“You may be closer than ever to finding some quaint little hovel, brother, and Rebekah may still win us an army. But I’m building us an empire.” – Niklaus

The Rise originally appealed to me because of my guilty-pleasure-like interest in Niklaus and Elijah. I find them to be devilishly delicious and this novel was a great excuse to enjoy some of their dangerous charms. I think this is a good novel to read if you are very much a fan of The Originals television series, yet aside from that, there’s not much here at all. If you’re simply looking for a vampire reading experience, then I suggest looking somewhere else ’cause this ain’t going to do it for you.

This story takes place in the 1720s. The Mikaelson family arrives in New Orleans in search of a place where they can settle down and build a home. But the witches and werewolves of the region have other plans, plans that make is abundantly clear that fanged-frenemies aren’t allowed to partake in. To kill time, the Original family decides to occupy themselves, which leads to love crashing the party and leading to chaos.

There are a couple of aspects of the book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Firstly, The personas of Elijah, Niklaus, and Rebekah are very true to their television counterparts, which allows the reader to get an intimate look into their thoughts and feelings in a way that isn’t satisfied by simply watching. We can connect to particular traits or quarks that they have, which provides with them with more depth; gives them a human element to empathize with.

Secondly, the book is a very easy read. It unfolds like an extended episode. This is a good thing if you’re looking for a light and brisk book, particularly if you’re a fan-friend of the Mikaelson fam. It can be bad if you are unfamiliar with The Originals universe at all as things aren’t described nearly as well as they could’ve been. The Rise expects you to already know what the cast looks like and what their most prevailing characteristics are.

There’s a lot more stuff that didn’t really tickle my fancy at all. The writing itself is about average at best. It did a poor job of providing a consistently engaging experience. There were many times where I was just plain bored. The pacing is mostly slow, but when it does pick up, it does in short-winded spurts. Rebekah’s perspective and adventures offer absolutely nothing new or interesting to her personality but works in fact to reiterate how callous she is when it comes to relationships. Maybe I felt this way because I’m not a fan of hers and it’s all personal. I won’t lie, that is a very real possibility. All of the plot elements were essentially predicable with a highly rushed execution. Things were just happening way too conveniently and way too quickly, leaving very little space for any sort of reaction or absorption of whatever the hell was going on.

Overall, The Rise is a rather unremarkable book. It’s very easily a skippable sort of read. I would only recommend this to folks who want that extra bit of Elijah, Niklaus, or Rebekah slush. You don’t get much from it and, quite frankly, there are much better supernatural light-lits out there (if you’re searching for something quick and easy that is).

2.5 wolfies out of 5.

**This is not written by Julie Plec. Instead it’s written by a ghost writer.**