Over the years, Rosie and Mitch have been roommates, coworkers, and best friends. Now that they're in their thirties, they agreed to be each other's fallback. If they don't meet the right one by the end of the year, they will settle down together and have a baby.

Here's what I liked about The Fallback:
- the instant chemistry between Rosie and Mitch and the strong bond they built over the years.
- Rosie and Mitch's being temperamentally opposites and perfect for each other at the same time.
- The whole will they or won’t they situation.
- The flashbacks in which we get to see two friends slowly falling in love with each other. (I actually wish there were more flashbacks or more scenes in general in which we get to see Rosie and Mitch struggling to "keep their hands off each others", if you know what I mean).
All in all, The Fallback is a sweet and meaningful story about friendship, love, and self-assertion. I definitely recommend it.

I received a review copy of this book and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollin UK, One more chapter for providing me with an eARC of The Fallback in return for my honest opinion.

I was really fascinated by the concept of a "fallback" person. I've seen it done before in TV shows/movies but had yet to come across it as the plot line for a book! This book focuses on our main FMC Rosie and MMC Mitch, who have been best friends for a long time, with Rosie secretly falling in love with Mitch for a lot of those years! Mitch, who seems to be really unlucky in love is ready to settle down and have kids, so he comes up with a plan for him and Rosie to be each others fallback... It can't go wrong.. Right?

I really liked the idea that it was Mitch who was ready to settle down and have kids, it felt like a bit of a reversal from the "normal" portrayal of this kind of plot that we often see in story's. However, it felt a bit off how pushy he was with this idea when Rosie was at a stage where she wasn't sure if she wanted kids or not. This being said, I can (after reading the ending), understand why he was so pushy, but I was also really happy that Rosie spoke up for herself (eventually) and admitted that she wasn't 100% on having children.

The reason I have given this book a three stars (and this may just be a me problem because I don't believe I've seen this pop up in other reviews) is that I just didn't love the characters in this book, specifically the FMC Rosie, but I struggled with Mitch at times as well. I just felt that Rosie and Mitch both came off a little selfish a lot throughout the book, to the point where I was almost hoping they didn't get a happy ending (this is horrible I know but they were pushing my buttons). There were a couple of smaller story lines with side characters where they were going through some pretty horrible things (reader please be warned this book does have a miscarriage story line, this is not mentioned at the start of the book), and I felt like Rosie just couldn't see passed her own stuff going on to be any sort of decent friend. It just didn't sit right with me.

This book is slow burn, no spice. I enjoyed the flash backs to previous events, but sometimes I felt they were unnecessary because Rosie had basically already told us what happens before the flashback. I would've also liked to maybe see the ex comeback story line play out a little more, it felt like it was crammed into the story to help Mitch and Rosie finally admit their feelings for each other.

I’m absolutely in love with London so I couldn’t have asked for a better setting for Rosie and Mitch to meet and fall in love. I thought Mitch was charming and appreciated the research that must have gone into giving Rosie her career in a lab, but something in the story fell flat for me.
It may have been the character’s chemistry, or insufficient background stories, I just felt that something was missing keep me invested.

I'm fascinated by the concept of a back-up person, so Eleanor Goymer's delightful debut 'The Fallback' was reading catnip for me. At its heart this book both a slow-burn romance, and an exploration of society's expectations that everyone must be partnered up and have kids.

Scientist Rosie's ordered life is thrown into disarray when her best friend Mitch proposes they become in each other's fallback to have a kid if neither of them find a serious partner by Christmas. But what if Rosie is secretly in love with him and is undecided about kids?

Rosie and Mitch are the sorts of characters you'd want to be friends with and would be tempted to lock them in a room to deal with their feelings! Rosie is a dedicated virologist who loves data. Mitch is carefree, working as a science journalist after passing his PhD by the skin of his teeth thanks to Rosie. For Rosie, Mitch is her person, but she's unwilling to risk their decades-long closeness to express how she feels given Mitch dates an assortment of women who are her antithesis.

Despite being 34 she's also ambivalent about having kids. She's not outright childfree but she's in no rush either. In a gender reversal, it's Mitch who wants a family, yet, paradoxically, breaks up with his girlfriends as soon as they get serious (wonder why). Rosie was a bit frustrating by allowing Mitch to steamroll her into the plan, so I was pleased when she finally voiced her thoughts. Given kids are a relationship dealbreaker, I had no idea how this would be resolved so I was pleasantly surprised. If I had any quibbles, I'd have liked to have seen Rosie date someone who'd be a real contender in addition to that return of a blast from her past, just to up the stakes more.

Coupled with descriptions of Rosie and Mitch's London haunts (it made me want to go back!), I was utterly charmed. I am looking forward to reading more of Eleanor Goymer's next books to see how her storytelling develops

Thanks to One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the ARC.