Review: Rise Above
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2014
***Received from Entangled Publishing for an honest review***Reece and Ambrosia are as different as night and day--he's a phoenix, she's a human--yet they share one commonality throughout their story: the need to rise above their circumstances to accept a destiny they are meant to have.This story, admittedly, was slow at the beginning and it often felt like most of the narrative was unnecessary. Reading through it again and again though, I've come to appreciate the slow pace. There was a lot of groundwork that needed to be laid before the story could pick up pace and move even a little bit faster. The explanations and character insights at the beginning proved to be incredibly helpful as I watched Reece and Ambrosia grow as individuals and as a couple.They were together for the sake of their unborn child, and it seemed plainly obvious that was the only reason they were together. But the changes they made, reluctant or not, throughout the story paved the way for mutual respect and feelings that went deeper than like.Ms. Gilman wrote an intriguing romance of a creature I rarely hear about outside of comic books and pure fantasy. Pairing the phoenix with a human woman who didn't fall over her feet for him was brilliant. The end result was a well-thought out love story that has earned its place of honor on my "Keep" bookshelf.