A Little Bit of R&R: Tour Review & Giveaway: Phoenix Rising by Lisa C. Morgan

Maggie Henning & The Realm: book 1
YA Paranormal Romance

Maggie has lived the last ten years with a woman who isn't her mother and carrying the label "Daughter of John Henning", a man sentenced to live out his days at Sunnyview Psychiatric Hospital after his conviction of fire bombing a church...

and killing the 8 people inside.

What Maggie learns will change her life. She is the last of a race of creatures known as "The Phoenix", a race of supernatural beings with the ability to wield and control fire.
And she will need that power now...

Revenants- walking, living, skeletal creatures who have waged a war against an unseen, parallel world known simply as The Realm- need Maggie's blood to bring them to a full power...a power that will give them an unbeatable edge and offer the deciding weapon in this war.
Maggie is not alone as she learns not only what she really is, but what it is her destiny to become...

Source: Received the book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Did not receive any payment for review.

My Review

HOLY SMOKES!!!! Where do I begin?

16 year old Maggie has been living with grief, believing that her father was a killer. Her world as she knows it is about to be turned upside down. She is drawn to the melody of a guitar in a music store, where she meets Michel. Oh Michel <3 Anyhow, her friend ditches her at the mall and Michel offers to give her a ride home...on his motorcycle. Fast forward a bit. Maggie dreads visiting her father in the mental institution. Her father never speaks during their visits. That is all about to change. Her father tries to warn her that she needs to "Guard the blood." Maggie has no clue what he is talking about and she thinks he's just crazy. She's about to learn just how serious things are about to get.

Maggie learns that her life for the past 10 years has been a lie. She has been living with a woman she believed to be her mother. After an attack, Maggie is brought to the Trust, a safe house for beings of the Realm. It is there that she learns of what she really is and the truth about her father. Maggie is the Realm's last hope to defeat the revenants, an evil race that is determined to take over the Realm and the mortal world.

My thoughts...

I had mixed feelings when I read this book. The beginning got right to the point. I like when a book doesn't go on with the mundane stuff. I had a love/hate relationship with Maggie. I liked her in the beginning. But as the book started to focus on the nitty gritty, she kinda whined a lot and it was a bit of a turn off. I like my protagonist to be strong and independent and she was just lacking a bit of both. It also felt a little like insta-love. Those were my only two gripes. Now for what I loved about the story. I felt like I knew all of the characters. The author paints them in such great detail that I feel like I have a relationship with each one of them. My favorite character would have to be Luc. Who doesn't love a hot, snarky vampire with a little bit of comic relief mixed in? I know I do. I loved the Realm and the history of their world. I really enjoy it when an author puts such effort into designing a world that is all their own. I was so enthralled by the end of the story that I am really considering begging the author to let me review the second book before it comes out lol. I want to throw something at her and hug her at the same time. This book made me laugh, swoon and cry. I cannot tell you why I cried but I beg you, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!!! I was torn between rating it 4 or a 5 so I gave it 4 1/2 stars. I round it up to a 5 for Amazon, Goodreads etc.

About the Author

Lisa C. Morgan lives in rural Upstate NY with her husband, three children, a degu, a precocious Siberian Husky, and a half Pom/Half Chi spoiled baby named Salacious B. Dustbunny. A lover of books and words, it has always been her desire to tell stories that the people near her could listen and read, escaping the world around them by way of the page. Always having a new story idea popping into her head, (sometimes at the least appropriate of times,) Lisa can always be found with a notebook and writing utensil somewhere within reach, just as her 8th grade teacher made her promise to do.Lisa has two short stories previously published in anthologies. A Romantic short titled Nothing's Terminal (A Home for the Holidays; December, 2011) and a zombie themed short titled Antidote (The Thorn of Death; March 2012). Her debut novel- Phoenix Rising is the first in a new YA series Maggie Henning & The Realm and will be released July 2012. Upcoming will be the continuation in the series- Phoenix Burning, Phoenix Shadow, and Phoenix Ashes.
When she isn't writing or taxing kids, Lisa enjoys reading, football, softball, cooking, singing & dancing, tattoos, and spending time with family and friends.