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A review by apostrophen
Falling by Kris Bryant
4.0
I listened to this one on audio, and I enjoyed it quite a bit on a few key fronts.
One: the set-up. Turning the disaster of a plane crash into the spark between the two women was a big idea to attempt, and Bryant pulled it off. The added complications: one woman has survived a plane crash that killed both the fiancée and best friend of the other woman spin out well, nudging the two into a relationship more about connection and friendship and trying to make sense out of chaos than immediate spark or romantic notions.
Two: the discussions of scars. I have very complicated feelings about my own scars, and I really, really appreciated how Bryant's survivor heroine had multiple, conflicting takes on her own scarred body. Badge of honour? Something to cover? No more bikinis? It felt organic and real, as did her decision to get in shape post-recovery. Faced with bodily trauma, this all felt real, even if I did flinch a few times at how her mental dialog began to equate any eating with future exercise to balance it off, it was so in-character and real that the less-than-healthy approach of somehow having to "earn" or "work off" a cookie worked for her psyche and situation, if that makes sense. I'll often find food=guilty pleasure/future punishment of exercise grinds me down, but in her case, I remember feeling very much like "I have to do better now that I've been proven very, very mortal" myself, so it made sense. The other character being a super-fit Yoga instructor added to that comparison spiral, too.
Three: the best friend and another passenger having a story of their own. I love when the characters around the main characters in a romance aren't just wallpaper, and Bryant nailed this with the heroine's best friend (a police investigator) and one of the other passengers, a rancher who literally pulled the main character from the wreckage. Their relationship helped set so many tones and the pacing of the story, and added that layer of realism of how no matter what goes on in your own life, the people around you are still living, too.
All in all, I think Bryant bit off a big idea here and delivered.
One: the set-up. Turning the disaster of a plane crash into the spark between the two women was a big idea to attempt, and Bryant pulled it off. The added complications: one woman has survived a plane crash that killed both the fiancée and best friend of the other woman spin out well, nudging the two into a relationship more about connection and friendship and trying to make sense out of chaos than immediate spark or romantic notions.
Two: the discussions of scars. I have very complicated feelings about my own scars, and I really, really appreciated how Bryant's survivor heroine had multiple, conflicting takes on her own scarred body. Badge of honour? Something to cover? No more bikinis? It felt organic and real, as did her decision to get in shape post-recovery. Faced with bodily trauma, this all felt real, even if I did flinch a few times at how her mental dialog began to equate any eating with future exercise to balance it off, it was so in-character and real that the less-than-healthy approach of somehow having to "earn" or "work off" a cookie worked for her psyche and situation, if that makes sense. I'll often find food=guilty pleasure/future punishment of exercise grinds me down, but in her case, I remember feeling very much like "I have to do better now that I've been proven very, very mortal" myself, so it made sense. The other character being a super-fit Yoga instructor added to that comparison spiral, too.
Three: the best friend and another passenger having a story of their own. I love when the characters around the main characters in a romance aren't just wallpaper, and Bryant nailed this with the heroine's best friend (a police investigator) and one of the other passengers, a rancher who literally pulled the main character from the wreckage. Their relationship helped set so many tones and the pacing of the story, and added that layer of realism of how no matter what goes on in your own life, the people around you are still living, too.
All in all, I think Bryant bit off a big idea here and delivered.