Falling by Jolene Perry

Falling
by Jolene Perry
Nook, 154 pages
Published: October 24, 2012
By:  Next Door Publishing
Source: Purchased
Mature Content: 17 & Older

Goodreads Summary:


Dana is definitely not the kind of girl to be living in the dump of a wilderness lodge she finds herself waitressing in. But when Craig, the sexy cop who’s handling the murder case where she’s a witness, suggests it—it seems like a good idea. Now she’s got no BMW, no shopping and an assortment of hairy Alaskan men who definitely belong in a run-down old lodge. Her exciting visits from Craig are getting less exciting, and the lodge owner, Jason, is quickly moving from grouchy and judgmental, to funny, smart and unexpectedly complex.

Jason knows exactly the type of girl Dana is—beautiful, spoiled, and high maintenance. She’s everything that hurt him in the past, and why he now lives as far away from city life as he can manage. If he wasn’t so hard-up for help, he would have never said yes to his friend, Craig. Despite his reservations, Dana becomes the perfect antidote to everything in his life—both his disaster of a divorce and precocious little sister who shows up on his doorstep. Jason realizes he’s falling for Dana too late to stop it, or even slow it down.

As the trial approaches, Dana knows it’s time to move on with her life—but is her life back in the city she left or with a guy she never meant to fall for?


My Take on this Journey:

Falling is a book that starts out with the main character, Dana.  She witnesses two men on the side of the road participating in a murder, on a deserted highway in Alaska.  She swerves off the embankment and ends up crashing into a tree.  She is discovered by a good-looking police trooper, who charms the pants off her, literally.  Dana compares his suave looks to James Bond, and assumes he is single.  His name is Craig.  Craig takes her to the hospital to get checked out, and when she give her  report, Craig realizes she was a witness to a murder that has taken place. Craig decides to take her to a secluded run down lodge in the wilderness, run by his old friend Jason, where she can work and will be safe until the trial.  Dana gets swept away by Craig, and their time together, whenever he can squeeze in some for her, until he starts avoiding her.   Eventually, Dana comes face to face with the womanizers wife and children at the lodge. She has a twinge of guilt for ever being involved with him in the first place.   Jason knows the kind of guy his friend is, and gets madder than hell thinking that Dana is the sort of woman to break up marriages.  Jason is a scruffy looking guy, who doesn't seem to care about his appearance, but is actually doing it out of defiance, cause his ex-wife never liked that look.  He is warm hearted, and really good looking under all of that beard.  Jason is in the middle of a divorce from his life long sweetheart, who has turned his world upside down, and has no time for babysitting a rich snotty woman without morals.    In his free time, Jason is actually a writer, but nobody knows until Dana snoops around and copies his hard drive to see what he's always writing about on his computer when he isn't working.

As the story progresses, Jason and Dana find things out about each other, and grow very close.  I love the way the author develops the characters.  They have so much angst, and are so suspicious of each other in the beginning, but eventually their walls crumble, and a relationship develops.  In actuality, Dana is a really nice young woman who does have a conscience, and comes from a wealthy family.  At first Jason is not a very likeable character, till you get to know why he is the way he is.  He is grumpy, and has no patience for anything.  He is still trying to get over his divorce, and thinks his ex-wife was high maintenance, and that Dana is that same kind of girl.  This scares the hell out of him once he realizes that he cares about her.

Jason has completely contradictory feelings for Dana throughout this book.  The banter between these two characters is consistent, though they both have an attraction for each other, they don't want to admit it is there.

I really enjoyed Falling, from the weekend snow machine rides, to the romantic trysts, the glances between Dana and Jason when no one is looking, the romance that frees your soul, and the trust when you don't think you can't let anyone inside for fear of being crushed that last time that might break you for good.  I give this wonderful book 5 out 5, you guessed it,  romping snow machine riding stars.

                          Come Along for the ride,

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