Hey, writers and readers!
It’s not a good month without an indie novel or two. Today I’ll be reviewing Serpent’s Rise by Trish Heinrich, or the second novel in the Vigilante Superhero series. Check out the review below and make sure to give your two cents in the comments section if you’ve already read the book, too!
Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis:
As much as Alice hates to admit it, she’s out for revenge. After being left physically and emotionally broken, Alice spends her years pretending she is a crippled heiress and pretending she doesn’t care that Lionel and Marco left her when she needed them most. In the meantime, she employs the help of her friends and family to help her track Phantasm’s next move so she can exact her revenge–once and for all.
Things start to get hairy when other discovered super-powered children are being stolen from their homes or orphanages. She can’t play dumb any longer, as she comes to the conclusion that it’s once again time to don her Serpent uniform.
In Heinrich’s second novel in the Superhero Vigilante series, join Alice once again as she trains harder and smarter to meet her biggest foe once again.
What I Enjoyed:
I gave this novel 5 stars for a few reasons. I truly felt that this was Heinrich’s stronger novel so far in the series, and I can’t wait to watch her out-do herself and grow with Alice and her other characters.
Heinrich really brought a new dimension to this novel with the female characters. I love Rose especially. While she plays the part of the brilliant scientist and weapons inventor, she has a spark of her own. She’s got her own “missions” to undertake, as she chooses to participate in rallies and protests that mirror the Civil Rights movement. I was worried that she would be held back, but her character arc shone at the right times and added more than I imagined to the story.
Miss Jones is another delightful addition to the team. She’s the level-headed secretary and double that Alice needs to succeed. Imagine if Batman’s Alfred was just as involved in missions as Batman was. She helps Alice transition into her role as Mrs. Frost’s heir and gets Alice’s head in the game quite frequently in the novel. It’s nice to see women of different ages and abilities kick ass in this novel.
The emotion in this novel was also well done. You can’t really have a superhero novel without some high stakes and some heavy-duty knife-twisting in the back. It feels like a hallmark of superheroes that grace our comic books. Woof. And this novel is no exception. Alice goes through a lot of ups and downs in this novel, and Heinrich kept me wanting to read more. Her depictions of physical and emotional pain were spot on.
As always, the fight scenes do not disappoint. You get an account of what’s going on blow for blow which I admire a lot. As a writer, this isn’t my strong suit, so I bow down to the writers who can pull this off.
My Final Thoughts
I already enjoyed the first novel, Serpent’s Sacrifice, so I was prepared to thoroughly enjoy Serpent’s Rise–and I did! This novel digs deeper into every character in the cast, provides a lot of sudden plot twists, and truly rises as an excellent addition to the super hero genre. I can’t wait for her third novel to come out in January! She left me hanging on this one, and anything could happen at this point.
Definitely read Serpent’s Sacrifice first to understand what’s going on in this novel. There are some unavoidable spoilers, so do yourself a favor and read the books in order.
I hope I shared enough to pique your curiosity without giving too much away! If you’d like to learn more about Trish Heinrich and her work, you can catch up with her via social media:
Have you read this novel? How do you feel about super hero novels? Share with me in the comments! You can also see all of my other book reviews by checking our the Book Reviews tab.