Title:
Rising Calm
Author:
Haley Fisher
Genre:
Young Adult Fantasy
Release Date:
February 14th
Goodreads
Book Description:
On Cara Weaver’s first day at her new high school—merely the next in a long line of new schools—she meets two senior boys: James Sable and Crispin Calaway. They’re new too; they’ve been at the school just longer than she has, and they’ve never made an effort to reach out to anyone. Until she comes. When her friends find out, they’re awed. But Cara can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to James and Crispin than the two are telling.
As the days go on, everything at her new home seems to be going better than it has in any of the previous cities she’s lived in. She loves her friends, gets a job at a bookstore, and even starts to spend more time with Crispin and James. She’s happy. But all that begins to change when she comes to realize that the two boys she’s becoming close to are hiding something. It’s then that she knows her unexplainable wariness of them has been justified all along. But she keeps it a secret.
Days later, when a stranger accosts her outside a small shopping center, Crispin and James arrive just in time to help her. But they seem know the attacker. And instead of running him off, Crispin and James take Cara away, for her own protection.
With little explanation, Cara is told that she’s important and that she can’t go home until the boys have sorted some things out. In the meantime, Cara’s world is being turned upside down as she finds out that there is more to her life than she possibly imagined.
My Review:
Rating: 3 0ut of 5
After the first couple of chapters, it did seem a little Twilightesque. Heroine walks into school on the first day and immediately she gets the sullen guy talking. Eh? All of the boys seemed to like her straight away. They must all have been in on some secret. All of the friends Cara made thought she was the BOMB. Getting friends back together, and talking to the most HOT boys in school.
I must admit that, I enjoyed the first part of the book more than the second. By the time they were in Lyria, things got cliché and sometimes didn’t quite add up.
Page 209 – James and Crispin have just had a mini battle, blood, guts, the lot, about five minutes ago. Now they’re rolling down hills and jumping through rivers.
They had been in Lyria for about five hours before Cara realised that she had left her little sister with no one at home. I thought that was strange because in the first half of the book, Cara had a very strong relationship with her sister and she was always first in her mind. Okay, granted, Cara had just been transported into a totally different world to the one she grew up on but, ‘Sisters before other worlds…’
Moving swiftly on.
At the beginning of this book, I was sure that Crispin and Cara were going to get together…I won’t tell you want happened, you’ll just have to read the book! Although,
I agree with James, Cara was overly dramatic.
The action took a while to get going. There was a lot of talk about the opposing clan and meetings about if they could trust Cara, which weren’t that interesting, but they never actually fought. (Agreed there was action but had the potential to be more.)
Overall:
Rising Calm contained a dash of Harry Potter with a smidge of Narnia. It was a very enjoyable read, even though I did have some issues with it. I hope that the second book is better (In my opinion!) because these book have so much potential 🙂
~Giveaway~
Five Copies of Rising Calm to win.
US/Canada have choice of ebook or paprerback. International winners will recieve an ebook.
a Rafflecoptor Giveaway
~Author Interview~
Love this interview 🙂
1- What inspired you to write Rising Calm?
Reading. I have always been an avid reader, and as I got into middle school and high school, as I read more, more stories started to form in my head. It could have been a quote or a scene or a character I read about, but I would find that when something happened I would start thinking, “What if this happened instead?” From there came a bunch of vague ideas about story possibilities, and one day when I decided I actually wanted to start writing one of those ideas, actually shaping it into something more, a bunch of the ideas and characters and thoughts all came together into Rising Calm. No one thing inspired me to write it; just my love of reading and hearing and telling stories.
2- How often do you write?
Less often than I should! I try to do at least a little bit of writing every day, whether it’s tweaking already-written scenes to flow better, adding on to some chapter I haven’t yet finished, or furiously typing out an entirely new scene. Some days I have less time than others, and some days I’m less inspired, but I try to write something for about an hour every day.
3- Have you always enjoyed writing?
I’ve always been good at writing. I’ve liked writing stories as far back as fifth grade, and I’ve never had any trouble with essays and school work. But I never really considered how much I liked writing for fun until I was in high school. It always came pretty naturally, but suddenly it was something I found myself doing more and more. Even though I wasn’t always sure I could be a writer, I never found myself wishing I was doing anything other than writing.
4- Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what?
Of course! I listen to music all the time: cooking, cleaning, doing homework, working, and writing. But my musical tastes are all over the charts. I generally listen to indie/alternative rock types. Snow Patrol, The Script, Keane, fun. But a lot of what I’m listening to while I’m writing has to do with what scene I’m writing at the moment. Sometimes I’ll just hit a playlist on my iPod and let it run, but when I sit down with the intent of getting a certain scene right, the songs I choose change. “The Lightning Strike” by Snow Patrol is my favorite for intense/battle-type scenes because of the feeling I think it invokes. “Too Close” by Alex Clare when two characters who should aren’t getting along. “Eyes Wide Open” by Gotye when someone is feeling lost. “Demons” by Guster when a character is angry with themselves. “All the Same” by Sick Puppies when characters are determined to fix something that fell apart. Throw in some Celine Dion and for King and County for emotional scenes… I could go on and on and on.
5- How long did it take to write Rising Calm?
The first time I remember consciously making the decision to write was the summer before my senior year of high school. I’m a sophomore in college now. But all I did then was decide I really liked the story idea, and I had this ancient bulky laptop that I could type on. So I remember jotting down a couple notes and maybe a scene and just shaping the idea further. But I didn’t really start writing it until the next summer, when it became something I just couldn’t get off my mind. It started coming a little more together, until my freshman year of college started and suddenly I knew it wasn’t a story anymore, it was a book, and I had to keep writing. I had it finished by spring. So maybe about a year and a half was spent truly writing it?
6- What kind of books do you like to read?
I think I will forever be on a young adult kick. Since at least middle school, YA fiction and fantasy have been my go-to books. And they still are, especially now that the genre has really taken off. I do enjoy branching from that a little though—it can be refreshing. So some paranormal romance, too, a couple sci-fi books here and there, adult fiction. But I always come back to young adult fantasy, and now especially dystopian.
7- If Rising Calm was made into a film, who would you cast as the main characters?
This is a brilliant question, because I’m one of those fans who can never decide if they’re thrilled or horrified about books I love being turned into films. I expect Hollywood to be perfect if they’re going to dare undertake a story I love, and I keep up with casting almost religiously when I know they’re taking on a book I’ve read. I always like to think I could do it better, even though I know that’s probably not true. That being said, I put some thought into this question. And, based on looks and what I’ve seen of their acting, here’s what I think for my characters:
– With short brown hair, I think Chloë Grace Moretz could be an amazing Cara Weaver.
– Jake Abel for Crispin Calaway.
– And Gaspard Ulliel (though he’d probably have to be younger…) for James Sable.
8- Do you have any other exciting projects coming up?
Well right now my main project is Gathering Clouds, the second book in the Rising Calm series. I doubt I’ll have anything else out before that. But I’ve recently been working quite a bit on an idea for a dystopian book, and I’ve also been playing with the idea of a few shorts to go along with the Rising Calm series from different characters’ points of view. Personally, I’m excited about both of those!
9- Do you have any advice for aspiring authors out there?
My biggest piece of advice would be that I’m a twenty-year-old in Kansas. I have work and school and volunteering and homework and hobbies and a social life, and before all this I had pretty much no idea what I was doing. I’m still there, actually. So if I can do this, you can too. It’s huge and daunting and scary to let so many people into something that’s personal, even if you’re story isn’t directly about you. I haven’t encountered anything that’s much more intimidating than the writing and publishing industry. But I’m right where most aspiring authors are. I’ve been there. And I know I’m not the only good, story-telling hopeful out there. So keep writing, have other people read and edit, take advice, but more importantly, write something you love and that you’d want to read.
10- Would you like to say anything to your readers?
I have readers!! That’s the mindset I’m in right now! Mostly, I want to thank you all. I know that picking up a book by an unknown author is never too high on people’s list of things to do, because your favorite authors are probably churning out books faster than you can keep up (I’m with you there!). So thank you for being willing to pick up my book out of all the books out there, and thank you for reading it. I hope you enjoy it enough to read the rest!
About Author and LINKS:
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter
I’m Haley Fisher, a college student in Kansas, and I’ve just signed a contract with a company called Silver Tongue Press to publish my first book!
For as long as I can remember I’ve been an avid reader and an aspiring writer, but the step toward actually getting a book published is an enormous one for me. This is a big deal. And, as I’ve been told, the next step to being successful is getting the word out that my book exists.
So, though it’s not in print yet—it’s coming out February 14th—I’d love for people to keep an eye out for Rising Calm. It’ll be the first in a series of books about a young girl who finds out her life and her fate are far bigger than she ever realized. At the risk of giving too much away, the most I can tell you for now is that there is magic, prophecy, new worlds, and a cast of characters who I love to write.
I’ll keep this updated as Rising Calm gets farther and farther along on the path to being published. Until then, I don’t have much else to say but thanks for reading!
This Book Tour was organised by VBT Cafe’ Blog. Follow her on Twitter – @VBTCafe
Follow the Tour Here
My Links:
Goodreads – ReadingToTheStarsAndBack 
Twitter – @StarNobleWrites
Thanks for reading!
STAR xx
ReadingToTheStarsAndBack 