Reviews with content warning for Grief - 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.

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

- Oh my goodness, I loved THE FALLING IN LOVE MONTAGE. This book is YA at its best: silly and sweet, but also tackling tough life events and complicated relationships.
- Saoirse is prickly and angry, and the book does a good job of showing us how her feelings can be valid, but also a bit overblown where she doesn’t have the full context.
- I also loved how this book was virtually free of homophobia. Maybe a brief mention, but not a central part of the plot at all.

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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

Content Warnings

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*

Content Warnings

madeleineg04's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

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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