Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 1st, 2016
Rating: 4 Stars
Source: eARC from Edelweiss
Pages: 320
Summary (from Goodreads):
His obsession.
Her fall.
In this dark kissing book, high school senior Zephyr Doyle is swept off her feet—and into an intense relationship—by the new boy in school.
Zephyr is focused. Focused on leading her team to the field hockey state championship and leaving her small town for her dream school, Boston College.
But love has a way of changing things.
Enter the new boy in school: the hockey team’s starting goaltender, Alec. He’s cute, charming, and most important, Alec doesn’t judge Zephyr. He understands her fears and insecurities—he even shares them. Soon, their relationship becomes something bigger than Zephyr, something she can’t control, something she doesn’t want to control.
Zephyr swears it must be love. Because love is powerful, and overwhelming, and…terrifying?
But love shouldn’t make you abandon your dreams, or push your friends away. And love shouldn’t make you feel guilty—or worse, ashamed.
So when Zephyr finally begins to see Alec for who he really is, she knows it’s time to take back control of her life.
If she waits any longer, it may be too late.
Zephyr Doyle is a high school senior and star field hockey player at Sudbury High, working her butt off to gain early admission to her top college pick. She is in a bit of a bad spot because her dad walked out on the family on her 18th birthday. But then there's a handsome new kid at school. He's sweet and charming and totally into her. Things are going well until Zephyr starts to realize that a real, loving relationship shouldn't feel this way.
First of all, that opening/prologue totally HOOKED me! It's basically a glimpse into a really intense scene later on in the book, but it was all I needed to know that I was actually going to really like this book!
Besides that awesome beginning, I really enjoyed the characters. I found Zephyr to be really relatable. She is your average, hardworking high school athlete. She has her future all planned out and she knows what she wants for herself, she's working hard to get early admission to Boston College. She has normal teenage insecurities and concerns in her new relationship, she just wants to be a good girlfriend. She tries too hard to please. But that's all feels super relatable and I just really enjoyed reading about her.
I can relate to Zephyr in some ways. I wasn't a star athlete (or any kind of athlete for that matter), I didn't have my future all planned out. But I can relate to her parental issue. When I was seventeen, my mom moved to Indiana to be with a guy she met on the internet. A guy who didn't have any kids or any real reason why he couldn't be the one to come to her except that he wasn't a fan of winter and winters are a lot more harsh in South Dakota. So my mom ended up missing four proms, three graduations, and a bunch of school concerts because she moved away. So I can relate to the hurt that Zephyr feels over her father leaving her on her eighteenth birthday. Fun fact, it was actually almost my birthday when my mom left too.
I enjoy the rest of the characters as well. Zephyr's two best friends, Gregg and Lizzie are awesome. Usually, in really any kind of book, I find the female best friend to be incredibly annoying. Most of the time, I really don't like the friends of the main character. But I love Lizzie. She is so supportive of Zephyr all the time. Even when she knows that what Zephyr's doing is a bad idea, she is always there for you and is not one to say " I told you so". She is someone that I would love to have as my best friend!
Gregg is also a wonderful friend. He and Zephyr go through a lot of ups and downs in this book, but they have a wonderful bond from years and years of friendship and that won't easily be broken. He's got his moments where you kinda wanna hit him, but in general, he's a good guy.
Okay, something I disliked about this book... Let's see... I guess there are some things that I would have liked to have seen in the end that I didn't see. Some people who got together. Someone else who was rotting in a jail cell like the pile that he is. But none of that really felt like a big deal.
I really enjoyed the writing of this book. It was easy to read and get into, I found the characters to be well written and the story to be believable. This book kept me turning the pages and wanting to know what happens next! I really liked how real Zephyr's feelings about everything were. I thought that everything wrapped up nicely in the end of this book and I was just really pleased with this book all around.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. If you're one who's into contemporary or interesting in the topic of relationship abuse, this might be your book. I am personally not big on reading contemporary, I don't care to read about pure fluffiness, but this is not a fluffy read! So if you have the same problem as me, you might actually really enjoy this book as well.
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Five Reasons Why You Should Read THE GIRL WHO FELL:
1. The topic of this book, relationship abuse, is really important! I thought it showed the stages really well! Showing how he is so sweet and kind and caring and then slowly you start to see how he's being possessive and manipulative. I thought it was all done really well.
2. Seriously? Read the prologue. Try to stop after that. I couldn't. It's disturbing and leaves you NEEDING to know how things get to that point!
3. This book showed two really strong friendships. Zephyr and Gregg who are shown as basically being brother and sister. Their relationship is strong enough to survive the beating it takes when Alec gets really possessive. And Lizzie is fantastic! She is always there for Zephyr even when you would imagine anyone else would have completely lost their patience with her.
4. Zephyr is a wonderful main character! She's strong, smart, athletic, and just goes down a dark path when she listens to her heart for a change. She's so real and you don't want to spend this book rolling your eyes at how she deals with things, you root for her the whole time!
5. Zephyr doesn't have the ideal family situation, with her dad leaving on her 18th birthday, but she had a good family! Her father is trying to come back into her life. Her mother is there for her. And she has a cute little dog with a BIG personality! Not perfect, but present!
Long story short, READ THIS BOOK!
About the Author
Shannon Parker lives on the Atlantic coast with a house full of boys. She’s traveled to over three dozen countries and has a few dozen more to go. She works in education and can usually be found rescuing dogs, chickens, old houses and wooden boats. Shannon has a weakness for chocolate chip cookies and ridiculous laughter—ideally, at the same time. The Girl Who Fell is her first novel. Find her at www.shannonmparker.com
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Monday, Jan 18: Cyra @
Rattle The Pages Review + 5 Reasons You Need to Read TGWF
Thursday, Jan 21: Aentee @
Read at Midnight 5 Ways TGWF Destroyed YA Tropes + iPhone wallpapers
