Why I read it: I received a review copy via the publisher.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) She’s the woman he doesn’t remember. He’s the man she can’t forget.

Bad boy Hank “Hazardous” Lazarus used to have everything: a gorgeous girlfriend, a career as a freestyle snowboarder and a spot on the US Olympic team. Nine months ago, after a bad crash in the half pipe, he woke up in the hospital, unable to move his legs. Now he’s landed there again, but gravity is not the culprit. With his family pressuring him to try a groundbreaking treatment, Hank self-medicates with too much tequila instead.

Doctor Callie Anders has the courage to restart a patient’s heart with a thousand volts of electricity, yet she’s afraid to risk her own. So she doesn’t confess to her newest patient they they met just before the accident, an encounter that he doesn’t remember. Even as their friendship develops, she won’t admit that she regrets turning down his dinner invitation, or that her heart stutters every time those inked shoulders roll through the door of the therapy department.

With another Vermont winter coming again, Hank needs a hand out from under the avalanche of his disappointments. If only Callie were brave enough to take the job.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’ve had the ebook version of Falling From the Sky on my TBR (of Doom) for ages but never found the time to read it. Tanya Eby is one of my favourite narrators and I’ve heard good things about Aiden Snow (although many of his romance audiobooks seem to be geo restricted for me so I previously had limited opportunity to give his narrations a try). My TBL is shorter than my TBR and I was motivated to bump this one up the queue.

As is commonly the case with audiobooks, I didn’t read the blurb before I started listening. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t that the hero was going to be rendered paraplegic in the first chapter, or that he would not make a miraculous recovery. So the book went in a different direction than I thought it might. That’s not a complaint and really, if I had read the blurb I’d not have been surprised at all. Still, I did experience a bit of a gut wrench when I found out that Hank had been so seriously injured so there is something to be said for not reading blurbs first IMO.

Callie Anders is a doctor in small town Vermont. Her ex-fiance cheated on her with a nursing student and she is lonely. She doesn’t feel like there are many prospects for her in Hamilton and she’s toying with the idea of moving to California to shake her life up a little.

Callie’s and Hank’s paths cross a number of times but most often after she is placed in charge of a rehabilitation study in which Hank is reluctantly participating. Hank is coming to grips with the notion he is unlikely to ever walk again and still grieving the life he lost. Callie is the bright spot in his otherwise depressing and dull life. He is attracted to her but he hasn’t been able to get an erection since the accident so he doesn’t know if he can have a sexual relationship with her and this makes him somewhat reluctant to pursue anything. (Of course, erections are only one part of a sexual relationship but I accept that a guy would definitely want to have erections if it is at all possible to do so.)

Callie, for her part, has difficulty believing that Hank could really want her. He used to date supermodels and elite athletes. She doesn’t quite have that body type and her confidence took a big hit when her scungy ex dumped her. Nevertheless, both she and Hank get closer and eventually, their attraction becomes too much for either of them to deny. The path to true love doesn’t run smooth of course. Between concerns about Hank’s seemingly perfect ex and his worries about his ability to perform sexually and the potentially ethically dicey issue of her being in charge of a study he’s involved in, there’s a number of things working against them. However, in true romance novel style – love wins.

What I liked about the way in which love wins in Falling From the Sky is that it doesn’t do so with a miracle cure. Callie and Hank are able to have the full HEA experience even though Hank uses a wheelchair – because of course. Having a disability does not exclude one from the HEA pool. While I am not an expert on disability, the representation in this book seemed good to me. Clearly the author had done some research and it was pretty explicit in the book that each person with a spinal cord injury will have a different experience, disability is not a monolith and Hank ought not be taken as the one true representation. Rather, Hank’s experience was shown as but one possible experience and the book was definitely alive to the various other privileges he has in his life.

Over the course of the book, Hank has to come to grips with not walking again and it takes him a while to decide to embrace and enjoy the life he has now. Again this rang true for me, even though I’m not an expert in the field.

Callie was always fairly matter of fact about Hank’s disability and never saw him as “damaged”. It was clear her feelings for him were about the man he is and were completely independent of what he can do with his legs (or other body parts).

I liked the way the ethical issue was dealt with. Callie is not actually Hank’s doctor when they begin a relationship but there is the potential for some side-eye to be given to them and to the hospital given she’s in charge of the rehabilitation study. The matter was potentially serious and I was glad to see it wasn’t brushed off or downplayed at all.

What else? The narration was great. I’ve long enjoyed Ms. Eby’s narrations and I’m happy to report that Mr. Snow lived up to expectations. Perhaps Mr. Snow didn’t always have the world’s most convincing female character voices (that said, they did improve over the course of the book) but his expression, tone and pacing were otherwise good enough for me to give it a pass. Ms. Eby’s characterisation of Callie in particular had me very much in her corner and Mr. Snow’s depiction of Hank and his journey to self-acceptance added that something extra I enjoy most about the audiobook format.