🍂Book Review- Can't Help Falling by Courtney Walsh🍂
"You're worth it. And someone out there thinks the same."
Do you believe in miracles?
Because no matter how much I deny it, I do believe in them, not because I want to but because I have experienced them a lot of times and when it starts happening, even for the smallest things, there's a point where you have to stop making excuses about them being a coincidence and stuff and just accept the fact that they are in fact miracles and we just gotta let it happen.
This book was one of those miracles for me.
Title: Can't Help Falling
Author: Courtney Walsh
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 360 Pages
Publication Date: September 14, 2023
Buy it on Amazon: Can't Help Falling by Courtney Walsh (affiliate link)
SYNOPSIS
All it takes to start a fire is one single match. . . Owen Larrabee is not my soulmate.
He wasn't when I confessed my love to him on his wedding day, and he isn't now. I should probably say that I wasn't the bride when that happened. I don't have the best timing.
He’s got a temper, he's moody, and he has a history of being misunderstood and making big mistakes. I, on the other hand, make pumpkin cupcakes, spend my Friday nights curled up with a beloved romance novel and long to be kissed in the rain. Owen is my best friend’s older, off-limits brother and the only boy I ever thought I loved. Which is laughable because he only ever saw me as his kid sister’s dorky friend.
But that was a long time ago. And I’m over him. Mostly. Until he comes back to Harvest Hollow like some kind of hero, showing up just in time to pull me out of my burning house and make me feel all the things I told myself I’d never feel again.
Darn him and that brooding, intense way he looks at me. But I have questions. Why is Owen back? And does he remember our secret friendship or the day I’ve spent the last eight years trying to forget? I know better than to get hung up on Owen again. Especially now, when he’s sworn off relationships and thinks romance is a farce. And I’m something of an expert—at least to the people who listen to my podcast, The Hopeful Romantic . Never mind that nobody would guess their local bookshop owner is the one doling out popular weekly relationship advice. Never mind that I’m basing all that advice on the hundreds, (thousands?) of romance novels I’ve read over the years and not on personal experience. And especially never mind that Owen is making me question everything I believe about all of it.
-Goodreads
Tropes
- Small Town
- Second Chance Romance
- Disability
- Firefighter
- Childhood Crush
- Best Friend's Bother
- Secret Identity
- Slow Burn
- Opposites Attract
- Romantic Comedy
- Grumpyxsunshine
MY REVIEW
"Fictional men are always better than the real ones."
Always? Always!
Real men scare me lol.
Anyway, I saw someone post about Just don't fall by Emma St. Clair and Emma is one of the author's I really liked before so I decided to check her book out. One thing I do before getting a book is that I check if it's a part of a series and read it's synopsis and if I find it interesting, I get the book.
When I found out that the book was a part of the Sweater Weather series, I decided to check out the rest of the books in the series too. I realized that all the books in this series were standalone and written by different authors but they all had a fall setting.
As soon as my eyes landed on the title of this book, I was a goner. The title reminded me of one of my favourite songs, 'Can't Help Falling In Love' by Elvis Presley. Another reason was because I have been obsessed with the movie Red White and Royal Blue. I have already watched it 4 times and I ain't stopping any time soon. I have also posted a review on it. You can check it out here: Movie Review: Red, White and Royal Blue
This song was played when Alex and Henry danced together in the museum. It's one of my favourite scenes and the book title reminded me of it so I picked it up first hehe.
Anyway, I was supposed to finish my degree an year ago, but due to personal reasons(will make a separate post for it!) I couldn't go back to finish it so like I am half way there, still got 2 years left but almost all of my friends have graduated and I feel absolutely useless. My friends and relatives don't leave any opportunity in telling me how I am wasting my time and shit. Even though it hurts I ignore them, after all it's my life. I don't get what their problem really is. They just can't seem to work on themselves and always need to know what I am up to lol.
Recently, my aunt called my mum and was like my cousin's son is looking for a girl. Do you want to get your daughter married to him? Girl, pause the fuck up. Just because I haven't been able to finish my degree on time doesn't mean I am ready to get married. I don't get why people still think that marriage is the most important thing in your life. Like getting married and having kids is your life goal, and if you don't do it you're a loser. I mean I want to do that but everything has a right time, I am not ready for it and I sure as hell ain't ready to marry a random stranger who can't find a girl for himself.
Moving on, I of course denied and was pretty confident that my parents wanted the same thing because we have had this conversation before and they were like yeah we don't care, get married to whoever you want, whenever you want but make sure we meet him. That's why I was pretty chill until my parents started suggesting how it was a good idea.
I freaked out and started yelling at them because I felt like they were serious because my dad kept saying that it's time I stop living in my fantasy world and start living in reality. I started sobbing really bad because I thought they were gonna force me to marry him for some reason but my parents got scared and were like,'we were kidding'. Yes, they were just kidding but they didn't how badly it affected me. My mental health is already really bad lmao.
But like the thing is, it did not stop there and it kept replaying in my head 24/7 for the next 3-4 days. I felt like I was suffocating and ended up crying for hours at night. The fear was eating me alive. Yes, I do feel like a failure sometimes because I haven't been able to complete my degree but this time it affected me on a deeper level and all I could think about was that my life is over. Pretty dramatic, if you ask me now but I was panicking at that time lol.
The thoughts kept replaying in my head and I didn't know what to do, I was so depressed and I kept thinking, what if they are right? Should I just marry the guy? Are my standards really that high? I mean I've never had a boyfriend before and I wanna experience all that before I marry someone. But it just felt like I was losing time since I am already 23 and I was like I gotta lower my standards.
But then somehow I ended up choosing this book and realised how much Emmy and I had in common. I could connect with her so well. She owned a bookstore and a small cafe inside it where she baked all her goods. Honestly made me so hungry lol. But I did end up baking the Pumpkin bars tho! You can check out the recipe on my Instagram. I might try to bake the other recipes as well.
Anyway, Emmy was socially awkward, loved staying at home and reading. I like doing all that too but I also wanna go out. I haven't been able to go out that much recently because almost all my friends have left the city and I have social anxiety and I can't go out alone so I spend days locked in my home, watching shows, movies or just reading. I like doing it but sometimes it just gets too lonely lol.
Emmy is someone who is a book lover like us, so she definitely has high standards when it comes to men. I thought mine were pretty high too but I guess not lol. She wanted someone to dance with her in the rain and basically do all the big gestures to show his love for her but she later realised that all of that didn't matter, a guy could simply show his love by buying her flowers, taking care of her when she was sick, helping her with household work, etc.
My only requirement is that I want that obsessed with each other and I don't see anyone but you kind of love, that no matter what you can't live without each other. And, of course the rest of it would be a great bonus hehe.
So yeah, basically Emmy made me realize that I wasn't asking for too much and no matter how much I think that this stuff happens in novels only, it does happen in real life and I gotta wait for it and not run to the first guy I see.
I can't even tell you how my stress level had gone down after finishing this book so I don't care what others say but for me it was definitely a miracle sent by god because I prayed for him to help me out and give me an answer hehe.
Moving on to the book, I don't really know what more to say because I loved everything about this book.
Owen is Emmy's best friend's brother and Emmy had a crush on him a few years back. After an incident, she confessed her feeling to him but he ended up running out of the town. Now years later, he's back in town and the first time they meet is when Emmy's house catches fire and Owen saves her since he's a firefighter. He becomes the town's hero when someone publishes a picture of him carrying Emmy in his arms and walking out of her burning home. Emmy is shook when she realizes that he's back which means she has to protect her heart because she can't let him break it again.
I absolutely loved Emmy and Owen's bond. It was so strong and beautiful. They calmed down in each other's presence and were the only ones who understood each other so well.
Owen was diagnosed with Dyslexia and because of some bad experiences, his self confidence was pretty low and he used to think of himself as unworthy but I am so glad Emmy was there to help him prove himself and everyone else who had the same thought as him wrong!
I am so glad he had her! My friend was treated poorly by the kids and teachers in our school when we were in like year 8 and I really wish I would've had done something for her but I didn't know what to do at that time and only watched her suffer.
Unfortunately, we lost her to suicide in year 10 and now I regret not doing anything to help her out. If you know someone struggling with stuff like this please help them out! If you don't know how to help them, at least try to be there for them so they don't feel alone.
Moving on, I absolutely loved everyone except of course Owen's ex because she broke his heart and is an absolute bitch. I also loved how everyone supported them and offered help and had such a great bond with Emmy. That's what I like the most about small town movies and books. Everyone knows each other and all of them are so closely knit. They are also willing to help each other out no matter what the situation is.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. Though Emmy is socially awkward and is single af, she owns a podcast called 'The Hopeful Romantic' where she gives relationship advice and talks about things related to romance. But, not a single soul knows about her being the voice behind it.
Again, literally me.
The only difference is that I absolutely hate my voice on audio so you would never hear a single voice note from me lol. And as soon as I realize that someone is recording a video, I turn mute and don't speak until they put down the camera. It's one of my biggest insecurities and some people don't get it. They take it as me being egoistic despite me explaining it to them but like I don't care anymore. Fuck them. There's no way I'm doing something that makes me uncomfortable just to satisfy them. I have changed now😌
Anyway, that's the reason I don't do audio's on my reels, vlog or do podcasts. I started blogging because this felt like the best option for me. This makes me comfortable and I can talk about anything without being shy hehe.
But the good thing is that Emmy isn't like me when it comes to podcasts because she was amazing. Her friends, the firefighters including Owen--even though he denied it at first–loved her podcasts and took her relationship advices.
I absolutely loved how the author didn't only focus on the hopeless romantic side of the story. She made it hopeless romantic VS being practical which was obviously Owen but in the end she balanced it very well.
If you haven't read this book I definitely recommend reading it! I am pretty sure you'll love it. It will always be my number one fall recommendation but it doesn't matter if you read it during fall or not, you're still gonna love it!
See y'all soon with a new post!💛