This is Falling (Falling #1) by Ginger Scott

Blurb: First, I had to remember how to breathe. Then, I had to learn how to survive. Two years, three months and sixteen days had passed since I was the Rowe Stanton from before, since tragedy stole my youth and my heart went along with it.

When I left for college, I put a thousand miles between my future and my past. I’d made a choice—I was going to cross back to the other side, to live with the living. I just didn’t know how.

And then I met Nate Preeter.

An All-American baseball player, Nate wasn’t supposed to notice a ghost-of-a-girl like me. But he did. He shouldn’t want to know my name. But he did. And when he learned my secret and saw the scars it left behind, he was supposed to run. But he didn’t.

My heart was dead, and I was never supposed to belong to anyone. But Nate Preeter had me feeling, and he made me want to be his. He showed me everything I was missing.

And then he showed me how to fall.

*This is a standalone in a three-part series that will focus on different characters. Each book can be read on its own.

Favorite Quote: It’s like I’m caught in an internal tug-of-war with myself—my heart begging to beat from thrill, but caged by fear.

4 Stars

This book was excellent. The story of how she came out of her shell was deeply moving and perfectly paced.  The love story was intense and sensual, albeit a bit slow.

Her trauma was not to be too big for her to overcome it.  It had a very real and deep presence in her life.  Yet, she was actively trying to move on from it.  She was smart enough to know if she didn’t start trying that her trauma would always control every aspect of her life.  And I could totally identify with that.  We all have some kind of trauma that has/had left us emotionally despondent.  Its how we adapt and overcome that really shows how strong we are.  And she was one of the strongest characters I’ve read in along time.  She wasn’t irrational, and she could have been and it would have been believable. She was forgiving, even though she carried so much pain and guilt.  She was afraid, yet so brave as well.  Balanced but damaged is the best way I could explain it.  Aren’t we all?

Nate was quick to recognize his affection.  He knew what he felt the moment he saw her. And just as fast seemed to intuitively know she needed time to explore these new feelings.  He was patient but not a saint.  He did use some underhanded tactics but came clean about them almost right away making me tend to think he realized this was not the right way to get her to like him.  This made his character even more believable in my eyes.  Except for the one instance, which I will refrain form explaining because… spoilers, he seemed to be pretty stable.  He could lighten up a heavy encounter easily and I really liked how the author made their emotions clear but multi-dimensional.

This book showed that even though shit may have hit the fan, you CAN still have fun. The story had great ebb and flow.  Emotive characters are my favorite to read about. Especially when they have a lot of internal conflict they are struggling to control.  This is a great book and I highly recommend it.