Rise

I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program. As I've often received sub-par books, I was somewhat sceptical about this book as well. Turns out I was wrong, to some extent at least.
While “Rise” does have quite a few deus-ex-machina moments (a certain rescue comes to mind), even some (more or less) glaring plot holes (what are the “apparitions” during a trial of our heroine, are some of them actually there, etc. etc.?) and some “why did she do that now?!” moments, this book was a real page-turner for me. I've lost a not-so-small number of hours of sleep over it, actually, which doesn't happen all that often.
In spite of the shortcomings I mentioned before, our heroine is likeable, smart (sometimes...) and obviously fairly powerful. Her primary adversary is written as a multi-faceted character (but still fairly shrouded in mystery at the end of the book) and due to that, a fairly interesting figure. As are several side-kicks of the heroine (yes, sorry, I've forgotten her name as neither her nor the book are ultimately that remarkable :) ) who grow (despite formulaically at times) into their respective roles mostly well.
Another gripe of mine with the book is that certain terms (e. g. “Krigers” from the title) rooted in German are used but mutilated, e. g. in German it's “Krieger” (and has been for centuries!). So if you use foreign words in an attempt to make your book more “exotic” take at least the time to do your homework and “import” those foreign words properly. (After all, we don't write “computer” as “Komputer” in German either.)
Anyway, ultimately, for any fan of the fantasy genre (who has read all the genre's classics) willing to suspend their disbelief a bit more than usual this book is recommended (with some reservations). I'm looking forward to the next instalment in this series.