Author: Whitney Hill
Genre: Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Benu Media
Format: e-Arc
ISBN: 978173442277
Summary: Arden Finch has claimed her place in North Carolina’s Otherside community, but not everyone is happy about it. The elves can’t allow an elemental to rule as Arbiter and they’ll stop at nothing to take Arden down.
To make matters worse, an old flame is back in town with big ambitions and bigger demands. The mundane police departments are reviewing unusual cases in light of the Reveal, adding even more problems. And with the Darkwatch after her as well, Arden must make tough choices about who—and what—she is now.
Survival will have her pushing her powers and relationships to the brink, with the gods watching for any weakness ahead of the Wild Hunt. Success will carry a price Arden never reckoned on.
Content warnings : murder, blood, and sexual content.
My Review
Narrative style: First Person | Perspective(s): Arden Finch
Once again Whitney Hill delivers a spectacular, fast paced story filled with self-discovery, heat and a whole lot of elemental magic. We are thrown head first into the aftermath of the vampires’ Reveal and Arden taking over her role as Arbiter for the Otherside. Arden is trying to figure out how to run the Otherside, battle feelings for a sexy elf (finally!) and figuring out how to get stronger to face the Wild Hunt from the gods.
Things have gotten chaotic in the Triangle since the Reveal of the vampires in Book 3 and humans (or mundanes) are pretty divided. Of course, some are very much ready to start staking through their hearts and others are very excited. Note: I would be in the very excited group. This Reveal, however, has led to a whole new slew of problems. A lot of Arden’s special cases that she’d taken as part of her PI business are now under review, humans are protesting everywhere and the elves have decided that they want nothing to do with this or Arden. It looks like she’s become number one on their hit list with Troy not far behind.
Luckily, Arden has some new supporters. Thanks to discovering that her father was of the elven House Solari and her mother a djinn, she has more power than she thought. The Ebon Rebellion, a group of elves that support elementals, makes itself known to them when Arden is interrogated by a detective in connection to Torsten’s death. Troy swears himself to her and her house and together they destroy lab samples in Verve (remember that biotech company Arden was hired to find security risks for in book 1!). And that’s really when shit hits the fan. Teams of elves start to attack them both with the intent of killing or capturing and inciting more violent riots.
One thing leads to another and Arden gets captured by a few elves posing as federal agents. Of course, the fun doesn’t stop there. A god pulls her into the Crossroads, her cousin djinni Duke reappears to help (for a price), Roman is back with his own agenda (ugh) and she needs to plan a second Reveal. There is a lot going on in Book 4 and it isn’t stopping any time soon.
I’m not going to give anything away, but there is a lot of bloodshed in this one. Violence abounds in Arden’s world, and while she says she’s not a killer, death sure does follow her around. We also finally FINALLY get Arden admitting her growing feelings for Troy. I have been waiting for this since Book 1. There are some hints, side long glances and healing on Arden’s part before we get there, but oh boy, that heat! Trust me, you’ll love it.
I can’t love everything, but it’s not because of how it was written (Whitney did a fantastic job), it’s because it was so life-like. Roman is a bastard. A manipulative one and he is trying to string Arden along and use their past to get what he wants. I hated every scene he was in. Whitney does a great job portraying this toxicity and Arden’s honest to goodness reactions and processing through it. My only other thing was that it felt like the first couple chapters were a little slow. There wasn’t much action, but that was rectified in the last half when things exploded all over the place.
All in all, Whitney has created an immersive world with her Otherside series and Ebon Rebellion is no exception. So much is happening and is going to keep happening here. Arden has grown so much since Book 1 and is certainly rising to the challenge of the gods’ Wild Hunt. I can’t wait to see what happens in Book 5, review on that coming soon!
You can find Whitney’s books in paperback or e-book from their website as well as Amazon. She’s also on social media as write_wherever.
