Review of The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

Title/Author: The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies #3) by Pittacus Lore
Publisher/Date published: HarperCollins, August 21st 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads summary: Until the day I met John Smith, Number Four, I'd been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive.

Together, we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate to find the others...

I went to Spain to find Seven, and I found even more, including a tenth member of the Garde who escaped from Lorien alive. Ella is younger than the rest of us, but just as brave. Now we're looking for the others - including John.

But so are they.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They caught me in New York - but I escaped.
I am Number Six.
They want to finish what they started.
But they'll have to fight us first."

**WARNING: SPOILERS LIKELY FOR BOOK 1 AND 2**

As actionpacked as The Rise of Nine was, it wasn't by any means a 'quick' read for me. I'm not sure why I've been struggling with this one and The Power of Six, cause the series does have a lot of the things in it I usually enjoy. There are just some things that annoy me as well.

I like that we're slowly getting to know all the 'numbers', I just felt that we don't really get to know the new additions, it felt superficial. Other than the fact that they're Loric, I don't know what drives them and that bugs me. I didn't really like Nine, Eight however would probably have stolen my heart if I'd gotten to know him better. He's a VERY promising character and I love the little budding crush he and Marina have going on.

To me, Six lost some of her kick-ass-ness. She really owned The Power of Six, but in The Rise of Nine, she's lost some of her spark. I still love her, but slightly less than I did in The Power of Six.
John was being a bit whiny and I strongly dislike his tendency to just go for the girl he's with and switch his affection between Six and Sarah. It's annoying and since I'm firmly Team Six, I'm not liking this one bit. And seriously, I'm still waiting to hear a GOOD explanation for Sarah turning them over to the FBI at the end of The Power of Six, cause I'm not satisfied with "But I didn't do it".

I was hoping we'd find out more about the big bad guy, but while he does appear, he's still shrouded in mystery. And he's CHEATING. I know if it'd be my life or cheating, I'd cheat, but I don't like it when the villains do it.

I think this book suffers from it being the build up to the no doubt EPIC BATTLE that will go down sometime soon. At least I hope it'll be sometime soon. I do still like the general storyline, but I just wish we'd get more information about their background and abilities and the the villain and get to know the new characters a little better. Maybe the fourth book will solve all this!

My rating: 3 stars