"Let Me Fall" by Lilly Foster

This is primarily the story of Carolyn and Jeremy. They knew each other when they were young, but after he was transferred to a school that specialized in helping dyslexic students, they lost touch for many years. During their junior year of high school, they both find themselves in the same school and have a chance to once again get to know each other.

This was the fifth book in the series. I had not read any of the others, so found myself playing a bit of catch up with events briefly mentioned from the previous books in the series. While it did leave me feeling a little confused at times, in general enough information was given to reveal what had previously happened in the characters lives that left them feeling and reacting the way they did. The writing was well done and had very few typos or other errors. And while I am certain that others will enjoy this book more than I did, it wasn’t really one that truly appealed to my tastes.

This book struck me as primarily a high school drama with a message. There were a lot of sexual encounters between a number of members of the “popular” crowd. Some of them seemed random, many happened when the characters were more than a little drunk, and there were a few times where some of the characters woke up naked together and not certain if they’d actually had sex or merely passed out together. These were mostly not romantic encounters and the language involved a lot of the cruder or less pleasant terminology for sex. Not my general preference of terms, but given the circumstances, it was essentially appropriate.

Personally, I didn’t much enjoy the backstabbing natures of the popular kids who were some of the main characters. Bullying and tormenting each other while pretending to be good friends, while it does happen in schools, gets old really quickly to me. And while I’m sure some bed-hopping also happens, in this book it seemed to go hand in hand with the bullying and fake friendships. This behavior grated on my nerves before very long. And when it led to the inevitable consequences of such behavior, I had been expecting it for it for some time.

I was a bit surprised that all of this seemed to take place in the first half of the book, leaving me wondering what was left to happen after the character “falls.” It is at this point, in my opinion, that the real story of the book begins. While some of what happens in the first half is necessary to read if we are to understand the second half of the book, I wish it could have come a bit sooner. I much preferred the second half of the book. This part was more of a redemption story. Here is where the characters find their inner strengths and rebuild their lives. It is this story that I enjoyed more than the story of Carolyn’s “fall.” I do recognize that without the bad that happened to her that the good would never have followed, but I much prefer reading redemption stories myself.