The Hardest Fall by Ella Maise

​NEW ADULT ROMANCE

Publication date:04/16/2018
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No
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There was lots to like about this one...and a few things that kind of ruined it for me. I’ll start with the good:

1. Zoe’s shyness and tendency to blurt out embarrassing overly verbose monologues when she gets flustered is ridiculously cute. She had some other quirks which were equally cute. I could totally see why Dylan was fascinated with her.
2. Dylan is a darn-near perfect book boyfriend. He’s kind and thoughtful and alpha without being an alphahole. He’s focused on his sports career, but he’s not one of these ridiculous sports romance heroes who thinks he can’t have a relationship or fall in love because of his career. He was a realist who knew that a sports career and love weren’t mutually exclusive, and I totally appreciated that.  
3. It’s a slow burn romance. I love a good slow burn romance. ​

As for what didn’t work, there were two basic things:

1. Drama for the sake of drama. There was a big to-do with Zoe’s friend and something awful that her scumbag boyfriend did to her. I didn’t see the point of this AT ALL. It easily could’ve been left out of the story because it did NOTHING to move the romance between Dylan and Zoe along, and even worse, it did nothing to move the plot of the whole book along. It was unnecessary angst and drama. I have zero tolerance for unnecessary angst.
2. All the secrets. There was NO reason for Zoe to keep her secrets from Dylan. He proved early on that he was capable of being a true friend. She should have trusted him with her secrets. The fact that she kept stupid secrets that she had no business keeping reminded me of why new adult romance tends to irritate me. I’m too old for that kind of stupid crap.

All-in-all, this wasn’t terrible for a new adult romance. If the book had stuck to just the romance between Dylan and Zoe, it would’ve easily been a 5-star read. But all the unnecessary angst and drama dragged it down. Maybe younger readers wouldn’t mind that kind of thing? I dunno. But if you’re a grumpy old lady like me, you might want to consider steering clear.   

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s not contributing, but it’s not really doing anything to help crush the stigma, either.

Other reading suggestions
Try any of the reads on our list of top new adult book boyfriends you’ll wish you’d met in college. They’re all pretty awesome. ​

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