Review: Falling by Barbara Elsborg
Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: March 24, 2015
Reviewed by: Heller
How I got this book: E-Arc from Publisher
Fall or Break #1
Falling is easy. Landing without breaking your heart? Impossible.
“Harper is no longer behind bars, but it doesn’t feel like it. Ten years serving time for a crime he didn’t commit have left him shut down, numb, and a frozen wreck over the simplest of choices.
He’s acutely aware of the dark-haired young man checking him out in the supermarket, but he’s too deep in panic mode to even meet the guy’s gaze. Afraid the slightest move will trigger a fall that will never stop.
Fresh off a long-term relationship with a controlling man, Malachi is stuck living with relatives who think he’s a waste of oxygen. The tall guy in the long, gray coat is the first bright spot he’s glimpsed in a long time…though the man’s unblinking stare at a bottle of shower gel is a touch alarming.
Hard experience tells both of them to turn away before lust turns to hopeless attraction, and inevitably to disaster. But once their sparks connect, the arc of electricity is too strong to deny. Even if the cost is too much to bear.
Warning: Contains an ex-con with disaster written all over him, a boy toy who’s trouble with a capital T, a damp old British house, compulsive meddling, and enough hot sex to cure the severe case of nervous babbling.”
OMG. The delicious angst! I loved this read!
Sweet, sweet Malachi. He’s such a wonderful character with an horrific back story and his brother-in-law Brian is such an asshole to him. So cruel, I felt so indignant for all the hoops he was forced to jump through just to live in their house. As we learn more and more about his relationship with Conrad it just adds another layer of the pain he’s had to endure in his young life.
And then, poor Harper. Talk about endurance. Every time we got more details about what happened to him I couldn’t believe it. Bad things definitely happen to good people and he’s proof of that.
These poor guys and their lives. I was so glad when they found each other. There’s a really wonderful dance of attraction here between these men. It’s a great lust at first sight story with a slow burn build of a relationship. I enjoyed seeing the ties between them get stronger and stronger with each reveal but crap they have to go through to get to their HEA is harsh.
I guessed what was happening pretty early on but that didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying the thriller quotient here. This was an angsty sexy read. If I had a quibble I wish that it was more distinctly British. As it was it felt very generically North American and it wasn’t until some geography was mentioned that I even realized that the story was set in the UK.
Where is book 2 taking us? I have no idea and I cannot wait to see what happens next!
I’m giving Falling a A-