Review: A good story, but I liked the first one better
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2013
I really wanted to love this book. I thought Charity Moon was pretty good, and many of the Goodreads reviews said that this sequel was even better. Also, I've been in contact with DeAnna Kinney, and she seems like such a nice person. Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me.Actually, let me clarify. I think, when taken on its own, this book would actually be pretty good. However, as a sequel, I had certain expectations, and I just didn't feel like it lived up to its predecessor.What I Liked: Most of my issues with the first book did seem to be addressed in Charity Rising. There were still some elements of Charity's religious beliefs included, but they weren't as big a part of this story. Also,  it didn't feel like one thing after another kept happening to Charity. In the first book, it felt like every time Charity stepped out of the house, something bad happened. It wasn't quite as intense in this one. Actually, it was kind of interesting because I expected something to happen every time she left the house and would be pleasantly surprised when an outing turned out normally! lolWhat I Didn't Like: My biggest complaint about this book was its predictability. I thought a lot of the things that happened were a little obvious, especially in the second part of the book (It's broken into two parts.) They weren't terrible, but as anyone who has read my previous reviews, I don't like being able to actually predict what's going to happen. I like to think I know and then be proven wrong. lol One other small thing that bothered me is that most of the conflict seemed to be resolved a little too easily.Overall, I thought that Charity Rising was an okay book. It wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't horrible. My only real complaint is that, for me, it didn't measure up to its predecessor. However, I still think it's worth a read, and I do plan on reading book 3 if/when it is released.