Falling Fast is a second chance romance and I have to say up front I normally don’t like second chance stories. So you may assume going forward that I began this book with some bias. Ultimately, I don’t think that effected my rating as much as the actual story and the pace of the plot.
The premise of the book is that Mia and Raleigh had some epic romance when they were teenagers (another issue of which I am automatically skeptical). Prior to the teen love, Mia had spent years battling cancer. She meets Raleigh when the cancer is in remission and she is spending the summer with her grandmother. The teen portion of the romance concludes in a car accident that leaves Mia…disfigured. Mia leaves town and doesn’t return until 7 years later. Raleigh has been agonizing over his role in the car accident but has never recovered from his feelings for Mia.
Ok, so the premise is interesting and kind of ok. The problem is that….ok well there was more than one problem. The first problem is that the story of Mia and Raleigh’s teen romance is related to us by the narrator but not via the actual events. We are just told what happened. So the readers don’t experience the intense connection Mia and Raleigh had, you just read a line that says “Mia and Raleigh had an intense connection.” I don’t know if that is an actual line in the book but you get my point. The next issue is the conflict level in the book. To keep a plot moving forward authors need major conflict and sub-conflicts that make turning the pages enjoyable. There just wasn’t enough conflict in this book for that. I thought the big issue was going to be whether Mia would forgive Raleigh for the role he played in her car accident but nope. That issue is resolved pretty early on in the book so then there just isn’t much there. I think the author was trying to develop conflict over the issue of Raleigh accepting Mia’s forgiveness and forgiving himself but it just didn’t work for me because it went on too long.
Let me throw in a couple of good notes, the characters in this book are well developed. There is a lot of time spent on describing Mia and Raleigh and their present day connection. Do NOT read this book if you are looking for sexual content, just don’t do that to yourself. But if you like a lot of story, this might be ok for you. The writing of this book is also pretty decent. It can verge on being bit melodramatic because I just don’t know if a man of Raleigh’s description would say some of the things he says but it might work for you sappy readers out there.
If you are going to read this book you just need to be aware that the plot moves turtle slow. Don’t read it if you’re sleepy or like, medicated because you might find yourself losing consciousness. If you can hang in through the really slow parts there is some drama near the end of the book that gives it kind of an extra spark. It came too late to really pull me back into the story but it is there. In case you’re wondering Falling Fast is a standalone, you don’t need to read anything else before or after this one. The story is told in third person dual POV.
P.S. The blurb about this book says that it is perfect for fans of Jasinda Wilder and Colleen Hoover. I have no clue where that reference comes from. I’ve read books by both of those authors and this book did not remind me of either of them.
**ARC provided by Publisher**
The premise of the book is that Mia and Raleigh had some epic romance when they were teenagers (another issue of which I am automatically skeptical). Prior to the teen love, Mia had spent years battling cancer. She meets Raleigh when the cancer is in remission and she is spending the summer with her grandmother. The teen portion of the romance concludes in a car accident that leaves Mia…disfigured. Mia leaves town and doesn’t return until 7 years later. Raleigh has been agonizing over his role in the car accident but has never recovered from his feelings for Mia.
Ok, so the premise is interesting and kind of ok. The problem is that….ok well there was more than one problem. The first problem is that the story of Mia and Raleigh’s teen romance is related to us by the narrator but not via the actual events. We are just told what happened. So the readers don’t experience the intense connection Mia and Raleigh had, you just read a line that says “Mia and Raleigh had an intense connection.” I don’t know if that is an actual line in the book but you get my point. The next issue is the conflict level in the book. To keep a plot moving forward authors need major conflict and sub-conflicts that make turning the pages enjoyable. There just wasn’t enough conflict in this book for that. I thought the big issue was going to be whether Mia would forgive Raleigh for the role he played in her car accident but nope. That issue is resolved pretty early on in the book so then there just isn’t much there. I think the author was trying to develop conflict over the issue of Raleigh accepting Mia’s forgiveness and forgiving himself but it just didn’t work for me because it went on too long.
Let me throw in a couple of good notes, the characters in this book are well developed. There is a lot of time spent on describing Mia and Raleigh and their present day connection. Do NOT read this book if you are looking for sexual content, just don’t do that to yourself. But if you like a lot of story, this might be ok for you. The writing of this book is also pretty decent. It can verge on being bit melodramatic because I just don’t know if a man of Raleigh’s description would say some of the things he says but it might work for you sappy readers out there.
If you are going to read this book you just need to be aware that the plot moves turtle slow. Don’t read it if you’re sleepy or like, medicated because you might find yourself losing consciousness. If you can hang in through the really slow parts there is some drama near the end of the book that gives it kind of an extra spark. It came too late to really pull me back into the story but it is there. In case you’re wondering Falling Fast is a standalone, you don’t need to read anything else before or after this one. The story is told in third person dual POV.
P.S. The blurb about this book says that it is perfect for fans of Jasinda Wilder and Colleen Hoover. I have no clue where that reference comes from. I’ve read books by both of those authors and this book did not remind me of either of them.
**ARC provided by Publisher**
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