I'm going to attempt to review this, but I don't know if I can sort out my reactions yet.

Some other reviewers mentioned not being able to tell the voices of the characters apart. This is a valid criticism, because I caught myself confused in the beginning. I had to remember to pay attention to chapter headings that specified who was narrating that part of the story until I got used to it.

The voices were hard to distinguish, but they were absolutely beautiful. I don't use the word "lyrical" to describe language very often for fiction, but the prose just sang. This is why I can't complain about the way the story was told. The story flowed so poetically that I was swept away with it.

The mountain settings in Western North Carolina are so dear to my heart, and Rochelle described them so that I felt as if I were in the places as she was telling the story.

Now, how did I feel about the story? That's where I get verklempt. Abby's struggle with her depression was depicted in such a real way that I could reach out and touch it. I could feel it. And I've experienced depression so deep I couldn't sleep at night and didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Considering the depth of the guilt she carried for so many years, I'm surprised she remained as functional as she did for as long as she did. I have a great deal of sympathy for her, even though she was in some ways, the villain of the piece.

Ryan and Juliana brilliantly depicted how mental illness affects the family. Even though there was much more going on than mental illness in that family, I appreciated Juliana's wariness with her mother during and after treatment. Ryan was ready to accept her new self, until Abby told him the one thing that could make him leave her. It wasn't that she had betrayed him. It was that she wanted to make it right again.

The ending was a bit neat, but not so much that I couldn't foresee the loose ends hanging as everyone learned to live their new lives. There was a question in the study guide that asked (paraphrased), "If you could write another chapter, how do you see the characters continuing?" I love that it wasn't completely clear, yet there was a happy ending that worked for everyone. ( )

Anxiety and depression can be debilitating. They suck the marrow out of life. But it's not just the person suffering from these illnesses who suffers, it is everyone around them who loves and cares for them. These twin demons make it impossible for a person to have the sort of relationships they want or to live fully. They are incredibly damaging. Rochelle Weinstein's newest novel, Where We Fall, addresses the cost of these illnesses and how facing up to them and finding help to fight against them can change the future for everyone.

Abby and Lauren are best friends and college roommates. Lauren and Ryan are soulmates and deeply in love. They've never had a problem including Abby in their warmth and happiness, so secure are they in their couplehood. But when Lauren leaves after graduation for a six month course taking photographs of waterfalls around the world instead of staying with Ryan, something changes. Flash forward seventeen years. Ryan and Abby are married with a daughter. Ryan is a successful high school coach, revered by the mostly disadvantaged boys he coaches to glory. Abby is a prisoner of her anxiety and depression, holding tight to a secret she's never revealed to Ryan, suffering in the depths of her own self-hatred. And Juliana is a self-sufficient teenager in love with her dad's star player, a boy whose father and older brothers are serious criminals. Lauren is a best selling author who writes romances under a pseudonym and she's finally coming back to North Carolina to face the painful past she's still holding in her heart.

Ryan's team is making a run for States just as Abby breaks down badly and agrees to be admitted to a residential mental health hospital in the mountains. As if worrying about his wife isn't enough, EJ, the star of the team and Juliana's boyfriend, flees from the police, who want to question him about a major theft, and Lauren is about to reappear in his life. Abby has a lot of hard work and introspection in front of her in her program and she must look at her relationship with Ryan and the truth of their history, her love for Juliana and the ways she's been an absent mother, and how she betrayed her best friend so many years ago. Fixing all of the things wrong in her life, including her own reactions and feelings and teasing out the difference between love and loyalty, won't be easy.

The novel is told in first person by the four major characters: Abby, Ryan, Juliana, and Lauren. Each of them shares their innermost feelings and desires as they tell their stories, present and past. None of them have distinctive voices though, making each section sound the same. And to be honest, I didn't much like any of them so spending so much time in their heads was not rewarding. The prose was excessively wordy and it didn't help that the obligation felt by the characters extended to the reader. They built lives out of obligation, I finished the book out of the same. Often set in Charlotte, NC, the city as described does not feel like the Charlotte I live in at all. And the idea that Ryan and Lauren still love each other so deeply and purely after seventeen years, without taking into consideration how their experiences and life has changed them rings false. The parallel of young intense, forever love between Ryan and Lauren and between Juliana and EJ is a bit heavy handed and quite honestly, the high school love story wasn't all that engaging to me. Weinstein has drawn an intensely introspective and psychological portrait of the way in which one family member's mental illness takes over and forms each person in the family combined with the story of soul mates and an all encompassing love but the major halves of the story exist together a bit uneasily. And the martyrdom of the ending, although by all rights it could not have ended any other way, was the capper on a story I was already struggling with. Many other people seem to have really been touched by this novel so readers who appreciate troubled family tales, stories of the impact of mental illness, or novels about truth and lies and friendship should read it and make up their own minds. ( )

This is one of those books I read in almost one sitting. The story is riveting and Weinstein tackles an important subject with the focus on depression and mental illness. The attention paid to the manifestation and treatment was thorough and heartbreaking. The descriptions are so life-like, I felt like I was there in the book's various settings: At the mental hospital, the football game or the fall festival. There is a scene at an art booth that is written so well I felt as if I was there eavesdropping on the characters' conversation. The story is told from alternating viewpoints from past to present which added an air of mystery as there is a slow reveal of what happened with the love triangle. The characters all suffer from being human and at times may have done something unlikable, but Weinstein still manages to make them relatable and therefore forgivable. There are some coincidences that may stretch the reader's belief in timing but overall the novel is well done and worth the read. I'll be checking out Weinstein's other work.

Provided by publisher and TLC Book Tours ( )

Abby, Ryan, and Lauren were inseparable in college. But Abby always felt a little on the fringes of Ryan and Lauren's all-consuming love. But when Lauren goes off for six months after college to see the world and photograph waterfalls, Ryan is devastated. Cut forward nearly twenty years: Ryan and Abby are now married, with a seventeen-year-old daughter, Julianna. Lauren, meanwhile, is single and an author. Ryan is a successful football coach, but he struggles with the ups and downs of Abby's anxiety and depression. Unbeknownst to all three, their paths are about to cross for the first time in ages.

This book was an interesting one. At times, it seems to be a representative portrayal of depression. Often, Abby seems penalized by her family for her mental illness, which really makes you think about the effects of depression on families. How much obligation does a family have to help a hurting love one, even at their own expense? Other moments, though, the book seems extremely psychoanalyzing and patronizing, as if one stay in a mental health facility can cure all ills. It's hard to explain, but very frustrating, and I'm not sure if always does those with mental illness any favors.

As a football coach, Ryan is portrayed as above all - almost a godlike figure. It is certainly in keeping with high school football in a college town. He takes Juliana's boyfriend, E.J., the star of his team, and his brother, Devon, under his wing. Their story is somewhat powerful, as brothers from a tough neighborhood trying to escape their over-powering father. A side story where E.J. gets in trouble protecting his brother could say a lot about class and race in the south, but then seems to be tied up awfully easily.

That's sort of how the whole book seemed; some parts are compelling and believable, while others were implausible and just odd. None of the characters really drew me in, though I did find myself identifying at times with Abby and her issues. Overall, a 3-star read.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley (thank you!); it is available everywhere on 5/5/2016.

A special thank you to Lake Union and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Deeply psychological, beautifully written, with stunning metaphors of water, and mesmerizing lyrical prose, Rochelle B. Weinstein delves into her characters’ complex souls with, WHERE WE FALL a troubled family on the verge of collapse. Guilt. Secrets. Pain. Lies. Betrayal. Darkness. Depression.

Two parallels, a gripping, inspiring, emotional, and thought-provoking tale of mental illness. The real effects of millions of people, its afflictions- far reaching, often misunderstood, and the stigma attached, as a society. Tragedy and beauty. Darkness and Light. Hate and Love. Emotions. Facing fears, pain, admitting misdeeds, accountability, taking responsibility for your actions “head on” in order to begin healing. Redemption, forgiveness, true happiness.

The author’s writing style is absolutely mesmerizing! I bookmarked so many pages, getting lost in her lovely writing, her poetic prose. Fans of T. Greenwood, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Amy Hatvany, and Jodi Picoult will love this author and WHERE WE FALL. With finesse, Weinstein skillfully tackles highly-charged complex topics with sensitivity. So excited about the discovery of this new found author; cannot wait to read more. I love Greenwood’s lyrical writing and her skillful use of vivid imagery --Rochelle is right up there with her.

Falling in love, out of love, falling apart . . . A soft place to land. If you are looking for a light-hearted, cheery and carefree book- look elsewhere. So much more, here! A clever mix of chick-noir, domestic and psychological suspense, romance, contemporary, mystery, and family drama.

In a brief introduction, the spring of 1997, at Davidson College in North Carolina, we meet three friends Abby, Ryan, and Lauren. Flash forward to the Fall of 2014. Abby and Ryan, in their late thirties, married, with teen daughter Juliana, residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. Told from multiple perspectives, allowing readers to gain keen insights into how the characters view one another. Flashing back and forth over the years.

Abby is taunted by demons of darkness and depression. She feels sorry for herself. Her wants and desires have resulted in an unhappy life. She is not honest about the past. She is manipulative. She has been plagued for years by the unwanted fears--the invasive, sneaky, and powerful thoughts. Neuroses. Sad and hopeless thoughts. She sleeps for days straight, withering into something more skeletal than human. Ryan has begged her to return to therapy, and stay on her medications. Her therapist urges her to commit herself. She has reached rock bottom, when Ryan finds her on the bathroom floor with pills. Abby is hiding dark secrets, which continue to haunt her. She is an absentee, selfish, and distant parent.

Ryan is good-looking, patient, a loving father, a community leader, and husband. He is a fixer. A football coach, he loves his wife, his daughter, his team. However, his wife’s condition is disturbing, and has taken a toll on all their lives. Like a coach, he tried to draw Abby out. There was so much wrong inside her. He will not leave her. He has all sorts of strategy for the football field and his team; however, his own family is a different story. Abby needs him. His friends encourage him to leave. His wife is a woman of shifting temperament. Low self-esteem. Lifeless. Her mind is tangled and tortured. She needs help. He has a life, but he cannot think of himself. He buries his needs. He lives in fear everyday she will take her life, buried in her darkness. He had become a single parent, a doting father, in his wife’s absences. He made promises and commitments to his wife. However, has he ever got over the love of his life, Lauren? The girl he was to marry. What happened? He cannot forget about her leaving and never to be heard from again. He is unaware of what his wife did years ago. When he discovers the truth, will he ever forgive her? Little does he know she changed the course of all their lives.

Abby is convalescing in the hospital, his star player is on the run, and his daughter is alone and frightened, yet he coaches his boys to a victorious win every week. He is proud of them. Many coaches tell their players to learn from loss—it builds character and resiliency. What about his own personal life?

Juliana, an only child. She is independent and self-sufficient. A fixer, the one who believes she can repair the damage and make wrong into right. She is disturbed by her mother’s condition. Her mom was different than other moms. She is embarrassed by her mom’s behavior. Why can’t she be normal?

Juliana has her own issues. She is dating the high school football star, E.J. However, E.J. comes from a poor, abusive, dysfunctional, and violent family. He is always caught in the middle trying to keep his mom and brother out of harm’s way from his father. In doing so, he gets into trouble with the law and on the run—everyone in his path is in danger. Now Juliana has to help him, putting her own father, the coach in the middle—a dangerous situation. She is filled with burdens of those she has chosen to love. Worrying about EJ protects her from the troubles of her own home. Her father provides the love of two parents.

Abby finally agrees to have herself committed, to Cold Creek a clinic in Asheville, western North Carolina--instrumental by Babs, (brutally honest) unlike most psychologists. Babs tells her she is dying and destroying everything around her. Memories of happier times have riddled her with guilt and hopelessness.

The world already thinks she is crazy, why not make it official. How did she get here . . to this place? How bad does she have to get to make a change. Here, she will be open to scrutiny and self-improvement, even though free of home and pressures to conform. She will have to face what she did. She is angry for so many reasons. Always chipping away. Placing the blame on someone else. Her husband loved someone else first. Will she always be second best. How did she play God?

Lauren had left years ago, to explore the world. A lover of nature. A free-spirit. (my kind of gal). She planned on returning. She and Ryan had plans for marriage. A lifetime. She loves gushing creeks and waterfalls which trickle from secret places. The water that falls from the streams washes away troubles and clears the mind. She loves the mountains—inspiring. The last time she sought the mountains, all those years ago she came for one thing—refuge, to rid herself of pain. This time she had not wanted to come back.

She is now an intelligent, world famous published author. (writing under another name). She has traveled the world. Her book was her life’s work. Her passion for writing, photography, and waterfalls had led her on a quest to compile the most beautiful cascades in the world. From poetry and musings. The grand finale would bring her home to the North Carolina mountains. Where she would shoot Linville, Toxaway, Looking Glass, and Elk River. (have hiked all these). What waited for her, terrified her. She had to return—she had put it off long enough. Her publisher is the only one who knows the truth about her identity. She is ready to reveal herself to her readers.

Everything she has kept at bay circling around Abby, Ryan and herself. Chipping away at her defenses, reminding her that no matter how hard she tried to move forward, there is always a past pulling us back. Long ago she gave herself to Ryan. A college love, connected. He was woven into her soul. She left. Ryan’s father died. He married someone else. A betrayal.

The author takes readers on a mysterious journey, at a controlled pace, peeling back the layers when Ryan and Lauren were dating in college. Lauren always included Abby. At first their friendship was new, and she was unaware of Abby’s secret suffering. When the lightbulb would go out. However, Abby fell in love with Ryan secretly. Everyone always knew Ryan and Lauren would get married. However, they didn’t. Why?

Throughout the book you do not know what happened to change these three. Until the ending…So be patient. It is worth the wait. Now, Lauren is returning to her favorite small town of Banner Elk (Beech Mountain), NC. Her family home was there. Her haven. She has to make her first appearance as an author. Her readers will meet the real Lauren (not the fake). Back where her journey started. Little does she know Ryan, Abby, and his daughter are in the mountains staying at a friend’s seasonal cabin, while Abby is going through treatment. When their paths cross, soon the long awaited secrets will be revealed. (A BIG ONE)!

Readers will despise Abby during the majority of the book. She attempts to drag everyone down. You wonder why Ryan tolerates her behavior. You will sympathize with Lauren. Lauren hides behind her work and her mask – her pain, the betrayal. The author has a purpose, precise timing, taking you to the explosive and emotional conclusion. The more you read, the better-- which will keep you glued to the pages.

Richly textured, an insightful look at hope and redemption. The author handles the painful subject of mental illness, with honesty and compassion. The haunting look at a fractured family will please readers of literary and domestic suspense. Harrowing, heartfelt and ultimately so realistically human --with flawed real characters—with a touch of romance--readers will be pleased with the beautiful ending.

Loved all the NC Connections and familiar places. Lastly, fortunate to have been introduced to this new found talented author. To find solace in her beautiful words, and the scenic mountain setting. There is nothing like the calmness, and serenity of waterfalls, mountains and streams---a walk in the woods, breathing the fresh mountain air. How much better does it get? ( )