Ragged Rising

When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen

* Book will be released February 28, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

2 out of 5 gnomes

First of all from the description of the book as seen on Goodreads, I thought that I was really going to like it. This is one time where the description at least in my opinion was rather misleading. This pretty much means that I was reading looking for some redeeming qualities in the characters but was left with almost none. It's not usually the best sign when you can't stand the main character and like the periphery characters about 100% more.

I thought the main character Felicita was going to be a stand-up kind of character with a lot to prove.  Turns out that she's a haughty pain in the brain type character that will make you just want to slap her multiple times throughout the book.

Everything felt too rushed and the motives for a lot of what the characters do are never satisfactorily explained. I get the whole running away after your best friend commits suicide part but her prejudices against those who take her in just seem really out of place. Just when I think I'm about to start liking her as a character she says something or does something where she acts like every other person besides her is no better then dirt.

There's kind of a love triangle but it doesn't feel fleshed out at all. She seems to hate the first guy that's a potential love interest and then becomes close to him extremely fast. The second kind of love interest is a vampire. She and many others in this world have a severe hatred for vampires. Felicita is drawn to the vampire Jannik but is also repulsed by him at the same time.  They seem to work better as friends and it seems like she is going to manipulate him for her personal gain.  Overall there seems to be a lot of manipulation going on between all who are involved with Felicita.

She also gets involved in a revolution that she in no way believes in. Even though she has been hurt by the system that's in place too, she believes in the people that are running the flawed system. This caste type system is ingrained in everything that she does and the ending of the book just has her falling back into her own ways. I was hoping for a more hopeful ending.

There are some good ideas that I wished had been followed more like the girl she meets being half-selkie. I probably would have liked the story a lot better from her point of view versus Felicita's. Also the idea of only being able to use magic if you have a certain rare mineral in your system is intriguing. I think the fact that people get addicted to the mineral could have been explored more and gave more of an impact to the story.

The ending was unexpected, it was the strongest part of the book when all the chaos is happening. The main feeling I had throughout was that I need more information and explanations for why everything is happening. The concept for the story was good, it just didn't live up to my expectations.