Review: Arise

Arise (Hereafter #2)
by Tara Hudson
Published June 5th 2012
by Harper Collins

Summary from Goodreads:

Amelia—still caught between life and death—must fight for every moment of her relationship with the human boy Joshua. They can hardly even kiss without Amelia accidentally dematerializing. Looking for answers, they go to visit some of Joshua’s Seer relatives in New Orleans. But even in a city so famously steeped in the supernatural, Amelia ends up with more questions than answers…and becomes increasingly convinced that she and Joshua can never have a future together.Wandering through the French Quarter, Amelia meets other in-between ghosts, and begins to seriously consider joining them. And then she meets Gabrielle. Somehow, against impossible odds, Gaby has found a way to live a sort of half-life...a half-life for which Amelia would pay any price. Torn between two worlds, Amelia must choose carefully, before the evil spirits of the netherworld choose for her.

Thoughts:
Let me be honest, I did quite enjoyed the first book and was really expecting for it's sequel but when I finally got around to read this, I even asked myself why did I started reading the series in the first place. It was painstakingly slow and nothing much happens. Amelia is still dead and is still clinging to the living Joshua. Magically, they can touch each other so conveniently as teenagers they make out- a lot despite the fact that demons from the netherworld are inching closer to capturing Amelia because of her unique gift.

I was hoping for some kind of closure or maybe a little reveal of how Amelia came to be. Something about the cause of her death or how she can have such weird existence complete with glowing/burning powers that can repel the other demons but instead we are introduced to a new set of characters in New Orleans because Amelia decided to hitch a ride with Joshua and his family who is spending their holidays there.

In New Orleans, Amelia meet other ghostly friends. Some nice and some not so nice. And with the help of one of her new ghostly friend who is quite adept in vodoo, Amelia can now appear as a corporeal being instead of a semi-translucent floating one but with a price of course.

Overall, I must say that the second book is not to my liking. Let's just hope the third book pick up the pace a bit or else I might just lose interest in the series altogether.

Verdict: 2 stars.
Available on: Amazon