Genre: Young Adult (Paranormal Romance)
Date Published: July 16, 2018
Publisher: Aletha Press
Cheyenne Lane never believed it could come to this—imprisoned by her own family, who are plotting to overthrow the Vampire Council. Ripped away from the happiness of her summer romance and friendship in New Orleans, Cheyenne is forced to begin her education at Clandestine, the secret Deuxsang University, one year early.
She is guarded constantly, separated from her best friend Anne, and desperate for any word from Eli and the witches. Meanwhile, her cousin Lilith has discovered that Cheyenne possesses all four vampiric abilities—unheard of for a Deuxsang—and intends to use her in the Ascending’s rebellious scheme.
At 17, Cheyenne finds herself the center of a centuries-old conspiracy involving the vampires, Deuxsang, and witches, and everyone is telling her who she should trust and what she should do. Her head is too full of voices and opinions, and it’s time for Cheyenne to make up her own mind.
Is she ready to step into the role she was made for? Who can she trust? Who is her friend and who is her enemy? Is she really a born leader? All questions that only she can answer. As the information and scenario gets more confusing, she knows she must listen to her intuition if she is going to shift the truth from all the lies.
Clandestine is the second book in the Ascension series by Hannah Rials, and it takes off right where the first one ended. I really wish I'd had the time to read the first one again before jumping into this one, because it's been over a year since I read that one, and I feel like I forgot some of the details. I needed a refresher. If you can, I highly recommend reading these books one after the other. As for the book itself, I love this whole world the author has created. It can be dark and deadly, but there are moments of lightheartedness too. The characters are well built, and I'm still absolutely loving Charlotte. She just seems so real and believable. This is not a typical vampire(and witch) story. There is so much more to it, and once again, it pulled me in completely.
Prisoners. Me. Anne. We’re actually prisoners. Held captive by our own families. For our own good? My brain’s still having a hard time processing all this insanity, and we’ve been trapped in here for a week now. No word from Eli or Mason, or even my parents, who apparently support this. I keep asking myself how they can let this happen, how no one is speaking up against this, and I can’t come up with a good answer. This is all ridiculous, even for my parents, who I can’t begin to understand. To let their psychotic niece imprison their youngest daughter in order to “fix her” based off some insane plan to overthrow the vampires?
Everyone’s completely lost their minds.
Are they so desperate for me to be normal that it’s come to this? I glance at Anne sitting at her desk.
She hasn’t really spoken much since we have expended all of our escape possibilities. We’ve failed so many times, but not for lack of trying. Thomas is just too paranoid and thinks too far ahead. Deuxsang are highly discouraged from practicing our abilities on our own kind, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I tried compelling our guards—and I somehow succeeded without any training whatsoever— but we didn’t even make it to the stairs before Thomas stopped us.
Anne tried dreamwalking, searching for Mason or Eli or anyone, but we learned that it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. You just think of someone, see their dream, and slip right in, right? Wrong.
Anne got shoved out of so many dreams, and she couldn’t even find Mason. She ended up with a migraine that made her throw up all over the place for a couple days. I really didn’t want to try inflicting, but seeing Anne so sick, paired with my own desperation, made me get over it.
Plus, it was kind of fun to see the guards weak.
That was the closest we came to being free. I had all of our guards crying out on their knees, wishing for release. I made myself sick to my stomach. I had my hand on the front door, when all of a sudden, we were both knocked to the ground. My eyes went black when my head cracked against the cold tile of the Lacroix’s foyer. We didn’t even see who hauled us back upstairs and locked us in our impassable tower. Ever since then, Anne hasn’t said much to me.
It’s been three days, and I’m going mad. I’m normally the one telling her to shut up, but now I can barely get a syllable out of her. It’s like she’s broken. And I get it, I guess. This is all falls back on me. My cousin is the one with the insane, suicidal plan; my family is the one keeping us here. I’m the one they need to “fix.” My boyfriend…ex-boyfriend…is the one who got himself kidnapped. If it weren’t for being friends with me, she’d be cuddled up in some jazz club, listening to Monde Musique and staring all moon-eyed at Mason. Life would be normal.
Well, as normal as a rule-breaking Deuxsang can get.
And now she knows the truth about her brother— that he was different, like me, and the Council took him for it. Now he’s probably dead. Her parents let it happen, but what’s worse, they lied to her about it. How could they do that to her? How could anyone do that? I saw a piece of her break when her mom finally told her the truth. She can’t look at either of her parents now. Again, that’s my fault.
Everyone’s completely lost their minds.
Are they so desperate for me to be normal that it’s come to this? I glance at Anne sitting at her desk.
She hasn’t really spoken much since we have expended all of our escape possibilities. We’ve failed so many times, but not for lack of trying. Thomas is just too paranoid and thinks too far ahead. Deuxsang are highly discouraged from practicing our abilities on our own kind, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I tried compelling our guards—and I somehow succeeded without any training whatsoever— but we didn’t even make it to the stairs before Thomas stopped us.
Anne tried dreamwalking, searching for Mason or Eli or anyone, but we learned that it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. You just think of someone, see their dream, and slip right in, right? Wrong.
Anne got shoved out of so many dreams, and she couldn’t even find Mason. She ended up with a migraine that made her throw up all over the place for a couple days. I really didn’t want to try inflicting, but seeing Anne so sick, paired with my own desperation, made me get over it.
Plus, it was kind of fun to see the guards weak.
That was the closest we came to being free. I had all of our guards crying out on their knees, wishing for release. I made myself sick to my stomach. I had my hand on the front door, when all of a sudden, we were both knocked to the ground. My eyes went black when my head cracked against the cold tile of the Lacroix’s foyer. We didn’t even see who hauled us back upstairs and locked us in our impassable tower. Ever since then, Anne hasn’t said much to me.
It’s been three days, and I’m going mad. I’m normally the one telling her to shut up, but now I can barely get a syllable out of her. It’s like she’s broken. And I get it, I guess. This is all falls back on me. My cousin is the one with the insane, suicidal plan; my family is the one keeping us here. I’m the one they need to “fix.” My boyfriend…ex-boyfriend…is the one who got himself kidnapped. If it weren’t for being friends with me, she’d be cuddled up in some jazz club, listening to Monde Musique and staring all moon-eyed at Mason. Life would be normal.
Well, as normal as a rule-breaking Deuxsang can get.
And now she knows the truth about her brother— that he was different, like me, and the Council took him for it. Now he’s probably dead. Her parents let it happen, but what’s worse, they lied to her about it. How could they do that to her? How could anyone do that? I saw a piece of her break when her mom finally told her the truth. She can’t look at either of her parents now. Again, that’s my fault.
Have you read the first book? Check out my review!
As Maryville native and current college student at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Hannah Rials began writing her first novel at age twelve. Eight years later, the result is her newly published YA novel Ascension; a modern day teenage romance filled with "double-blooded" vampires and revenge-seeking witches.
Published by Aletha Press of Maryville, TN, Ascension is Rial’s first novel. When not attending college and spending time with her family, Rials keeps busy by playing with her beloved Corgis, Buddy and Noel, leading a creative writing group at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and cultivating her writing skills.
“I feel like I am living proof that dreams do come true.”- Hannah Rials
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