Cocktails and Books
Written on Feb 12, 2015
In Rise, we meet Zander, an almost 40 rock legend in the midst of a comeback and Elizabeth, a Pulitzer-prize winning history author hired to help him with his memoir. When we first meet these two, it’s hard to imagine them together. What follows is a romance between two very unlikely people, but also a story about growth on many levels. Elizabeth challenges Zander and is a subtle force that influences not only him, but the other people around him to change. In turn, Zander challenges Elizabeth’s view of herself and her priorities.
Zander is definitely the center of the story and it was fun to watch his transformation throughout the book. I loved that underneath his hard core persona was a really good guy who had been beating himself up for a long time.
My only real complaint about Rise, is the ending. It seemed that things just drifted off without any firm resolution. In reading the author’s notes at the end, I discovered that Rise is part of a series and that Zander and Elizabeth will be appearing in future books as secondary characters, so their story isn’t really over. I’ll be looking forward to future work by this author to see what is next for them and their friends.
Reviewed by Elizabeth B for Cocktails and Books