Ashley Drew

3.5 Stars
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Corinne is the girl who doesn't say no to anything, "Hot Shot" isn't her nickname for nothing, and when she finally owns up to the emotions she has for her best friend, Nick, they both aren't giving it a chance to get away. Until Corinne's family is flipped upside down and inside out, it changes everything and she isn't just saying no now, she's blanking out her past and creating a new future, without anyone from her past in it. Coming home to face her estranged father after 6 years was going to be hard, but she didn't expect it to come with so much change. Nick and her feel the same as always, except for the 6 years of distance between them and the paths their lives have taken. Given the chance to uncover whatever was once between them leads to several revelations for Corinne, especially once she realized you never stop falling.

“I gasp. My ears shut out all the panic around me so that I hear nothing else. And then my gasp is followed by my heavy breaths. And my breathing is silenced by my pounding heart. And then everything falls silent. Except for his words. They echo in my head, the last words I might’ve heard him say.”

If you aren't hooked from that sentence, you need to re-read it. This one starts off dramatic, it is heavy with emotions, and it ends the same way. This is a really, really good thing. Corinne is the kind of character you love to hate, because she is normal. When faced with something she couldn't handle, she ran, and it felt so real. I could feel her inner torment, I could see her friend's feeling for her, and I could see how easily it was to let everything fall apart when better things seemed to fall together. While her personality might seem annoying, the go for it and give it all you got attitude, I found myself connecting with her because of it. She went through a lot of things, because of her attitude and approach to life and it all made her grow and develop. I actually loved every single character, from Corinne's wayward father to her best friend Nick and every secondary character in between. No character's role felt small, each one had such an important hand in the book's progression. The relationship between Corinne and Nick is far more than just best friends turned love interests, they had serious friendship between them that I just loved. I also loved the changing, there was a lot of enjoyment in reading Corinne's no fear outlook and switching over to Nick's reserved, sensitive, and thoughtful outlook. While I rarely like books about cheating, it felt instrumental to the story line between them. Mix in the friendship drama with their other friends and the family drama in Corinne's life and Never Stop Falling is a well rounded, well developed book.

Loved the general story line, struggled with the writing style. The pacing at times was slow and the plot predictable, and while the emails and instant messages explained the general feeling between the characters, they made me feel disconnected. However, Ashley Drew had me hooked from page one and even though I felt disconnected at times I could not stop reading. About 25% through I could have given up, but it was worth pushing through and everything comes together perfectly.

I never stopped being surprised by this book, it wasn't twisted in that spin your head around kind of way, but it never got boring. While it was at times predictable, it doesn't read like every other book out there with similar subjects. I loved Drew's approach to friendship, relationships, and family. She tackled some incredibly tough subjects, two times had me fighting tears, but did so with a lot of grace. I absolutely would recommend this debut novel from Ashley Drew and I hope we get to see more of the other characters in future books.… (mehr)