Series: Riders

Synopsis:

For eighteen-year-old Gideon Blake, nothing but death can keep him from achieving his goal of becoming a U.S. Army Ranger. As it turns out, it does.

Recovering from the accident that most definitely killed him, Gideon finds himself with strange new powers and a bizarre cuff he can't remove. His death has brought to life his real destiny. He has become War, one of the legendary four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Over the coming weeks, he and the other horsemen--Conquest, Famine, and Death--are brought together by a beautiful but frustratingly secretive girl to help save humanity from an ancient evil on the emergence.

They fail.

Now--bound, bloodied, and drugged--Gideon is interrogated by the authorities about his role in a battle that has become an international incident. If he stands any chance of saving his friends and the girl he's fallen for--not to mention all of humankind--he needs to convince the skeptical government officials the world is in imminent danger.

But will anyone believe him?

Review:

Riders was enthralling, addicting and I fell madly in love with this story.  A story where death created a journey that was filled with new-found powers and struggles at every turn. I couldn’t help falling for the main male character and his fellow horsemen.  I also adored a girl who seemed to hold all of the answers to their questions.  All of these elements together created a fabulous book that landed right on my favorites shelf!  Riders is definitely a must read!

What are you looking at, Gideon?
You.  I’m looking at you.
How am I looking?
Perfect, I should’ve said.  But I didn’t.

I loved how the story of Riders unfolded.  It was brilliant!  We started in the present, where Gideon Blake, who was just bound and gagged, was being interrogated by the people who rescued him.  And he had to recount the last six weeks of his life, from when he died and woke up with a cuff on his arm, to what lead him to this point in time now.  The present gave us clues to people and situations that Gidion faced and how he felt about them, and the past filled in his fascinating journey to join with the three other horsemen.  I happily transitioned from the past to the present with ease.  In truth, I became obsessed with both time frames!

“Special Agent Daryn Martin.  Come in please, Ms. Martin.  This is War.  Over.”
Over the drone of the engines, I couldn’t hear my message register on her radio, but she did.  I saw her digging around in her bag.  A few seconds later, her voice came through my radio.
“Yes, Gideon?”
I pressed the talk button. “You will?”
“I will what?”
“I just asked you to come over here and you said yes.”
“You didn’t ask that.”
“But you answered anyway.  Come here.”
“No.”
“You’re messing up the balance of the plane.  We’re going to fly in circles unless you come here.”
“Your ego’s weighing that side down just fine.”
I laughed. “Is that another no?”
“Affirmative.”

Not only did I love the story that was told, but the characters too.  We got to meet each of the characters, one by one, which made me become attached to each of them.  Even ones I didn’t expect to at first.  But for the horsemen, I loved how they were their own person, unique from each other.  They included a friendly boy next door whose speech was hilarious and made me laugh so many times, a quiet bad-ass who I secretly crushed on because I like the challenging and difficult ones, and a good guy who came from a privileged life whose memory was astounding.  Each of them helped round out their group.  But my favorite by far was Blake.  He could be a hothead than practical, or sarcastic one moment and heartfelt the next, ohhhh or swoon worthy and then an ass.   And those swoon worthy moments filled my stomach with butterflies!  Blake was the boy who I desperately wanted to help fix, especially getting to hear some of the thoughts in his head.  But alas we also got to meet a very secretive girl who I really can’t say that much about, other than I adored her!  Especially seeing her through Blake’s eyes!

She smiled.  With the desert glowing gold and amber all around, so much like her, it was a perfect smile.  No secrets.  No hesitation.  Like she’d laid the full measure of herself on me.
It leveled me.
I reached for her hand, which was surprising to both of us.  What was I doing?  But I was already committed so I wove my fingers through hers, keeping it smooth.  Under control.

I feel as though there is so much that I can’t say, but I have to mention that lead up to the ending.  Those perilous situations continued on longer than I thought was possible, and I loved every heart stopping moment of it!  Riders was a rich, imaginative story that I highly recommend!  And while it’s part of a dualogy, and I’m desperately waiting for that 2nd book to be released already, I am in a good holding pattern where it ended.  Well, kind of not really haha!  What I mean is that enough answers are revealed so I found some relief, but that last page has me dying to read the final book.  I can’t wait to see how Gideon’s journey ends!

*ARC kindly provided by Veronica Rossi via a Twitter Giveaway in exchange for an honest review*

PS I have to say that I am ecstatic that this story had scenes in places that are near my heart!  Some scenes were in Half Moon Bay, California which I use to visit in my teenage years and another part took place on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, CA where I went to college!  While I loved all of the locations in this book, I definitely loved those the most! ♥