As an author, Kresley Cole publishes mainly adult novels. Though, that did not stop her from going out of her comfort zone and foraying into young adult novels. Going out of your area of expertise may sound intimidating, but Cole has published her debut YA series, The Arcana Chronicles, like there is no difference between the old and the new.

The series is about twenty-two teenagers, who represent tarot cards (the Major Arcana of the deck), while playing a game that involves fighting to the death in an apocalyptic event that ended Earth in order to gain immortality. The game is played every couple of centuries, and the cards that die get reincarnated. One of the many perspectives of the series is Evie’s, the Empress card and the main character.

In past games, the Empress card has dominated with ruthlessness that even Evie is scared of, considering that was a past version of herself. Each of the twenty-two cards receive their own special power relating to their card. Evie’s powers consist of being able to control all plant life, along with being poisonous. This time around, Evie is ignorant about anything concerning the game, and doesn’t want to kill other people. The problem is, Evie is one of the most powerful cards, and is the one most people want to kill. She has to make and break many alliances in order to her and the people she cares about alive.

In the most recent installation of the series, Arcana Rising, Evie faces the world like she never has before. After witnessing many people, she cares about die, and almost dying herself, Evie faces the apocalyptic world alone for the first time. She tries to venture back to the place she last seen her allies, but faces many obstacles, new and old.

At the end of each novel in the series, Cole has expertly written cliffhangers for the four books. Though, the cliffhangers had become repetitive, Cole took a change from the ordinary in the fourth book and wrote a cliffhanger that was different from the others in the series.

Also, Cole changed the story from being in just one perspective. Though told mostly from Evie’s, Cole changes to other cards perspective every few chapters. It may be hard to keep all the information straight from multiple perspectives, but Cole keeps each character’s own personal story straight while also keeping the storyline consistent. She also keeps each perspective relatable to the card at hand. For example, when told from the perspective of the Fool Card, who is often confused from his psychic abilities, the monologue in the chapter is jumbled and sometimes incomprehensible. Also, the fool is often known to keep secrets from Evie, so most of his monologue is supposedly redacted by the fool to keep some information secret.

Arcana Rising is also the first time Cole has introduced an unreliable narrator into the story. After witnessing the many deaths of her allies, Evie wonders around with blinders on trying to make sense of what has happening and what is happening. After three novels of readers being able to rely on Evie, Cole plays with the audience’s emotions by making Evie unreliable. It is not until the end of the novel that the reader finds some events that were told were not exactly what happened or did not happen at all.

As a whole, the series is a captivating and unique spin on the old tradition of tarot cards. Cole does an astounding job publishing her only young adult series, The Arcana Chronicles.