I have read quite a few of Alyssa Rose Ivy's books at this point, and I have become a fan of hers. So when I saw that she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it. Life After Falling is unlike her other books that I have read, and this is a complete standalone. I have to say though that this isn't what I had been expecting, and while I did enjoy it I also had a few issues with this book.
Unhappy with her life and herself, Cassidy quits her job and dumps her fiance. She heads home to stay with her parents until she figures out what to do next. When she comes across a cassette tape from her childhood, she believes that it is the way to find happiness once again. But the tape is broken, so she sets out to get it fixed at a used record shop. There she meets Leo, and the two of them hit it off. Cassidy soon finds out that Leo has his own set of issues from his past, and has put up walls against anyone that would possibly get under his skin. But the more time they spend together, the more they start to fall for one another. Soon they are beginning to wonder if they can find a second chance at happiness together.
I had a really hard time connecting with Cassidy and Leo. They were both a bit different, and they didn't open up easily. I did think that they fit each other well though, and they were really good together. They had great banter, and I did like that they were able to get along so well as quickly as they did. These two understood one another, and their connection was easy to see. There were friends first, but the chemistry was there from the beginning. They did take awhile to open up to each other, and I wish that they had talked to each other without things just coming out due to circumstances around them. I think it would have meant more and showed a better connection between them had they made the choice to open up rather than things just coming out.
Besides finding the characters hard to relate to though, I also just felt like this story was a bit weird. There was so much focus on the cassette for quite a bit of this story, and I just found it all a bit odd. I also felt like there were several things that were brought into this story for extra drama or for no real reason, only to be dropped without mention again. At first Cassidy meets back up with a former classmate Brent, and he quickly disappears. Then her brother is mentioned throughout the story quite a bit and his girlfriend is hated by absolutely everyone, but they were hardly around though they were mentioned a lot. There was one scene where Cassidy finally meets the girlfriend and the brother is horrible as well as his girlfriend, but after the big showdown happens and Leo stands up for Cassidy the whole thing just goes away. They are never mentioned again and nothing was resolved. So while I have really loved stories from Alyssa Rose Ivy in the past, this one just wasn't for me. It did have a cute ending and I was glad to see how things turned out for the characters, I just didn't enjoy it like I have with some of her previous books.
**ARC Provided by Inkslinger PR**
0 comments :
Post a Comment