There's not much to say about this book. It was just kind of boring. I did like the main characters enough but I wasn't that engaged. 

It was kind of dull really. I don't think the characters had that much chemistry. I didn't like how Kathryn's dad encouraged her to pursue Pam when she was clearly still broken from her husband's death. I don't think there was enough grieving on her part and I didn't like how it had that theme of "I don't think I ever really loved him" and "I married him because he wanted me too." Like, it's fine to have her actually love her husband, they were married for twenty years. I also don't like how bisexuality wasn't at all touched on. Why couldn't she have been bisexual? I think it's fine to look at compulsory heterosexuality but that wasn't really explored. 

Then with Kathryn she's very avoidant of relationships as she had her heart broken. I don't think that was explored enough.

It was overall a pretty mediocre book that could've been better in some aspects.

2 1/2 Stars. I always enjoy reading new authors. It’s like opening a present, you don’t know what you are going to get but you are excited at what it could be. I don’t know if it was the cover or the blurb, but I was really hopeful for this book. Unfortunately, this was just not a book that works for me.

Kathryn has been hurt before, and purposely keeps women at arm’s length. When she walks into a store and meets Pam, she can’t take her eyes off her. But Pam is obviously straight and even wears a wedding band. How could this possibly ever work out?

This is a debut, and to be perfectly honest it feels like a debut book. I really struggled with the writing, especially the dialogue. The dialogue seemed forced at certain times, and other times just seemed odd or didn’t make sense. I kept thinking a person really wouldn’t actually say that. I hate to rip on a book so much but the writing came across as amateurish to me.

The romance was okay. Not horrible, but not good either. They had this strong connection that turned into love quickly, but I honestly did not really believe it. They seemed to like each other, but I felt no chemistry beyond like. The sex scenes were about average.

Next came the angst/drama of the book. I don’t want to give too much away, so I will just say it involved a secondary character and I found it to be completely unrealistic. Not only that but how the main characters handled it was just ridiculous. This part really did not work for me.

This is not a book I can recommend. We all have different tastes so maybe others will like this, but this book was rough for me. I hate to blast a new author, but I have to be honest. Hopefully Zak will keep working on her craft and her next book will be more appealing to me.

Kathryn is a film reviewer on the local radio station. After a bad break up with a married woman who had strung her along for a year, Kathryn refuses to even consider dating woman who identify as straight.

Pam works at an upmarket skin care boutique. Grieving the recent death of her husband from cancer, Pam is trying to come to terms with her loss. However, his death has given Pam a chance to evaluate the life they had together, and the relationship that was missing so many of the basic ingredients.

Kathryn comes into Pam's store looking for a gift when she comes across the gorgeous Pam. They start chatting and their strong connection is obvious. But how close can they get when Pam is struggling with her attraction to a woman, and Kathryn can't risk the disaster of the last time she fell in love with a straight woman?

This is the first novel from Zak, and there is a lot to like about it. Both women are strong and willful, which makes for an entertaining adventure. Pam comes across as a little manipulative at the start, but she settles into her skin along the way. Kathryn is much more standard as a character though, and we rarely get to see her outside of her role as love interest for Pam. Some of the secondary characters have a considerable impact in the two main protagonists, but the bit players are under-written. One part in particular, Pam's best friend Judy, needed a bigger role, especially considering the weight of the story she has been allocated.

There are some problems with the story. Some of the dialogue is flat, and the manipulations by some of the characters may good for the plot but are not much fun to read. The pacing of the book is a bit varied too, so it feels like the central romance goes very slowly at first, and then the two main protagonists are suddenly declaring they love one another. It does read like first novel but I think Zak is an author to watch. I look forward to reading her next book.

Advanced reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

A nice romance with two interesting likeable leads and some well done minor characters. The story worked for me and I enjoyed the ride without any major drawbacks. I'm looking forward to more books by this debut author.

I really wanted to like this book but there were so many issues with the story. I wanted to completely redo it because the characters were there and so was the prose. For once the editing was spot on and the storyline tight. However, i did not like the way the story unfolded.

My biggest gripe was with how the description is misleading when it comes to the story in the book. It would have been better had the author stuck to the narrative of 'burying her longtime love' instead of 'buried her awful husband of 21 years' There was no story there just a bunch of nonsense of two smart people wasting their life to stay married for reasons that are no longer there. It was all explained away in 1 sentence towards the end of the book. No way, that is not enough, not in this day and age.

The other thing i didnt like was the awful plot point of the neighbour / best friend who was not a friend.

The two leads, their families and everyone else in the story were great and i enjoyed the book as long as i could keep my anger at reasons for choosing to stay miserable in 21 years of marriage. If you can ignore that then the book gets 4 stars.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to try this because I’m trying to find new authors, but I’m not sure how to rate this one really. I usually steer clear of the ‘married straight woman meets gay woman, figures out she’s not all that straight’ books, but since the husband was already gone, I figured at least I wouldn’t have to put up with that drama. I was wishing for it by the end.

The book starts out well, the way Kathryn and Pam meet and their get togethers were cute (if a bit too fast, most of them happen in the space of about a week, and could have been spaced out over a few weeks to provide a bit more realism), and the banter between them was fun. Everything was going along fine til we hit the 40% mark (does anyone else miss actual page numbers?), and then WHAM. Horrible plot line appears and just like that, most of the rest of the story becomes a train wreck.

This revolved around Pam’s best friend Judy, and honestly just kept getting worse. Without giving anything away for those who prefer to be spoiler free, I also want to point out that if Judy’s character was a guy who kept doing that to Pam, I doubt it would have been treated in the same way, so the double standard also annoyed me (note that my Goodreads review contains spoilers to clarify this should you be interested).

Both families and most of the friends were accepting, and the Thanksgiving visits were interesting, although again, too fast considering the timing of the relationship. And Kathryn’s mother’s turnaround at the end was too fast and not really explained well enough for me.

The last 20% was pretty much a hot mess (when even secondary characters are telling the leads this about their lives, it’s probably not a good thing) and featured way too much Judy for me. So, all in all I’d give it 4 stars for the beginning, 3 stars for the middle, and 2 stars for the end. I’m rating it 2.5 but rounding up to 3 stars because it’s a debut novel, and it’s well written. I liked enough of it to try something else by this author, but hopefully something with a bit less soap opera to it.

Falling Into Her was one of those books with a plot that you never would have guessed. I was completely surprised at the plot twist, but while it was tantalizingly unique I also found it to be a bit beyond plausible. Kathryn and Pam had great chemistry but with these two intelligent and caring women I was hoping for more inspired and intelligent dialogue. This book also contains two villainesses in Kathryn's mother and Pam's best friend, Judy. These two deplorable women made it difficult to plow through this book, and it was painfully slow watching Kathryn and Pam grow a backbone when dealing with their antics. Overall it was a decent story with a unique plot twist.

Falling Into Her certainly had its share of interesting characters, and this was exactly why it made for such an engaging and entertaining read. Kathryn had been burned once before by having a relationship with a married woman. When Pam, whose husband recently passed away from cancer, entered her life, Kathryn was intrigued but also cautious. Kathryn and Pam’s ensemble of supporting characters added depth to the story. I especially liked the transformation of Kathryn ‘s mom throughout the story; this helped humanize her persona. The author was also adept in releasing the tension in certain situations with humor. The story dealt with topics such as coming to terms with one’s sexuality and then telling family members. There was also the topic surrounding trust in a relationship which was argued and discussed, by many characters, in a realistic manner.
Overall, the plot and characters made this book a very enjoyable read.

Falling into Her by Erin Zak is a story about two women who fight their attraction for one another and eventually fall for each other. Kathryn Hawthorne is 32 years old and has given up on love after having her heart broken too many times. Pam Philips is 40 years old, and has buried her husband recently when she meets Kathryn in the local boutique she works at. The attraction is immediate for Kathryn and is a slow, curious burn for Pam. On a whim Kathryn leaves her phone number for Pam and to her surprise, Pam texts.
They go through a series of coffee dates, and the entire time Kathryn is focused on just remaining friends despite her growing attraction and the cues Pam is giving that she is interested as well. Throughout their time as friends, they have a lot of personal, confessional type conversations. Which I liked. You could see how much their relationship was steadily growing.
Once their romance blossomed into something more, there were moments I had to stop and take a breath. These love scenes aren’t the overly done, raunchy scenes you see in a lot of books. It felt real. Pam’s anticipation, anxiety about being with a woman, her pleasure, you could feel it all.
I read this book in one sitting, that’s how much I liked it. It’s rare for me to find a book that I will stay up way past my bedtime to keep reading. I usually find a chapter break and quite. Falling Into her made that impossible. I liked the way the text messages appeared. The conflict of meeting each other’s parents and how important that was to the both of them.
Would I recommend this book? Oh yes. I want to read more by Erin Zak ASAP.

This book...wow!!! It was quite a rollercoaster!! Kathryn and Pam met when Kathryn needed a gift for her “evil” mother. Kathryn snuck her phone number to Pam. Pam, a recently widowed “straight” woman called her back, after much urging from her best friend. What started it as just friends quickly escalated to more. I think they were really great together. The added element of the Judy drama added more to their developing relationship. I was glad that Kathryn’s relationship with her mom was less contentious at the end. Overall this was a fantastic, sexy read and I’m thrilled I was able to receive it for an honest review. I look forward to reading more from Erin Zak.

Somewhere around 75 to 87% I was seriously considering ways I could sneak this book onto my six star shelf, despite that being reserved for reread books only (and only the best of the best rereads - there's a reason there's only 4 books on that shelf). Somewhere around there, though, an odd kind of conflict point came up and I no longer had to worry about sneaking this book where it didn't belong.

Don't get me wrong - I liked both the 'item of conflict/point of conflict' and how it was handled. It just . . . side-tracked me from the happy little bubble I was in that had me read 25% in one setting, then another 31% in another. Then I read the final 43% in a third sitting, but that 'magical bubble' was gone.

I loved everything about this book. The characters, the interactions, the descriptions of 'things' (city (Chicago), and rural Michigan), and holidays. If you were to look at my book, you'd probably find most of it highlighted for 'goodness'. For 'remember this passage here'. Oh, and yes, there is graphic sex. And I read it, and I enjoyed it.

Right, so, what should I say?

There were two point of views in this book, two lead characters. 40 year old Pam Phillips, and 32 year old Kathryn Hawthorne. Pam spent twenty-one years married to a man she never loved, and didn't really particularly like, but is still recovering from his relatively recent death from cancer when this book opens. She never has to work again, since her husband did very well as a lawyer, but she feels freed now to do so - and works in one of those beauty shops. As might be expected with this particular set of facts, Pam is straight (she could have been bisexual, but if so she probably wouldn't have married and stayed married to Harold, but that's another story).

Kathryn is something of a celebrity in Chicago. In the way anyone who appears on television can be - in a 'do I recognize her? I should recognize her, right?' way. For she's a movie critic on one of the local stations. Some time before the start of this book she had her heart broken and therefore has spent a lot of time, and I mean a lot of time, bouncing from one women to another for meaningless one-night-stands. Which is seen in this book from the opening when the book opens with her annoyed that a woman still hadn't left when the morning came. And seen in how her friends react to certain things. But - that player/player reputation never gets seen again in the book in any other way. Not, at least, after she stopped into a particular beauty store to try to find a gift for her mother's birthday - assuming she'd fail and get yelled at by her mother (her mother is that kind of person). Whereupon she meets Pam. And is smitten. It isn't seen in her point of view section, but apparently she left her phone number with Pam on . . . hmm, some kind of receipt. For later Pam finds it and, after much reluctance, calls the number.

Whereupon Pam and Kathryn begin slowly edging towards possibly becoming friends. While both feel some odd feelings of lust towards the other (well more odd for straight Pam to feel odd about the feelings). Kathryn's open to the idea of making a new friend, which is hard when you are an adult, but nothing more. Especially since Pam is straight. The woman who broke her heart was straight.

Everything about this book kind of blinks at me like something I wouldn't want anything to do with. It has more red flags bouncing around warning me away than an overly highly penalized football game (I'd no idea where to go with the red flag thing and the idea ran away from me). Age difference, an older woman who never thought she was anything but straight, somewhat annoying best friend, straight-lesbian romance, overbearing mother, etc. etc. Yet . . . other than that best friend, I loved every single second of this book. Loved it.

Completely unexpected reaction. I'm always slightly worried when I try a book by someone who a) I've never heard of before; b) never published anything before (as far as I know). Especially if the book is in a sub-niche market area. But I'm quite glad I found my way to trying this book and reading it. And enjoying it.

Rating: 5+

November 11 2017