Review: How to Fall by Rebecca Brooks


Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

"I need you," she whispered.


"I'm yours."


The words still shocked her coming out of her mouth, but hidden under the waterfall she could hold nothing back. It was a strange sort of paradox, to be somebody else and yet at the same time to know that in here, with him, she was only capable of truth. It was as though the river washed away all pretense, all hope of normalcy and decency and respectable things men and women did with each other, leaving something naked and raw and devastatingly true in its path.


Julia Evans left behind all her responsibilities in Chicago to finally take some time off and enjoy one full week in Brazil over Christmas break. She's ready to put aside the nice girl who's put everyone and everything else ahead of her and let her naughty side come out to play. When she meets a group of other travelers, it's one in particular who captures her attention from the moment she lays her eyes on him. He's a temptation she's given herself permission to indulge in, but each new interaction and tryst has what was supposed to be a temporary distraction into something unexpected and potentially heartbreaking for her.

Blake Williams has been traveling Central and South America for months, desperately trying to stay away from the mess still brewing back in Australia. Most of the people he meets on his travels have no idea who he is, what he does, and why he's become tabloid fodder in his home country. When he meets a gorgeous American who stirs in him lustful thoughts and possibly much more, Blake's travel plans go awry. He can't seem to make himself leave her, the need to extend their time together too much for him to resist. But Blake's once secrets come out, the idyllic affair could end as abruptly as it started, leaving him alone again.

How to Fall is a standalone contemporary romance from author Rebecca Brooks and is my very first read from the author and what a wonderful revelation it was! Combining vivid imagery of the locales and sites that the main characters, Julia Evans and Blake Williams, were surrounded with and visited with a love story that began with two people who indulge in their physical attraction to one another only to have it evolve into something that involved deeper emotions and feelings made this such a sumptuously satisfying read. Discovering a new author, especially one that I believe is worth watching out for, is icing on the cake.

Julia and Blake are two characters who have lives waiting for them in their respective countries--the United States for Julia and Australia for Blake--and the need to get away from it all is what has led them to be on a new continent and their paths crossing. Brazil is merely where their journeys intersect, a backdrop of sorts, because what leads them to contemplate the state of their minds and hearts is when they actually meet and become immersed in one another. Even as they try to escape what's going on back home, reality has a way of making its presence felt no matter how far away you try to distance yourself from everything.

Aside from Julia and Blake, the supporting cast of characters, particularly their travel companions--Jamie and Chris, an Aussie couple, and Lukas, a Dutch photographer--play an important role to the main characters' story. There are parallels that one can't help but notice between what Blake experienced in his own past relationship and what Julia believes is happening within the triumvirate of Jamie, Chris, and Lukas. How what happens to these three affects Blake and Julia's own relationship was interesting to read about and it goes to show what kind of gift the author has when it comes to telling one well-conceived tale.

There were so quite a few things I appreciated about this book, one of which was how the story as a whole played out and how everything was weaved together. Then you have two complex main characters who have something missing in their lives and find it in each other, but aren't fully capable of handling the discovery, therefore leading them to make ill-conceived choices. This is the kind of book that you can't help but fall in love with--from the story to the characters, it's a cut above the norm and a read I would highly recommend to fellow readers of contemporary romances. How to Fall is a five-plus-star must-read. ♥

Release Date: 16 November 2015

Date Read: 16 November 2015

Learn more about Rebecca Brooks.

Purchase How to Fall on Amazon | B&N | Kobo.

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