The Fall
(The Reluctant Romantics #1)
By Kate Stewart
New Adult/Contemporary Romance
Synopsis
Dallas
He was the beginning of my heart . . . and the end of it.
I was only fifteen years old when he claimed it and twenty when he took it with him.
They say what is meant to be will find a way. But when you have changed to the point of no return, how can anything ever be the same?
Seven years later, Dean Martin waltzed back into my life in hopes of resuming what I had fought so hard to forget, but he was in for a wake-up call.
I was no longer the naïve woman he had left . . . and I was no longer his.
I met the love of my life and my soul mate when I was fifteen. I knew that; he knew that. He wanted that girl back. I wanted to forget she ever existed.
Dean
What I thought was my pre-destined path was very much an illusion. Living seven years with regret, I realized too late that I was broken, and that I only had myself to blame.
I thought love could wait . . . but it didn’t.
We’d had it all those years ago, and then I foolishly left it behind.
She was all that mattered. She was all there ever was.
There was no life without Dallas, no reason . . . except her.
No matter how hard she tried to convince me, I knew I had to once again make her mine, to make her remember . . . the fall.
Explicit sex, strong language.
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1PSC2Tw
AMAZON UK: http://bit.ly/THEFALL_UK
iTUNES: http://bit.ly/TheFall_iTunes
My Review
Kate Stewart has done it again. The Fall was such a beautifully emotional story. I started reading slower once I neared the end because I didn't want it to end. I read this several days ago and I have yet to stop thinking about it even though I've read another book since then. Dallas and Dean's story was just that powerful. This heartbreakingly real tale of true love and growing pains is exactly why I read.
Dallas and Dean met when they were in high school. With Dean being a few years older than Dallas, in his mind they couldn't be anything other than friends until Dallas got older. Dallas, just like every other girl in school, wanted Dean but realized that she had been friend zoned. So they became inseparable. Over time they became best of friends until Dean had to leave for college. As time does, it moves on. Eventually Dallas joined Dean at university where they finally became more. But Dean has goals and those goals don't include staying home. He wants to go to Columbia and become a doctor and while Dallas also wants to be a doctor, she doesn't want to leave home. So for one glorious year, they love each other with all they have. But just like in high school, life gets in the way.
When Dean leaves for Columbia, he leaves Dallas behind. For the next 7 years Dallas tries to move beyond her past until she's finally feeling settled. She's a doctor set on opening her own practice with her sister, she's dating a guy that she truly enjoys spending time with, and she loves her job. But when everything seems to be falling into place, Dean comes back to town. Her once orderly life is thrown into a tailspin.
As Dean and Dallas' story unfolds, long held anger, grief, and the reality of bone crushing lost love come crashing to the surface. Neither has fully let go and the past is anything but buried. When the reality of the past starts to meld with the reality of the present, their future is thrown into question. Told with flashbacks to the past they spent together, Dean and Dallas' story is revealed piece by heartbreaking piece.
My heart was in my throat through most of this story. It seemed so obvious to me, an outsider, that they were meant to be together. But Ms.Stewart did a phenomenal job of writing a story that shows the reality of growing up and the consequences that follow every choice a person makes. I have to be honest and say that many times I was frustrated with some of the choices each made. But then I'd get the other viewpoint and even though I didn't like the outcome, their choices were theirs to make and in the end I couldn't fault them because they really did make sense. It quickly became clear that no one was really to blame. Time, age, and life in general instead were to blame leaving heartbreak inevitable, just like real life since life is never linear. It twists and turns with age and maturity and choices.
Dallas and Dean's story took hold of my heart and has yet to let go. They were flawed, but they were real. They loved fully and completely even amidst the pitfalls of making life choices that each felt they had to make. The Fall is the perfect example of how two people can try to do the right thing and yet the outcome doesn't happen as intended. I literally clutched my chest throughout their story as the events that lead to their separation unfolded. I also blushed like a virgin bride when Dean and Dallas' sexy times began. I cried with them when their hearts broke. And I gasped in shock when life changing events took place. With heart and passion, Dallas and Dean's story took me from the depths of despair to the peak of unbridled joy.
This story was perfect in its imperfections. Dean and Dallas suffered but finding that both were to blame just as really neither was to blame because life is life, their love story of finding true love was just everything. Now I am impatiently waiting for Rose's story. She was such a big part in Dean and Dallas HEA, I can't wait to see her finally find hers too. I may have fallen in love with Kate Stewart when she wrote Loving the White Liar, but The Fall has cemented her as one of my absolute favorites.
Reviewed by Paige
★★☆5 "Other Half of My Heart" Stars ☆★★
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About the Author
A native of Dallas, I now live in beautiful Charleston, S.C. I moved to the city three weeks after my first visit, dropping my career of 8 years, and declaring the city my creative muse. Since my move in 2010, I have written and published three novels including Room 212, Never Me and Loving the White Liar. I live with my husband of 9 years, Nick and my naughty beagle Sadie. I write the messy, sexy, angst filled romance books with hard to get happy endings because it's what I love to read. I have a scary addiction to chocolate milk and a deep love for rap music specifically the genius of Marshall Mathers. In addition to my addiction to romance I also let my alter ego take over on occasion and write erotic suspense under the pen Angelica Chase.
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