FallingStory Rating: 3.25 stars
Audio Rating: 3.25 stars

Narrator: Charlie David
Length: 8 hours, 32 minutes

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible
Book Buy Links: Amazon | All Romance


Scott’s father was a logger and he is well aware of the dangers involved in the job. Scott’s brother, Brian, followed in their father’s footsteps and when Scott gets a call that Brian was injured in a logging accident, he rushes to see him. Scott quickly learns that Brian’s injuries are not serious and also meets Brian’s co-worker, Hank. Hank is the odd man out within the group of loggers and they are all convinced that Hank is responsible for Brian’s accident.

Scott is immediately attracted to the adventurous Hank, although it seems they have nothing in common and Scott doesn’t think that Hank is into guys. The men fall into a fast friendship and Scott also finds himself falling fast for the beautiful, green-eyed man who makes him want more than a casual relationship. Hank finds himself attracted to Scott and maybe Scott has been the one thing missing from his life all this time.

throwback thursdayFalling is a book that is angst and drama free. There were many areas that could have had varying degrees of tension, but this book was smooth going all of the way through. Scott rushes to Brian’s side as the men are close since Brian took care of Scott after their parents died. Brian’s injuries are not severe, although he is kept in the hospital with no mention of a concussion and told not to drive for two weeks.

Hank is good at his job, but still likes to go out drinking when he can. His co-workers are constantly giving him a hard time, but Scott steps in and the men bond quickly. There are glimpses that Hank had a high school encounter with another man, but since then has entertained a long line of women. With a few days off, the men spend time together, go camping, and try out a relationship. The shift for Hank to dating a man is easy and there is no hesitation at all as he is all into Scott. The men then spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time exploring each other.

There are scenes of the men at work, which was interesting to hear about as they often worked in remote areas. There was a lot of emphasis about the men being experienced and how safety procedures were so important to them, yet they did manage to get themselves hurt quite a bit, which just read as contradictory. But again, not to worry because even when potential drama is just a sentence away, it is never fully realized.

The dialogue was stilted in some scenes and leaned toward being fairly juvenile, as can be evidenced by the amount of time the men spent fixated on coming up with nicknames for each other and that just became ridiculous over time. Hank’s family is brought up and we are told that he is estranged from them, but then that area of the story was not developed.

Scott and Hank were interesting characters and both were trying to find their place, with Scott never wanting to commit to a relationship and Hank starting a relationship with a man for the first time. But, there was just something missing for me here between the dialogue, several scenes that were contradictory, and the ease of their relationship. While easy can hit the spot at times, this was a little too easy for me. And while I have no problem with the characters finding themselves in many intimate encounters, that was the primary way that their relationship developed.

I listened to this book on audio, it was narrated by Charlie David, and it was an interesting experience. The audio version was released in 2012 and my perspective of having listened to some of David’s most recent narrations is that he has drastically improved his performances since Falling. At times it was difficult to reconcile that it was the same narrator. There are no characterizations here and every character sounds the same and the book is basically being read to us. There were then times during a back and forth conversation that it became impossible to follow which character was speaking. If you are not looking for a true character performance, David does offer a pleasant basic narrative tone. There is brief music at the start of each chapter, which offered an appropriate chapter break, but there were times that the music continued when the narration came back on. But, David still puts all of the emotion, heat, and sensuality into the many intimate scenes that are offered. This was not one of my favorite performances by David, but having listened to his more recent work I would not discount him by any means.

A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.

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