Book 1,011: Catch Me If I Fall – Noah Steele

This book had so much that I wanted to love, but only just enjoyed. To be fair, a lot of the pressure was from me and if I would’ve read the book any other time, I probably would’ve been enamored. I picked this up after not reading anything for leisure for almost 6 weeks and after I finished this it took another almost 12-weeks to pick up another, even though it was summer, and I didn’t have as much school or heavy workload at work.

It’s not a badly written book, it’s well written and copywritten, which is an even better bonus. It just wasn’t the right time for me to read it. There were moments that the story felt stretched too thin and went on too long, especially looking back at it. Somehow how though, it didn’t end cleanly enough so much so that I picked my Kindle up a week or two after finishing it thinking I still had quite a bit to read.

Jasper and Cole grew up together, they were best friends. Cole the nerdy comic book kid turned librarian and Jasper the athletic outgoing kid friends with everyone.

Half my heart had always belonged to him, and no matter where we found ourselves in the future, I could feel it in the way he looked at me, the way we touched, that I had half of his, too. What a terrifying thought, that I’ll love him even if he leaves. (162)

The story starts in high school and there are flashbacks throughout, the opening scene of Cole and Jeremy flying down the hill on the bike to crash like their relationship seems to and the ensuing panic in Jeremy when he realized Cole has disappeared before their graduation fleeing the emotions and the shock, was perfect.

The ensuing scenes when Jasper returns to Sugar Hills knowing that Cole is now the town librarian mostly annoyed me rather than rekindled the spirit lost in the opening scene. They weren’t bad and the supporting characters definitely made me laugh and brought depth and dimension to the story, they just fell flat. I’m used to the will they/won’t they in a romance novel, but for this one there was too much internal dialogue, and the stakes weren’t high enough of Jasper leaving. It never felt like he was going to leave, he didn’t talk about it, they didn’t talk about it. It was all internal for both of them. Which isn’t abnormal, it just didn’t feel right with how quickly they fell back into their friendship and budding relationship.

Recommendation: This was a good book. It is probably better than I think it is because of the time I read it and that has nothing to do with the author. The childhood friends to lovers trope with the fallout in between is well done and the small town vibe makes it. There were just slight changes in timing, in dialogue, that would’ve made me appreciate this book so much more at this time. I’ll definitely check out Noah Steele again because he does seem to buck the trend (at least in this first novel I’ve read by him) of male MM Romance authors going fast and heavy on the sex throughout their novels. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty in here and it’s well written, it’s just softer and more beautiful than hard and rough.

Opening Line: “Oh, shit, you wanna bone your best friend!”

Closing Line: “I’d like that very much.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Catch Me If I Fall
“If I told him I wanted more, it would change us, and I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I’d leave Sugar Hills at the end of summer saying goodbye to the same Jasper Fox I’d always known, and not a version of him that would look at me differently.” (8)

“Every time my mind drifted back to Cole—the way he smelled like berries and books, the way he clutched his stomach when he laughed, like he could catch the sound, the way his body moved next to mine when we fucked—I wanted to throw my hands up and stop time like Piper Halliwell on Charmed, that old show about the witch sisters he got me to watch with him every weekend in high school.” (126)

“‘I’m offended you could forget my legendary performance as Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ he said, shaking his head in mock disappointment. ‘You know I only took grade nine drama because you wouldn’t shut up about how into that play you were.” (139)