What would you sacrifice to save your family? And what if it still wasn’t enough?
The Renees are no strangers to hardship. Three sisters and their diabetic mother have spent years barely scraping by, trapped in a web of sickness, fear, and unspoken secrets. But when their estranged father—an ex-con with a dangerous shadow—reappears, the fragile world they've clung to begins to crumble.
Regina is the mother, once a force of strength, now just trying to keep the family afloat.
Zara is the youngest, baking late at night to drown out her demons but never finishing a recipe.
Desiree, the middle child, hides her pain behind high-end shoplifting sprees.
Janelle, the eldest, escapes into a fantasy world of pregnancies that only exist in her mind.
And then there’s Maxy, their quirky, Broadway-reject caretaker, a dreamer with secrets of his own.
When the chance to start over finally arrives, it seems like salvation—but the truth about their father threatens to turn their new beginning into their darkest chapter yet. To survive, the Renees must place their trust in unlikely allies, including the relative Regina never speaks of and Maxy, who might lose everything helping them.
As buried truths resurface and danger closes in, the Renees must decide: Do they cling to their broken past, or risk everything for a new future?
Raw at times but ultimately hopeful, The Art of Rising is a gripping, deeply human exploration of the power of love and the courage it takes to start over. For fans of Brit Bennett and Celeste Ng, this unforgettable novel will leave you wondering:
How far would you go to heal what seems unfixable?
Genre: Mystery
The Renees are no strangers to hardship. Three sisters and their diabetic mother have spent years barely scraping by, trapped in a web of sickness, fear, and unspoken secrets. But when their estranged father—an ex-con with a dangerous shadow—reappears, the fragile world they've clung to begins to crumble.
Regina is the mother, once a force of strength, now just trying to keep the family afloat.
Zara is the youngest, baking late at night to drown out her demons but never finishing a recipe.
Desiree, the middle child, hides her pain behind high-end shoplifting sprees.
Janelle, the eldest, escapes into a fantasy world of pregnancies that only exist in her mind.
And then there’s Maxy, their quirky, Broadway-reject caretaker, a dreamer with secrets of his own.
When the chance to start over finally arrives, it seems like salvation—but the truth about their father threatens to turn their new beginning into their darkest chapter yet. To survive, the Renees must place their trust in unlikely allies, including the relative Regina never speaks of and Maxy, who might lose everything helping them.
As buried truths resurface and danger closes in, the Renees must decide: Do they cling to their broken past, or risk everything for a new future?
Raw at times but ultimately hopeful, The Art of Rising is a gripping, deeply human exploration of the power of love and the courage it takes to start over. For fans of Brit Bennett and Celeste Ng, this unforgettable novel will leave you wondering:
How far would you go to heal what seems unfixable?
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Matthew Balleza's The Art of Rising