Falling

I have never made any secret of the high regard in which I hold the writing of Jane Green, I have always stood by my view that her books have grown as the author has and that her books have reflected the different stages she herself has moved through in life. I think the only book I haven't outright raved about was Summer Secrets and so I was really keen to delve into her newest novel Falling to get my fix of new material as soon as it was released.

This is a lovely story of Emma who moves from her big city life as a banker to Westport, Connecticut where she begins renting a beach house from single father Dominic who lives next door with his six year old son Jesse. Emma has a talent for interior design and immediately begins transforming her new home with a little help from her landlord and as they spend more time together they begin to form a friendship which promises to grow into something more.

I found an article when I was reading this book about Jane Green and the fact that she herself fell for her landlord after her first husband left her to care for their children alone and she found herself a divorced single parent building a new life for herself in a new place. This keep resonating with me through the early parts of this book, that in so many ways Green was giving us a little secret glimpse into her own world and in many ways the character of Emma resonates so much with what we know of the author herself. The love of small town living and interior design and a wonderful love of cooking and family and a budding relationship with a man who is also your landlord.

This book spoke to me on one particular level that I felt was very special and that is the aspect where as she and Dominic, her landlord, become romantically involved she finds herself also becoming an important feature in the life of his young son, Jesse. This particular story resonated with me because I also have been in that situation myself. When my husband and I met 16 years ago he also was a single dad, living alone with a young son and they had as close a relationship as Jane Green speaks about between the father and son in her book.

Managing to come into a tight little unit of two boys bonded together by blood is not an easy feat. You walk a fine line between girlfriend, mother and outsider. There are times when other couples would be doing purely couple things that you instead find yourself sharing your partner with this little person and suddenly you go from single life to family days out and doing the school run. Green writes about this beautifully and is excellent at painting the emotional strain this can put upon a budding relationship. I was so very lucky in that I never ever remember my future stepson being unkind or difficult about my being there with him and his dad but I know that he so very easily could have struggled with this and acted out in the ways Jesse does in the book.

I also found that in this book we move back towards the writing I love so much from Jane Green where she blends flawlessly the different relationships in Emma's life. Her difficult relationship with her mother who she sees as a bit of a social climbing wannabe and her similarity to her father who is instead a little introverted. I particularly loved the conversation Emma has with her father about whether an extrovert and introvert can ever be happy together and how he responds by explaining that they need each other to bring balance to life and how if he didn't have his extrovert wife he would never ever leave the house. I could empathise with that as it reminded me of my husband and I and the struggle we sometimes have where I am happy not to leave our home for days on end whilst he gets fidgety if made to stay home for more than a day.

I read some reviews that gave a very poor review of this book and I am honestly perplexed by them. Some said that the story was a little slow moving but instead of being slow moving I found it a refreshing change that we had moved back to focus being on the emotional journey of Green's characters.

I do not want to give away any spoilers on this book but would only say that the ending in particular was beautiful. The difficult situation that Emma finds herself in with suddenly being unable to remain a part of a relationship that has become so very important to her due to circumstances she could never have foreseen really was a wonderful thing to discuss. To recognise the position that so many people will have found themselves in and with no legal rights to call upon Green writes sensitively and with great insight into a topic I've not seen discussed in many books before.

I loved this book, I know I will be recommending it this summer as it is all the things I love about this author's writing. It's set in a wonderful, idyllic setting that feels peaceful and special, has wonderful characters who are easily likeable and far more than one dimensional and a story which demonstrates that this is an author with a great deal of life experience and important journeys to share. Now to find things to read to fill the time till Green's next wonderful release.