New Release + Review: The Fall by Allyson Kennedy
When you’ve lost all you’ve desperately sought to keep, why bother hoping for a second chance?
With her pent up faith in love unraveling, former hopeless romantic Emery Brooks is a shell of the girl who once craved a love story that mirrored her grandparents’ fifty-year marriage. Taking all efforts to guard her heart, she isolates herself from everything she’s ever loved, including her music and faith, now battling the same cynicism she worked so hard to protect Sawyer from.
When Emery is asked to post the video for the song she and Sawyer wrote online, her first instinct is to resist. No one understands their story. No one can relate to what they’ve gone through. Grief should not be publicized.
Resistance proves to be futile, as the video plunges Emery into a world of new possibilities. Will Emery succumb to her stubborn tendencies and avoid all risks, or learn to leap again into the comfort of God’s arms, despite uncertainty?
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After the first book in this series, I desperately needed the next. Thankfully, this story gave me at least a little bit of resolution after that heartbreaker of a first book. The continuing story of Emery and her assorted trials made me keep flipping those kindle pages!
Characters: Having read the first book, Emery was a tried and true character, and she’s such a good narrator. However, she’s definitely changed since the first book, and the author did an amazing job showing how much she’s grown – in positive and not so positive ways. Watching her work through life after the trauma of the last book was hard, but the healing she experienced was so necessary. Many of the side characters returned, and they were all fun to see. And I have to mention Jace – he was such a nice guy! I would like to see more character development with him, or maybe just a few more flaws. That will probably be explored more in later books, though, since he wasn’t introduced until close to the midpoint of the book.
Writing Style/Setting/Plot: This author’s writing style fits these books so well. It’s a perfect combination of beautiful writing and no-nonsense, Southern speech. It feels so true to life. The small town the book was based in was sweet, too, and it was good to go back to familiar places from the first book! As for the plot, it focused a lot on Emery’s past with Sawyer and moving on from so much pain. I also really liked the parts about Emery’s music career – I love the direction it’s all going! I personally would’ve like more about her career and just getting her life back on sort a stable environment rather than plunging into a romance after only a year or two post-Sawyer. Also, the way her friends and family sort of forced her into scared me a bit. (Maybe some people wouldn’t mind that, but I’d be running scared!)
Theme: So many beautiful things! God’s faithfulness, forgiveness, and love were on display throughout the book. Then there was this beautiful side plot about the fleeting nature of this life and what really matters – that was lovely! The deepness of the themes in this book was amazing. We need more YA books like this. And all the Scripture was a perfect addition.
Overall, this was a great second installment to this series, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes YA. Or really anyone, because I don’t typically read a lot in this genre, but I really love this series. I’ll be on the lookout for the next book!
Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher/author. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
Allyson Kennedy is an author from eastern North Carolina whose main goal for writing is to honor God without sugarcoating the realities of the world. In her time as an indie author, she has written contemporary fiction books for middle graders and young adults, and non-fiction for Christian authors. When she’s not writing, Allyson enjoys watching movies with her husband, shooting arrows with her recurve bow, and reading, of course.
Website: https://authoringarrowheads.com/
Instagram: @authorallysonkennedy
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Books Available At: https://books2read.com/allysonkennedy
