Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - The Falling in Love Montage

I really liked how Saoirse's conflicted feelings about her parents were explored, and how they color her view of love. Very realistic portrayal of a teenager and I actually laughed out loud

(I just about died when the audiobook narrator kept repeating "Satan's shrivelled left nut" 😭)

. No homophobia here; the characters' problems aren't due to their sexual orientations. It was nice to see young characters so confident in their identities. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, too!

I expected a more traditional happy-ever-after, but what we got was perfectly in line with the book's overarching theme. I'm impressed that the author stuck by her guns.

I didn't become emotionally invested in the romance, which is why I'm not giving this 5 stars, but IMO it's a near-perfect coming-of-age story that's well worth the time. Oliver ended up as my favorite character.

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viireads's review

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inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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kirstenf's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ree_the_owlgirl's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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sandy_21's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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agateg's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

“That was one of the hardest things about breaking up. It's not a pair of bookends, the beginning and the end. It's all the things we used to do that we'd never do again and all the things we'd never do for the first time together.”

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not be in a care home with early-onset dementia. Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall.

The writing was very well done, and the characters were properly developed, which made the book enjoyable. I loved Oliver and Rose. But Saoirse got on my nerves quite a lot, I didn’t agree with her opinions about her family situation and that made it frustrating to read. But overall it was a book worth reading! *check trigger warnings*

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pagesofnay's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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callmeluh's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I so wanted to love this book. I've heard a lot of great things about it, and I genuinely thought it'd become a new favorite. However, although I did enjoy it, I was unfortunately a little disappointed.
My one and only problem was Saoirse. She goes through a lot, and although I really wanted to empathize with that, she just annoyed me. I understood her reasoning, I really did, but most times she just acted like a brat and I hated that. Everyone around her has to accept and deal with her mood swings and. I. Hated. That. Get over yourself girl.

So yeah, overall I enjoyed my read. But I REALLY wanted to slap some sense into Saoirse.

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