Lexi Danby is looking for some no-strings, fall fun. Once a college track star, she was forced to drop out when her father passed away. Now she’s trying to make ends meet while putting herself through school and caring for her grieving mother. When her comically bad waitressing lands her directly in the path of a handsome, charming stranger named Will, Lexi may just have found the distraction she’s been looking for. Their first date looks promising until a misunderstanding at a party thrusts Lexi and Will into a fake engagement they can’t talk themselves out of. And Will turns out to be a member of Seattle royalty.
Will Grand is heir to a major company, and Seattle’s most eligible bachelor. But he’s been placed in charge of an important merger with a company that values family above all else, and needs to show them that he’s settled down. While a fake engagement is advantageous from a business standpoint, it’s not so great for a budding relationship with a woman who’s wary of commitment. With a woman who Will is beginning to care about much more than he could have anticipated.
As Lexi gets a taste of Will’s glamorous world and the pair keeps up the pretense of their fake engagement for the press, they decide to see where a more casual relationship takes them out of the spotlight. And amid apple picking in comfy flannels, outdoor breweries in the crisp air, and fun Halloween preparations, Lexi starts to realize the scariest part of the season might just be taking a chance on love.
Release Date: Sep 17, 2024
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: Macmillan
Imprint: St. Martin’s Press
Price: $12.99
Lexi Danby is trying to keep her head above water these days. Her father passed away, leaving her to worry about her grieving mother. She was on the way to being a track star in college but had to ditch her dreams once she returned home to take care of her mother. She works whatever jobs she can to try to keep food on their table. Nothing in her life right now is exciting except her encounter with Will Grand.
Will is a member of Seattle’s wealthy families. He is trying to dodge his nosey mother’s matchmaking schemes and stay out of the fray. He meets Lexi at a diner in town when she screws up his order and makes a mess of things. He finds her cute and different. When they are at a party together, things get interesting when the rumor flies that they are in a relationship. He could clear the air real quick, but he kind of likes having a buffer between him and his mother.
I enjoyed this story. It is cute and romantic, but it is a bit slow. There is not much memorable about the story despite it ticking most of my boxes. There are times when I wanted more tension between the two characters. There was barely any conflict outside of the author, showing us falling in love in their fake relationship.
Lexi and Will find themselves pretending to be engaged rather quickly. I didn’t like how the lie continued to escalate. It’s one thing to be in a relationship and another to pretend to be engaged for no reason. Lexi’s reason was that she wanted to impress people that she went to high school with, which was hard for me to believe. She is an adult, and this isn’t really labeled as a high school romance.
Will, on the other hand, is all in and more committed to the relationship. He makes the romance more palatable. I think the secondary characters all play their part, but they don’t necessarily add much bonus to the story.
Overall, fans who like the author’s previous work or need a quick contemporary romance story will enjoy Can’t Help Falling in Love.
~ Samantha
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