Review: Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder

Title: Falling Into You
Published: March 16th, 2013
Author: Jasinda Wilder
Pages: 223
Rating:


From Goodreads:
I wasn't always in love with Colton Calloway; I was in love with his younger brother, Kyle, first. Kyle was my first one true love, my first in every way.
Then, one stormy August night, he died, and the person I was died with him.

Colton didn't teach me how to live. He didn't heal the pain. He didn't make it okay. He taught me how to hurt, how to not be okay, and, eventually, how to let go.

My Thoughts:

Falling Into You is a painful story. You know from the moment you read the blurb that there's going to be some heartbreaking pain. There's a lot of pain, enough to use a whole box of tissues. I know I did.

“She's got so much pain, so many cracks and shards and jags in her soul, and I'm going to get cut by her if I'm not careful.”

Nell is one hell of a mess. From the first page I knew I would have issues with her. I had a love/hate relationship with her for the entire book. I wanted to strangle her quite a few times, to make her realize her mistakes. It's hard for me to like a character that is self destructive, which is silly because these are somehow the realest characters of all.

Kyle managed to grab my heart, even though I knew he was going to die[this is not a spoiler, it's right in the blurb, I swear!]. He was so sweet and loveable. He's the kind of guy you want your daughter to end up with. My heart definitely cracked when he died.

“In the dark comfort between my sheets.
I can't resist you, baby,
Because I'm falling still,
I'm falling into you.”

Colton is a fiercely passionate man. A swoony guy with a guitar and tattoos, pretty much my kryptonite. You just know can make you feel things, any way he wants[yup...]. He's just the right amount of fucked up. He's got the past that's chasing him, but he's willing to face it for Nell. There was something I really liked about him, something beyond the tattoos and guitar.

“I want you to let yourself be broken. Let yourself hurt.”

The main issues in this book are grief and guilt. Both Nell and Colton are dealing with separate grief and guilt, afraid to move on with their lives. They live in the past without ever actually dealing with these terrible things that have damaged them. Nell can't get over her loss of Kyle, and Colton isn't ready to fully face his demons from his past. Together they try to learn how to live with the loss, not live in the loss. That's the most beautiful thing about this story. Who amongst us hasn't had to deal with guilt or loss? Who doesn't know how it feels to let these emotions fester in us until we're just a wound that continues to be poked and prodded? That is worth all the stars I gave this book alone.

I would never think that I would be saying that a story has too much sex, but I think that a lot of what I liked about Falling Into You were the things I didn't get to see enough of because they were too wrapped up in the sex. Don't get me wrong, there were some awesome panty melting sex scenes that had me squirming. I just wanted more of the other scenes. I wanted more of the outside the bedroom relationship building. I feel like too much of the story centered on the bedroom.

Another thing I kind of missed was the lack of secondary characters. I really would have like some kind of secondary character building, it makes for a richer story, and it makes the main characters feel more alive.

Overall I would say I enjoyed this book, but felt like it had a little more room for plot growth and character development. However, the addictive writing style and fast paced story line will probably have me reading this again in the future.