Review: RISING by Jessica Ruben

As the bus approaches my stop on the Lower East Side, I raise the hood of my black sweatshirt. Anonymity is key in my neighborhood—particularly as a lone female walking at night.

All I want is to leave my crime-ridden shadow of a home in New York City. I’ve done everything I can to keep my head down and focus on my studies. College is my only goal; love has never been on the map…
That is, until my sister brings me to an underground fight, where I meet a gorgeous and mysterious man: Vincent.

He is the ghost in my shadows, showing up to feed me pieces of his upper-crust life, then evaporating into darkness until his next visit. I’m falling hard and fast. How can I trust him amidst the depth of his secrets?

Vincent may be even more dangerous than the dark world I’m trying to escape.

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MY REVIEW

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eve was a bookworm living in the ghetto. She was naive and oblivious while being surrounded by gang bangers, drug dealers and addicts. Miraculously, or not, she was surviving, but just barely. She just needed to get through her last year of high school and she’d finally be able to escape her circumstances. One fateful night, she meets Vincent ‘The Bull’ and that was all she wrote. Once their eyes connect, she becomes obsessed. It was clear to everyone else but her that there was more to this guy than appearances, despite how incredibly delicious he looked, but she was immediately feeling him. Not to be distracted from her goals, she couldn’t help but look forward to every scrap of time Vincent was willing to send her way. Eventually, his secret life puts distance between them and pretty soon she’s preparing to move on and forward. College, here she comes!

I found it really hard to get through this book. It was a bit boring and I couldn’t connect with the characters. Eve wasn’t able to give me depth about herself, much less anyone else. Everyone came across one-dimensional, which made it hard to care what happened to them either way. The bits and pieces of drama thrown in did spice things up a bit, but it didn’t help to drive home the point of this story for me. I still don’t know if this was a romance or a coming of age story about Eve. I know who Vincent is supposed to be and what he is supposed to mean to her, but that’s more through my own common sense than what was given to me by this book.

Since book two is out, I’m going to try it. I’m hoping to get Vincent’s POV and I’m hoping that Eve seems a bit more sensible in it. I’m looking for meat to the story and more than a glimpse of a true bond between the characters. I want to believe in their love! Fingers crossed...

Release: 05.01.2018 | Genre: Contemporary New Adult Romance | Heroine POV - 1st person | Heat: 2.5 | Part of a series: Vincent and Eve #1