Title: Rise and Divine
Author: Lana Harper
Release Date: Aug. 20 2024
Format: Paperback
Where to Buy: Amazon | Bookshop
My Rating: 3/5
Synopsis
Even in a family of chaotic necromancers, Daria “Dasha” Avramov has always been an outlier. An event planner at the Arcane Emporium occult megastore, Dasha is also a devil eater: a rare necromantic witch with a natural affinity for banishing demons and traversing the veil, the filmy boundary between our world and the next.
Still grieving the loss of both beloved parents years ago, and plagued by a dangerous obsession with what lies beyond the other side of the veil, Dasha is both fiery and guarded, an expert at dodging commitment. Her one real regret is a devastating breakup with the wise, empathetic, and deeply sensual Ivy Thorn, her Honeycake Orchards event-planning counterpart and probably the love of Dasha’s life. But Dasha has managed to break Ivy’s heart not once, but twice, so things are more than a little tense between the two of them.
When they are forced to work together to plan the Cavalcade—a month-long festival celebrating Thistle Grove’s ceremonial founding, with dazzling spectacles held by the town’s four magical families—Dasha hopes that the third time might be the charm, while Ivy staunchly refuses to let herself be hurt again. As they confront the fault lines and passion lingering between them, Dasha and Ivy must also stand against an otherworldly threat unlike anything Thistle Grove has faced before.
My Review
This book brings us back to Thistle Grove for the fifth and final time. I was really looking forward to digging into Ivy’s story. She was introduced in In Charm’s Way, as Delilah Harlow’s best friend. We also (very briefly) meet Dasha. We learn that there is some history there but we don’t know the full story until Rise and Divine.
I’ll be perfectly honest, I struggled a bit with this entry in the series. I loved Dasha, but was actually a bit annoyed by Ivy. Of course, as with many second chance love stories, the first chance was ruined by misunderstandings. I think the reason that I was annoyed with Ivy was that it felt like some of the misunderstanding on her part was willful. Dasha had been through a lot and in a community as small as Thistle Grove it seemed weird that Ivy wasn’t aware. As such I struggled to get completely invested in their relationship.
Harper did a really great job of setting up a final mystery for Thistle Grove. I was a bit in awe of how well she tied up lingering questions I had about the goddess in the lake that was introduced in Back In A Spell. More than that, she leaned deep into connecting the families and their historic ties to witches of the past.
I have talked about how much I love the setting of the Witches of Thistle Grove series before (here and here). I stand by that. I would move to Thistle Grove tomorrow if given the chance. Lana Harper created the coziest little town that I think every girl who likes witchy vibes would kill to live in. I also really love that the books are written to be very inclusive. The characters are often in the lgbtq+ community. There is also racial and ethnic diversity. I’m always happy to find a diverse romcom universe.
