Why I read it: I’ve enjoyed this series and Sophie Eastlake is one of my favourite narrators. I picked up the audio on sale recently.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Jennifer L. Armentrout, New York Times bestselling author of the Wait for You series, delivers a new novel of first love, second chances, and scorching chemistry between an artistic bartender and the tough, sexy cop who’s determined to win her Roxy’s loved Reece Anders since she was fifteen, so when the straitlaced cop finally surrendered to a steamy encounter years later, Roxy hoped he’d fall for her, too. He didn’t. Or that’s what she’s always believed. But then Reece storms back into her life when the man who injured her childhood friend is out of prison and wanting to make amends—something Roxy cannot do.

The last thing she wants is to go there with Reece again, but he’s determined to prove to her that he’s exactly what she needs. Especially when a sick creep starts messing with her. But what’s more dangerous to Roxy—a psycho after her or the past that refuses to let go and allow her to open up her heart again?

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’ve actually had this audiobook in my TBL for ages but it hadn’t made it onto my iPod and I’d kind of forgotten about it. Silly me. Sophie Eastlake is one of my favourite narrators and I know I’m going to get a great listen when she’s on board. Plus, I’ve loved earlier books in the Wait For You series.

Fall With You is book four in the series – I’ve got book three – Stay With Me on my TBR but I skipped ahead to this one. It works just fine. There are mild spoilers for the earlier books but romance is largely about the journey rather than the destination so they didn’t bother me.

Roxy Ark is a bartender at Mona’s, a part time graphic design student and a devoted friend to Charlie. Six years before the story begins, Roxy and Charlie were involved in an altercation with some other students after a high school football game. Charlie was hit in the head by a rock thrown by another boy and suffered a catastrophic and permanent head injury. He lives in a care facility, his health slowly deteriorating. Roxy visits him every Friday, taking him watercolour paintings she does for him through the week. Part of Roxy’s story arc is her finally beginning to deal with what happened to Charlie and her beliefs about the part she played in his injury.

Reece Anders used to live next door to Roxy’s family. He’s three years older than Roxy and she fell for him when she was 15 years old. Of course, she was much too young for Reece then. Reece joined the military after high school and was injured while deployed. When he came home, after his recovery, he joined the police department, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Colton, who is a detective.

When the story begins, Roxy and Reece haven’t spoken for nearly a year, except for her telling him to fuck off and leave her alone. Something happened between them one night when Reece was drunk and Roxy drove him home. Afterwards, things weren’t the same and Roxy no longer wanted to be around him. Reece has finally had enough of it and decides to get to the bottom of what happened and get Roxy back in his life.

At the same time, girls in the area have been assaulted and raped and one has gone missing altogether. When strange things start happening in Roxy’s apartment, she doesn’t link the events but the listener knows what’s happening.

There is an element to the story of “big misunderstanding” – not my favourite trope. Reece believes he and Roxy had sex the night he was drunk – he doesn’t actually remember. Roxy knows they did not have sex – but she hasn’t told him. Once she decides to tell him, events interrupt and the big reveal takes a lot longer than she anticipated. I found myself frustrated with this because it was made clear that Reece would interpret this as dishonesty – something he is very sensitive about, particularly because his dad is a lying liar who lies. Still, the story didn’t play out exactly like I thought it would and I was grateful for that, even while I prefer frank conversation to long term misunderstanding.

There is no Reece POV. The story is told entirely from Roxy’s perspective. However, there was enough of Reece and enough dialogue that I felt I had a good handle on his character.

One of the more unexpected joys of the story was the acknowledgement that college isn’t the best path for everyone and that one can lead a happy and fulfilled life without a degree. So much of the NA genre is college-set, the other perspective seems uncommon. (I have no objection to higher education or anything – it’s just nice to see other representations in NA.)

Roxy and Reece has scorching chemistry and Reece is a sexual savant (I’m not complaining). I liked their interactions on pretty much every level, not just the intimate scene – but they were very hot and well done.

What else? Sophie Eastlake is such a talented narrator. She does a good male character voice – sure they mostly sound the same but that’s not uncommon across the board. The point is that the characters are well differentiated and, most especially, there was never any confusion between Roxy and Reece. Her delivery of the emotion, humour, angst, passion and tension of the story was excellent, as was her pacing. This is what I’ve come to expect from Ms. Eastlake quite frankly and it’s why there have been times I’ve tried a new-to-me author on audio. Her narration alone makes an audio a fairly safe bet. Here, paired with J. Lynn’s writing, I was a pretty happy listener.

Fall With You wasn’t terribly ground-breaking as far as the plot itself is concerned, but it was done very well, with characters I quickly came to care about. Ultimately, the audiobook delivered just what I was hoping for and I don’t think I could ask for more than that.