Reviews with content warning for Racism - Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling

Delilah has recently joined a punk rock band with a few of her friends. Though her sister, Georgia, is typically the star of the family with a huge talent for singing and acting. Delilah has never sang for real before and isn’t quite sure she’s any good.But after the band’s first gig featuring Delilah singing, they gain notoriety overnight. They begin to get more and more opportunities and gigs. While Delilah is growing to love performing, she still isn’t sure that she truly belongs in the band. She questions her talent and identity as a Black girl in the genre. Until one day she meets Reggie. He exudes confidence and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. He seems too good to be true.

Reggie would prefer to play Dungeons and Dragons over going to see a band play on New Year’s Eve. But after one too many taunts and jokes from his older brother, he decides to use it as an excuse to escape. When he arrives at the venue, he sees Delilah commanding the stage and its love at first sight. He runs into her after her performance and decides he has to play it cool. He presents the Reggie that he wishes he was. They continue to have chance encounters on holidays and their relationship slowly builds over the course of the next year. But Reggie gets in over his head with pretending to be someone he’s not.

While the title is literally “Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling,” I still didn’t really have too much of an idea of how it would play out. But let me tell you, it was SO cute and precious. This was such a unique story line that kept me smiling. There was so much of this story that I could relate to, and I appreciated it so much. I really could have used a book like this growing up. It took me well into my adult years to truly be comfortable with just being myself. I’m a little awkward and nerdy and enjoy “nerdy” things, and that’s totally okay. Life is too short to live it trying to be someone you aren’t.

This was an awesome read, and I have no complaints. It tackles some current social issues extremely well, and the overall message surrounding embracing what makes us who we are was *chef’s kiss.*

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Somehow, Delilah has found herself singing in her friends' punk band as a favor, even though she'd much rather be behind the scenes. She's definitely a go with the flow kind of girl. Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master, who writes articles online about D&D behind a pseudonym becuase his family doesn't approve. The two first meet on New Year's Eve. And then again on Valentine's Day. And St. Patrick's Day. It seems like the universe might be pushing them together for a reason.

Thanks to Balzer + Bray and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this to review! Elise Bryant is quickly becoming a staple in writing YA romance, so I wasn't surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The premise is so fun! Two people who randomly keep meeting on holidays and eventually fall in love. What isn't to like?

One of the best things about this book was the way that the format allows us to get to know Reggie and Delilah on their own. Because they only really spend time together on the holidays for the first half of the book, we get to see a lot of them separately, which doesn't happen a lot in romances. We also get to know their friends and families, giving us all around great character development. It's a cast of characters that you're sure to fall in love with.

The romance at the heart of the book is just as good as the characters. It's paced well, and just gives you all the warm fuzzies. If you're looking for a great new romance to pick up this January, I definitely recommend this one!

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leahjanespeare's review

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5.0

Another sweet rom com from Elise, yay! We follow Reggie and Delilah through a year of falling -- in love with themselves, maybe with each other; falling and getting back up from hard experiences. Let's say it's quite a YEAR indeed. It's a romance but also a story of personal growth. About both characters learning how to be vulnerable and honest in front of others, especially in front of someone they like. (It's all too easy to fall into facades when they think you're so cool!) This is also the first time Elise has written a dual pov book and I'm glad she did as we really needed both sides of the story for these characters. I loved how nerdy Reggie was - here all the way for D&D nerds with fun tshirts! And while ultimately his white lies are what messed up a lot of stuff between him and Delilah, I understood his insecurities and crush on her; everyone does stupid things as teenagers in love. Delilah's journey ended up in a giant boost of self confidence in herself and abilities, realizing how she was being used by her band, and taking the initiative to start paving her own way. While I don't share her love of tswift, I still understood Delilah.

My only critique (as a reader who has neither a migraine chronic illness or dyslexia) is while these traits of the characters were present at the beginning of the book, it seemed to fall off the radar for the other 75%. But that's not really for me to critique of course. I just thought it was weird that these things were mentioned and then sprinkled in, and then never talked about again. For example, I have anxiety disorders, and while flare ups aren't all the time, it's always something I'm thinking about and do influence a lot of how I interact with others. Anyway. So I would keep an eye for reviews by people who do experience difficulties from these particular disabilities themselves. And my comments aren't to criticize, mostly just to express surprise since the disabilities are mentioned on the back of the book, which would indicate a bigger role.

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