Review: Good debut novel from talented author
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 11, 2014
Fall Into Forever by Beth HylandI was provided with an ARC of this book & offer here my honest and unbiased review of the same.Fall Into Forever, the debut novel from Beth Hyland is a sweet NA romance between Ivy and Jon, students at a Pacific State University. Ivy suffers from retrograde amnesia caused by the horrific car accident that took her high school boyfriend’s life - she isn’t able to remember what caused the crash or the events leading up to it. Jon is what could have been the stereotypical “Bad Boy” - tattoos, piercings, motorcycle, guitar but, before the end of Chapter 2 Hyland has begun to peel back the layers of the expected to reveal a much more interesting character underneath - happily.Very often in romance novels and especially in the NA sub genre, the main characters are forced to reel from one emotional &/or physical trauma to another, pausing only for interludes of hot sex along the way; it’s hard on the characters, hell on developing any sort of emotional arc and strains the imagination of most readers. I was happy to read through the ups and downs of Ivy & Jon’s lives and their developing relationship with each other and realize that Hyland didn’t take the stock route to romance. There are ups and downs, miscommunication, the perfectly normal overreactions to emotional triggers of your normal 20-somethings but these characters learn from their mistakes, they actually grow up as we go through the book, they are human; imagine that. They learn to open up enough to fit together in the best ways, the ways that make each stronger and healthier without weakening or overburdening either one individually.I like the human touches that Hyland gives her characters; they do laundry, remember to change the sheets and clean the kitchen, Ivy (and another character) are “yarn-aholics” and more than a few characters either knit or crochet; and Ivy is even on Ravelry (me, too). It’s nice to see that while Ivy eschews typical social media, she knows she’s safe on the best self-regulated social media site going with the rest of us fiber folks.