About the Book

From bestselling author and TikTok sensation Becka Mack comes the next book in her sizzling hockey romance series about a playboy defenseman and the team photographer who reforms him.

The fourth book in the globally popular Playing for Keeps series that New York Times bestselling author Hannah Grace calls “endlessly sexy and funny.”

It was supposed to be a one-night stand. But what if they can’t leave it in the past?

Jaxon Riley is exceptional at three things: starting fights on the ice, picking up women post-game, and going home to fulfill his role as the world’s best cat dad. Relationships, unfortunately, missed the list.

Lennon Hayes is supposed to be on her honeymoon. Instead, she’s alone and single, vacationing next door to a surly tattooed man who ran his date off the resort. When a run-in at the bar results in a night of bickering and cocktails, she finds herself tumbling into bed with the enemy next door, then sneaking out before the sun comes up.

Lennon’s plan to start over in a new city is going great, until she starts her new job. The job? The Vancouver Vipers’ new photographer. And the defenseman scowling at her from across the room? The one-night stand she wasn’t supposed to see again. Good thing neither of them are looking for anything serious… Right?

Jaxon may not be used to falling, but if he’s going to go, he refuses to go alone. If he falls, he wants Lennon to fall with him.

Review

I have a complicated and toxic relationship with this series. I have read all four books, and I keep expecting different results. I rated the first two books poorly; however, I did enjoy the third book- Unravel Me, and many of the problems that I experienced in that book I also experienced with this book. Unfortunately, it feels like those problems multiplied. I’ll scream it a dozen times if I must. There are specific characters within this series that continue to get worse. Mack struggles with how to balance her characters’ personalities. Many of them come across as immature and corny. The scenes with all the friends together felt repetitive and distractingly annoying.

In fact, Lennon’s friendship with the girls didn’t feel genuine to me. I saw no real connection to them. They forced a friendship upon her. I would have much preferred Mack to highlight the connection between Lennon and Serena. Their friendship felt genuine. I think this is the only friendship that Mack established where her brand of humor wasn’t annoying. She found the perfect balance with them.

While reading Fall with Me, I concluded, that for me to rate this book, I need to omit the group scenes. That would have tanked my rating, and I felt that Lennon and Jaxon didn’t deserve that. I loved their story and I loved almost every aspect of it once I omit the scenes with their friends.

Final Thoughts

Fall with Me is a victim of Mack’s inability to write characters normally. Ninety-nine percent of characters within this book should not act like immature teenagers when they are pushing thirty years old. Especially, when she has few straight-laced characters to balance it all out.

Everyone is on level one thousand in their corniness when they are together. The dialogue often feels like Mack is reminding readers how attractive and devoted the male characters are to their female love interests. So devoted that they can’t function if the female character looks away from them for a second thus causing them to demand their attention in a child-like manner. As for the female friendship, that falls extremely short. Most of their conversations are centered on how “hot” their hockey player love interests are. There’s no real depth to it. This causes their friendship to feel ingenuine and repetitive. The same can be said about the male friendships.

Mack wants to write “golden retriever” male love interests; however, struggles with how to effectively do that. Previous male characters are still annoying four books later and somehow continue to act more childish than before. Adam Lockwood (Unravel Me, Book 3) might be the only male love interest that outshines the rest. Compared to the others, he just worked. Jaxon is a close runner-up. He had his moments of being over the top, but he’s light years ahead of the other two. Out of the female characters, Lennon by far is my favorite. I enjoyed that she let Jaxon have it right back.

Unfortunately, the supporting characters hinder the reading experience for Lennon and Jaxon’s story. This couple works best when they are away from their friends.

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