Title: The Upside of Falling
Author: Alex Light
Publication: February 18, 2020
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: Teen & YA Fiction
Pages: 284
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
It’s been years since seventeen-year-old Becca Hart believed in true love. But when her former best friend teases her for not having a boyfriend, Becca impulsively pretends she’s been secretly seeing someone.
Brett Wells has it all. Being captain of the football team and one of the most popular guys in school, he should have no problem finding someone to date, but he’s always been more focused on his future than who to bring to prom. When he overhears Becca’s lie, Brett decides to step in and be her mystery guy. It’s the perfect solution: he gets people off his back for not dating and she can keep up the ruse.
Acting like the perfect couple isn’t easy though, especially when you barely know the other person. But with Becca still picking up the pieces from when her world was blown apart years ago and Brett just barely holding his together now, they begin to realize they have more in common than they ever could have imagined. When the line between real and pretend begins to blur, they are forced to answer the question: is this fake romance the realest thing in either of their lives?
REVIEW:
I was looking for a light read for my rides to work. I love a good audiobook. I happened to come across The Upside of Love by Alex Light on Hoopla through my library. Let me tell you, it was so cute!
The story follows Becca as her and football star Brett make an agreement to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend for the sake of their own personal issues. Obviously that is not going to go as easy as planned. Nothing ever works the way you intend it to. I really like Becca. She reminds me a lot of myself. A bit of a homebody, always carrying a book. The supporting characters were equally as interesting and relatable. I quite liked Brett. I think some would find him your typical “dude bro”, but he was so much deeper than that. I found the reality of his life to be refreshing. Everyone thinks he’s this perfect guy with no problems, when in the background he has a lot of issues that he is dealing with.
While the storyline was predictable, I knew that going in. I chose it because I wanted an easy read with a good story. I definitely got that. I loved the independence of Becca and the growth from all the characters. I enjoyed the ups and downs of the story and the intensity of some of the issues that arose. It added just enough drama to the story where it wasn’t just a typical romance. It also falls under YA Fiction, which is one of my go to reads.
Overall this story was cute, fun to read, with a bit of drama twisted in. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something to enjoy with depth. I’ll check out more from Alex Light going forward.
