I received this book for free from the TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Published by Lake Union Publishing on April 19, 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Depression & Mental Illness, Family, Football, Love & Romance, Marriage & Divorce
Pages: 291
Format: eBook
Source: TLC Book Tours
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By all accounts, Abby Holden has it all. She’s the mother of a beautiful teenager and the wife of a beloved high school football coach. And all it took to achieve her charmed life was her greatest act of betrayal.
Coach Ryan can coax his team to victory, but he can’t seem to make his wife, Abby, happy. Her struggles with depression have marred their marriage and taken a toll on their daughter, Juliana. Although this isn’t the life he’s dreamed of, he’s determined to heal the rifts in his family.
Chasing waterfalls and documenting their beauty has led photographer Lauren Sheppard all around the world. Now it has brought her back home to the mountains of North Carolina—back to the scene of her devastating heartbreak.
For the first time in seventeen years, a trio of once-inseparable friends find themselves confronting past loves, hurts, and the rapid rush of a current that still pulls them together.…
I really love books where you get different characters’ points of views, slowly gleaning the truth out of them all one by one–and this book does just that. In Rochelle B. Weinstein’s WHERE WE FALL, a marriage that is hanging by a thread due to a wife’s long term bouts of depression and the husband’s unwillingness to do anything but hold everything tightly together as best as he can out of obligation is shattered to pieces when his ex-girlfriend/her ex-best friend resurfaces after disappearing from their lives seventeen years earlier.
Three Friends Who Thought It Would Last Forever…
Abby has always struggled with depression, and when she meets her new college roommate Lauren, she feels like she’s finally found someone who understands her. When Lauren starts dating Ryan, they include Abby in everything and Ryan treats her with empathy and respect. When college is over and Lauren leaves Ryan for what’s supposed to be a six-month job photographing waterfalls around the world, both Ryan and Abby are lonely and heartbroken that she left them. And when tragedy strikes Ryan, Abby is the one there to pick up the pieces when Lauren doesn’t come home from abroad to comfort Ryan and take care of him in his time of need. So Lauren and Ryan’s relationship ends, and Abby and Ryan’s future begins…
Abby’s Depression Crushes Her…
Abby is a tortured soul, often unable to bring herself out of her depressive lows to take care of Ryan and their daughter Juliana. The effect this has on them has taken its toll, and after a severe episode she’s finally admitted to a treatment center. Abby’s journey through treatment and self-discovery was realistic and emotional, even though you never find out what happened in her distant past to set off the depression (and it was eluded to). Abby isn’t an entirely likable character, but you feel for her as she admits her mistakes and tries to get better–to make things right.
While Ryan Sacrifices To Hold Her Together…
Ryan is a successful high school football coach, and while he’s commanding and a great leader on the sidelines while coaching his team and well respected in the community, he’s barely holding it together at home. He takes care of his daughter and his wife since she can’t do it on her own a lot due to her illness, but he manages to hold everything together somehow. His self-sacrificing attitude has him thinking that his life is good, when in reality he’s not happy–not since Lauren left him all those years ago.
Lauren Still Feels the Pain, and She Won’t Let It Go…
Lauren left the country and became a successful author using a pseudonym, and now she’s finally completing the book of waterfall photography that she’d started all those years ago. But she has to return to the town where she grew up, where she fell in love for the first time, where she was betrayed–to finish the project. When she comes face to face with Ryan and Abby’s daughter by chance, the emotions and pain she’s held back rush to the surface, and she won’t stand idly by without telling both Ryan and Abby how she feels this time–even if nothing will come of it.
I give WHERE WE FALL a 4.5 out of 5. Emotional, heartfelt, and beautifully written with great outdoorsy scenery, this contemporary women’s fiction piece hit all the right notes with a story of first loves, first hurts, betrayal, and hope of redemption. While the characters weren’t always likable, they flawed and realistic, which made them intriguing and multi-layered. One thing that did stick out was the lack of distinction between the four points of view. Ryan, Abby, Lauren, and even teenager Juliana’s chapters were all written with the same voice. It would have been nice for them to have more distinct speech patterns, thoughts, etc. in their first person point of view written chapters. Overall, I highly enjoyed the journey this book took me on.
About Rochelle B. Weinstein
Rochelle B. Weinstein is the author of What We Leave Behind and The Mourning After. Her third novel, Where We Fall, releases April 19, 2016. Ms. Weinstein lives in South Florida with her husband and twin sons. She is currently writing her fourth novel, a family drama based in Miami Beach, Florida. Please visit her at www.rochelleweinstein.com.
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