Review: Rising Assets
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 9, 2014
RISING ASSETS is the second novel I've read by this author, the first being AGAINST THE WALL and unfortunately, I think it'll be my last. Colton Freeze is super-wealthy, super-good-looking, super-smart, super-great-uncle-slash-father-material, super-caring, super-perfect. He's 1/3 of the best friends forever trifecta of he, Melanie Jacoby and Hawk (full name irrelevant and forgotten), but something underlying has always been between Melanie and Colt; the town has a pool going, after all. Melanie and Colt fight their attraction because they don't want to ruin their friendship, but sex always wins and hormones can overcome reasoning (especially flimsy reasoning) any day. They hookup. The end.I realize that my issue with both this story and AGAINST THE WALL is that the writing is elementary. Things, emotions, actions were explained instead of woven into the story naturally. I remember reading the line "As a lawyer, Jake worked long hours" or something to that effect, scratching my head and thinking: "well, duh, but why is this relevant?" "As a [insert occupation], [insert person] worked long hours." Ok? The story still flowed, but no one was allowed any flaws. It reminded me of the interview question where people are supposed to transform a "weakness" into a "strength." Melanie feels inadequate because she doesn't have a degree, but as she notes it herself she's "still smart." No one--certainly not perfect Colton or even the reader--questioned Melanie's intelligence. It probably wouldn't even matter had her lack of higher education not been thrown in as a flimsy plot device of inadequacy on Melanie's part to cause friction where none existed.I understand that one of the purposes of romantic literature is escapism. I'm all for it. I thrive on reading clichés, but I need for them to be well executed. If the hero is perfect fine, but the plot needs to keep me interested. There has to be a tension somewhere whether it be his situation or the heroine's, his personality or the heroine's. The characters need some depth; instead, in this novel, they--and the secondary cast--were caricatures of human beings that do not exist. It wasn't an awful story, it just wasn't my cup-of-tea.