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A review by leahjanespeare
Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling by Elise Bryant
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness and Racism