Review: Cara Bastone's CAN'T HELP FALLING.

Q: are you a city person or a rural?

Cara Bastone’s Just a Heartbeat Away was a 5⭐️ read for me. Last week I returned to the world for its stand-alone sequel, Can’t Help Falling, with anticipation.

It’s an opposites attract, slow burn between a stunning, unconventional clairvoyant named Serafine who dreams of becoming a foster parent & a sports reporter named Tyler whose style reminds the heroine of 80s James Spader.

The book opens with a verbal massacre of sorts, when Tyler encourages Serafine to go on a date with him & she eventually responds with a stinging set-down that makes him dislike her & question a lot about his lifestyle.

Then he receives word that the teen sister he barely knows has to live with him. Serafine, who was in a similar position as his teen sister when she was younger, reaches out wanting to help & Tyler has to decide if that’s a good idea, given their past interactions...just as Serafine has to decide if she does in fact have a “blind spot” when it comes to judging Tyler.

I really like Cara Bastone’s writing style, how it provokes such emotions with smooth, approachable narration & how concerned it is with the human heart. I come to care so much for the characters, for the ways they learn that they were wrong, for the deliberate ways they try to be better, for the ways they share their love.

I’d like to give a special s/out for the Serafine & Tyler’s discussion of orgasms in this book *thumbs up.

This story didn’t unspool *quite* as smoothly as the one told in Sebastian & Via’s romance—& I also felt like a potential “big” conflict between the leads could have been deliberated on more throughout the book, esp. the ending—but overall this is another heart-grabbing romance told by a storyteller in a way that really works for me.

4⭐️.
Can't Help Falling is available now. Thanks to Harlequin Books & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.