One rash decision during the Shadow Trials led to unspeakable horrors that left innocents dead, friends injured and hunted by the Empire, and Maia Graystone imprisoned in the Tower at the Archduchess’s mercy. Now I’ve read this author’s Kingdom of Runes series and it has so much ACOTAR vibes…well this series started giving me Maze Runner, Secondborn and Hunger Games vibes! So…I can definitely see her influences in her stories.But I think this author’s likes the love triangle thing in her series.

Caspian is nice and all and so their DNA matches or something, it will be Riser.

And then again…the love triangle or tease of one.

They both saw each other at their absolutely low point in their lives and together they change, grow, and feelings are growing.but are they real or manufactured?

I like her growing relationship with Riser.

They both get reconstructed into different looking people to go on a mission to enter the Shadow Trials. There is another boy here she meets that will be tied into her future, Riser, a Pit boy with a secretive past. Maia is living in the Pit and it’s a scary place! She’s alone, she’s dirty and hungry, she at the lowest point of her life.

This book one is gritty and I like it that way because it has really shaped Maia’s personality and her tenacity to survive.

The empire is categorized into Golds, Silvers and Bronze. But what is the key? How can it stop Pandora? Along with the mission to stop Pandora is the political conflict happening with the Emperor who has safe haven along with other wealthy people in the empire, the Golds. There is, and the key is hiding in Maia, where her father put it. Pandora is an asteroid that is coming close to Earth and will wipe out almost all of the Earth.

Love the world building in this series – sci-fi is hard for me to get into but I found this world fascinating.

With the asteroid racing closer every day, Maia must trust someone to survive.

But it’s the dark bastard prince she’s partnered with that will make her question everything, including her own heart. When an enigmatic benefactor hands Maia Graystone a spot in the Trials, she won’t just get a chance at salvation for her and her baby brother, Max: She gets to confront the mother who abandoned her in prison, the mad Emperor who murdered her father, and the Gold prince who once loved her.

But the Bronzes must fight it out at the Shadow Trials for the few remaining spots left on the space station. The Silvers will be protected underground. The Emperor and his Gold Court will be safe in their space station, watching from the stars. The asteroid hurtling toward the earth will kill billions.

Shadow Rise by Audrey Grey