Rossi to be able to bring such different worlds to life.
Anyway, Riders is why we're here! I liked it, but I didn't love it. It's got a lot going for it, but there were a few things that held me back, so I am going to go into detail about all of that.
The Things I Liked:
- A Believable Male Point of View! Yes, this exists ;) In seriousness, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Gideon's POV, even if he wasn't always my favorite character. He felt authentic as a character, as did his voice. I also loved that he was an Army ranger, and that he was struggling with a lot of things personally that made him relatable.
- Daryn was great, and I enjoyed the (very light) romance between her and Gideon. Daryn felt like the Mama Bear to this group of boys- she was protective of them for sure, and she knew all the things. And Gideon was smitten, which I found adorable. It wasn't one-sided, but Daryn was also very reluctant to start any kind of relationship. Still, I felt the sparks between them, and I liked it!
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse thing was downright intriguing- especially because they had actual horses! I am still a little uncertain about all the specifics, but I feel like we're going to see a lot of answers coming out in the sequel, so I am up for some mystery! Oh, and the horses all do stuff to help their horseman! Which, I want one of those, clearly.
- The book moved at a great pace. I was nervous because the story is mostly told from the perspective of Gideon recounting the events to the government officials, and sometimes that form of story can move slowly, but this one definitely didn't suffer for it.
The Things I Didn't:
- Even though the method of telling didn't make the book move slowly, it took away some of the anticipation and excitement. For a large chunk of the story, the reader knows at least part of the ending- since the book basically starts with the end. While it was a unique approach to telling the story, I feel like I would have been more invested if I didn't know certain things.
- While I liked how different the other horsemen were, I wish I'd gotten to know them a bit better. Again, this is something that I hope comes through more in the sequel, because I would have loved to get to know more about them. Sebastian was definitely the most fleshed out (and my favorite!) and I was glad that we got to know a bit more about Marcus by the end. But Jode... I hardly knew ye.
- Some of the outcomes felt a little "easy". I can't say, for obvious spoiler reasons, but some of the things that happened toward the end of the book made me pretty skeptical. Granted, it is a paranormal/fantasy situation, but a few things went down that my common sense couldn't move past, so I figure it's worth mentioning.
Bottom Line: I liked this more than I didn't, for sure. Because I am definitely going to read the sequel, as I am interested in learning all about the outcome of this very unique world, and of course, to revisit this great cast of characters!
**Copy provided by publisher for review