Love Prevails in All Things Rise by Missouri Vaun

Hi Y’all! I’m back with a review of a great Sci-fi-lite lesbian fiction novel that’s all about relationships and connections between people. Ready? Go!

So here’s the deal!

The world, as we know it, has changed. The oceans have risen and the shorelines have been devoured. The richest cities on the Earth have taken their most elite citizens and used advanced technology to rise above what’s left of the rubble on the ground. The rich live within these Cloud Cities, kept far above the groundlings who continue to live off of the Earth any way they can. Those on the ground have now returned to the days of candlelight and farming, barter and trade in order to sustain their rustic lives.

In all of this, Ruth Coleman George, or simply, Cole, is a groundling who happens to meet Ava, a pilot from the Cloud City of Easton. Ava was stranded on the ground after a power failure downed her cruiser and left her with no way to communicate with her command tower. A medical emergency brings Cole to the cloud city, and joins her with Ava’s friend Audrey, binding all three characters with a common thread.

Real Talk

At its heart, this is a story of love. I don’t usually find myself a reader of science fiction, but since I was promised a romantic storyline, let’s face it, I’ll read just about anything that has women loving women as its theme. I found that this story was even more of a treat than I originally thought. Not only was it a tale of women in love, but it held some social commentary, some food for thought on how we as humans and sentient beings interact with each other and our planet. There were observations on class stratification, discrimination and how the things that we are taught about others sometimes could not be farther from the truth.

I wish I could talk in depth about all of my favorite parts of this novel, but it would give away too much and I really feel like this is a story that everyone should read and experience for themselves. But in a broad sense, my most favorite thing about this story was how Missouri Vaun took all of the tropes that I thought might have been overused and overdone in romantic fiction and didn’t seek to change them as much as re-explain them. Yes, there were elements of love at first sight, friends turned to lovers, etc and while these things do happen, because they have been so widely used they can feel at times unrealistic and “easy” in books. In this case, even though some of these instances occurred, what differed was the internal reasoning for each character.

What made things work within this story line was the fact that Missouri Vaun knew her characters so well. She knew what made them tick, what they had for lunch and where they liked to be kissed. She knew their favorite colors and the way she wrote about them convinced me as a reader that she sat down and had coffee meetings with these characters at least once a day, and that gave fresh insight into what would prompt their actions, their different decisions and epiphanies. Those decisions took cliches to a new, colorful, vibrant, rich level. In the vein of All Things Rise, this author took cliches and used the cliche itself to rise above it with a cleverly thought out reason that seemed specific to each particular character. And that, in my opinion, is pretty genius.

I was hooked by poignant, poetic lines and ideas like Cole’s beautiful usage of the Bible in a time when God no longer has any place in society. And let’s talk about sex… :). There were scenes of beauty, emotion and heart-rending sweetness, as well as moments of passion and fire. Simply put, this book is easy to love. Everything about it makes for a wonderful read and re-read. I was able to go on a journey with these characters, an emotional, internal journey where I was able to take a look at the fact that while society and technology can change vastly until almost nothing remains the same; there are some fundamentals that never change, like hope, the raw emotion of human nature, and the far reaching search for the person who is able to soothe the fire in our souls with the love in theirs.

I think it’s plain to see that I loved and highly recommend this book. The author is incredibly down to earth (ha! no pun intended) and personable, always ready to share her thoughts and humble appreciation of her readers and those who enjoy her work. So take some time out and dive into this straight-up awesome read, and go connect with Missouri Vaun, she really is quite amazing just as a person. You can find her here:

Website: missourivaun.com

Twitter: @MissouriVaun

Facebook: facebook.com/missourivaun

Email: Missouri.Vaun@gmail.com

And you can purchase this debut novels of hers from the ultra incredible publisher

Bold Strokes Books

or from

Amazon

Happy reading!

And as always, take a moment to review because…

Reviews are love!

Wishing you romance and whimsy

Ava~