Book Review: Fall With Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout

9:00 AM Vi Win Win 2 Comments

Eleven months ago, bartender and weird-shirt-wearing extraordinaire Roxy and Officer Reece Anders had a one night stand. Well, kind of. She’s been in love with him since she was fifteen, and he wishes that night they shared never happened. She’s sworn him off forever, but the past and future collide, forcing her to rely on the one man who broke her heart not once, but twice.
Her best friend since birth has been in a long-term care facility since he became a victim of a hate crime years ago, and the person who put him in there is out of prison and wanting to make amends with him and Roxy. She’s not sure she has room for forgiveness in her and when she begins to receive frightening messages and is on the receiving end of escalating violence, she thinks she knows who is to blame. The man who already destroyed one life already.
But Reece isn’t convinced. The threats are too personal, and even if Roxy doesn’t believe him, he’s not willing to let anyone hurt her. Including himself. He’s already messed up more than once when it comes to Roxy and he’s not going to let history repeat itself.

Yet another case of JLA goodness. Fall With Me definitely made me fall and I honestly think I liked this book more than Stay With Me, even if both books had similar elements. Despite my issues with Roxy, which I’ll discuss, something about their chemistry and the suspense aspect of the book just clicked for me and I flew through this book. I genuinely liked Reece and Roxy as a couple and I liked watching their relationship unfold. There’s just something about a cop, who is protective and all alpha-male by nature (at least in books), that totally appeals to me.

So yeah, the suspense element really caught my attention, which is surprising because that plot line was hardly anything new and I figured everything out way before Roxy got a clue, but it was just exciting to read and I kept on reading to see how things would work itself out and waiting impatiently, in a good way, for the big reveal. The book has a pretty crazy psycho running amuck around town, and I just like those kinds of books for some reason.

I loved Reece so much. He’s an all-around good guy and I admired his persistence when it came to Roxy. He has some inner demons that weren’t really explored, but you still get a good sense of his character. He was very patient, considerate, and understanding with Roxy and I enjoyed their conversations and the fact that their families are basically all old friends. The scenes of them with Roxy’s family were hilarious and just fun to read. Their intimate scenes were, naturally, hot as hell. Oh, and did I mention the guy makes a mean omelet? Because, oh yeah…he does.

Roxy, on the other hand, had her ups and downs. I loved how great of a friend she was to Charlie and empathized with her situation. I had mixed feelings about how she handled Henry, but I understood her actions. Her biggest flaw was not being able to let go and move on, which I used to have problems with growing up, so I got it and didn’t fault her for it too much. I also loved that she wears glasses and her love of humorous t-shirts was cute. She had a bit of spunk to her and her inner monologues weren’t so bad. What really bugged me about her was how she kept pushing Reece away. If you know my tastes, you know I don’t like it when characters do that, especially if it’s over something as silly or uncontrollable as Roxy’s reasons. Granted, it wasn’t that big of an issue and Reece stood his ground, I didn’t care for her way of thinking. I also didn’t like how flippant she was about the crazy and strange things that were happening to her. I just couldn’t believe how she didn’t take it seriously and how long she let it go on.

As good as JLA books are, and you know how much I love my JLA, I have to say that I’m getting a little tired of all the pop culture references and cheesy one-liners. I know I’ve said that I loved pop culture references in the past, but I think I like it better when it’s every now and then, especially from one given author. I guess since I’ve read every JLA book to date, these things tend to be a bit too repetitive to the point where it’s like her fall-back formula. Sure, that’s just Jen’s writing style and I love it, but it gets old fast. For example, with the one-liners, “holy baby Jesus in a manger” or something akin to that, while funny, gets played out after so many of her characters use it.

Anyways, that’s not specific to just Fall With Me, of course, but just thought I’d put that out there. Maybe that’s just me and the fact that I seriously read too many books nowadays, especially too many contemporary romances. Either way, Fall With Me was a great romance read with a good dose of suspense/thriller. Fans of the series will also love seeing all the previous couples as well as get clues to the remaining two couples. JLA just knows how to entertain through her writing and characters and this book was no different. I definitely loved this and can’t wait for more from this series.