The Upside of Falling by. Alex Light | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Upside of Falling

Author: Alex Light

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 288

Publication Date: 2/18/20

Categories: Contemporary, Romance, Fake Dating, Young Adult, Teen

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? 

This is a very light young adult romance book. I think the writing is more for teens than young adults with some cursing here and there (not a lot).

It’s a typical fake dating scenario: Becca is pretty unknown on campus, she loves losing herself in romance books (even though she is a cynic about real life love) and Brett is the star football player so they decide to get together for their own reasons – not very serious reasons, but they seem to think fake dating would be a good idea.

Becca doesn’t believe in love because her parents got divorced. Brett believes in marriage and true love because his parents have the perfect one – or so it seems. This is the only time the book gets heavy when Brett finds out his perfect life isn’t so perfect. Also Becca deals with some issues about her dad and his new family as well. In this aspect, Becca and Brett had each other for support, dealing with the mistakes of their parents.

As a couple, I thought Becca and Brett were cute and somewhat innocent about dating. Neither of them have dated before so they take things really slow. I like that they become friends, even as they are fake-dating, before admitting their feelings had grown.

Content Warnings: cheating, divorce

One thing that I thought was cheesy was Brett always pouting haha – I guess some girls would find that cute. It made me feel like I was too old to be reading this story, probably because I am! lol…but I read it anyway, it’s nice to reminisce.

Becca and Brett did get along very well, even if she was new to being in the spotlight or a fake relationship. I think they got together on the fake-dating plan way too quick – there was no real lead up and bam, they agree it’s a good idea. It would’ve been nice if that scene was developed a bit more because Becca and Brett weren’t exactly strangers to one another, but they had no history with one another at all. I can’t say I connected to either of them but the parental issues are very relatable.

The story is predictable and doesn’t have any big surprises. The story is short, under 300 pages, so I finished this rather quickly.

Why you should read it:

• very quick, cute, light teen romance
• fake-dating
• relatable issues

Why you might not want to read it:

• predictable, nothing that stands out
• more for teens than young adults or adults

My thoughts:

There isn’t much that makes it stand out but I did like that Becca and Brett each had different family issues to deal with. The fake-dating part was easy compared to the family drama, which was sad to see for both of them. But the problems sort of work themselves out in their own different ways and Becca and Brett are stronger because of it. If you like a light contemporary romance with a fake-dating trope that’s under 300 pages then you will fly through this one.

📚 ~ Yolanda