Darkness Rising Books In Order

Publication Order of Darkness Rising Books

The Darkness Rising series is a wonderful trilogy series of paranormal, urban fantasy, and horror stories. It is written by a renowned Canadian writer named Kelley Armstrong. This series is a sequel to Kelley’s original successful paranormal series called the Darkest Powers series. It features three novellas in addition to the three main novels. Author Kelley Armstrong began this series in 2012 and published the final novel in 2014. She has set all the stories primarily in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. All the books of this series feature the central character in the role of Maya Delany, who is introduced as a 16-year-old girl.

Other essential characters that feature in this series include Rafael Martinez, Daniel Bianchi, Nicole Tillson, Sam Russo, Corey Carling, Hayley Morris, Annie Martinez, Serena, Chloe, Derek, and several others. The books of this series have developed a huge fan following across the world and they are known for their intriguing storylines, exciting characters, and suspenseful plots. Author Armstrong received a huge boost to her career from the success of this series as she has started working on another paranormal series with the hope that it will also be appreciated by her fans worldwide.

The debut book of the Darkest Rising series penned by Kelley Armstrong is entitled ‘The Gathering’. It was released in 2011 by the HarperTeen publication. The story opens in a small town located on Vancouver Island called Salmon Creek. Maya is introduced as a teenage girl. A year ago, Maya and her friend Serena were swimming in a nearby lake when Serena died due to drowning. She was the captain of the swim team of her high school. Maya becomes guilt-ridden for being unable to help her friend while she was drowning. A year later, when she goes to get her birthmark tattooed, she is labeled as a witch by the aunt of the tattoo artist. Later, on the occasion of Maya’s birthday celebration at Daniel’s home, Maya wins a challenge against all the boys in climbing her new rock wall.

Shortly after, Rafael Martinez shows up at the party and challenges Maya, who is invited by Maya herself. Rafael is the new bad-boy at her school. After beating Maya easily, he doesn’t kiss her as per the rules of the competition. Rather, he tells Maya that he will claim his prize when there is no one around. Thereafter, they start dating. When Maya visits Rafael’s house one day for dinner, someone attacks her. What seems more shocking to her is that she witnesses Rafael’s sister Annie transform into herself from a cougar. This is when Rafael informs her about skinwalkers. They are people having special abilities and can shift into bears of mountain lions. Also, they possess the ability of communicating with other animals and healing wounds.

And when Rafael tells Maya that she is also a skinwalker like him and his sister, she understands why she has enhanced night vision and hearing abilities. Maya also realizes that this is the reason why she is able to rehabilitate sick and injured animals. All three of them possess the same paw-shaped birthmark, which is a special mark on the bodies of skinwalkers. Rafael tells Maya everything about their species and informs her how they were brought back from extinction through an experiment. Maya learns about having a twin brother, who was separated from her at birth. She thinks that Rafael dated her only because she was a skinwalker and leaves him. But, Rafael has true feelings for her. Later, Maya returns to help Rafael in finding his sister Annie after she disappears following her transformation into a cougar.

Maya and her friends come to know about a foul play by a few people, who try to steal important information from the town’s labs by setting the forest on fire. The second installment of this series is called ‘The Calling’. It was also published by HarperTeen in 2012. This novel opens by showing that Maya is forced to run away along with her friends after knowing that the forest fire was set deliberately. They go on to get kidnapped by an unknown agency. Later, they are involved in a helicopter crash and leaves that stranded in the wilderness of Vancouver Island. With nothing but their special abilities to rely on, Maya and her extraordinarily gifted friends decide to use them to return to their homes. One thing that bothers Maya a lot is that she is showing all the symptoms of shifting and fears that she might not be able to return to her normal self if her special gift overpowers her. But, Rafael provides her the much-required moral support and tells her that he is always there to help her in any difficulty. Maya senses his true love for her and also develops feelings for him in her heart.

Kelley Armstrong is a proud Canadian writer, who likes to write young adult, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, crime, horror, and romance novels. She has written a few wonderful novel series in her career that includes the Otherworld Stories series, Cainsville series, Darkest Powers series, Otherworld series, etc. Kelley has published around 31 fantasy novels so far in her writing career. Additionally, she has published 3 fantasy books for the middle-grade under the Blackwell Pages series, which was co-authored by Melissa Marr. With the Nadia Stafford series, Kelley moved on to the crime fiction genre. Also, there are many short stories and novellas penned by her that are available on her website. Kelley Armstrong was born on December 14, 1968, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. She was the oldest among 4 siblings.

Kelley studied at the Western Ontario University and obtained a psychology degree. Then, she went on to join the Fanshawe College to study computer programming. This decision was also motivated by her plan to find time to dedicate to writing novels. Kelley Armstrong claims to have been involved in storytelling well before she started writing. Most of her earlier stories revolved around dolls and girls and produced disastrous results. At that time, her teachers tried hard to make her come up with stories that did not involve evil doss and undead girls, but they could not succeed. But today, Kelley has made a name for herself as a writer who likes to spin stories of demons, ghosts, and werewolves. She enjoys sitting alone in her basement office and working on her paranormal stories. As of today, Kelley Armstrong resides in southwest Ontario along with her loving husband, their children, and a large group of pets.