Blog Tour Stop: Denise Williams’s THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Blurb.

"The perfect feel-good read."—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation

Britta didn’t plan on falling for her personal trainer, and Wes didn’t plan on Britta. Plans change and it's unclear if love, career, or both will meet them at the finish line.

Britta Colby works for a lifestyle website, and when tasked to write about her experience with a hot new body-positive fitness app that includes personal coaching, she knows it's a major opportunity to prove she should write for the site full-time.

As CEO of the FitMi Fitness app, Wes Lawson finally has the financial security he grew up without, but despite his success, his floundering love life and complicated family situation leaves him feeling isolated and unfulfilled. He decides to get back to what he loves—coaching. Britta’s his first new client and they click immediately.

As weeks pass, she’s surprised at how much she enjoys experimenting with her exercise routine. He’s surprised at how much he looks forward to talking to her every day. They convince themselves their attraction is harmless, but when they start working out in person, Wes and Britta find it increasingly challenging to deny their chemistry and maintain a professional distance.

Wes isn’t supposed to be training clients, much less meeting with them, and Britta’s credibility will be sunk if the lifestyle site finds out she’s practically dating the fitness coach she’s reviewing. Walking away from each other is the smartest thing to do, but running side by side feels like the start of something big.

My Review.

In Denise Williams’s newest release Britta Colby—an editorial assistant at a lifestyle website—pitches a new story idea: she’ll sign up for the FitMi app, a supposedly “body positive” personalized coaching app that will give her nutrition & activity advice. As she tells others, she doesn’t want help losing weight; she’s more concerned with fitness &, as she writes on her sign-up, “to look & feel good naked.”

Unbeknownst to her, her new coach Wes is actually one of the founders of the app. So he’ll have a lot riding on the article series she’s secretly been writing for her readers about her FitMi experience.

I have a lot of feelings about Denise Williams’s The Fastest Way to Fall & they feel difficult to pin down 🤣. On one hand, Williams writes a story that she’s clearly passionate about, something that comes across as early as her Author’s Note, & her writing is marked with sensitivity & quirkiness, & a sense of fun.

She captures Britta’s moments of insecurity but even more, her confidence & pleasure about her body & herself & I love how weight loss is mostly unrelated to that.

The zest between leads is apparent in even their initial banter & after they finally take that satisfying leap, Williams’s consideration of the ethical fallout of their secret relationship is satisfying in a different way.

But in general, & I’m not trying to say this flippantly, I think both leads could have benefited from therapy earlier in the story. Wes is a sweetheart but his dealings with an ex merit more internal (& professional) exploration within the book & Britta has an incident related to her health that made me feel uncomfortable. Also, & unrelated, I don’t always feel like Britta takes responsibility for her role in this “forbidden” relationship 🤷🏻‍♀️.

In the end this is a story with a lot of nuance that I enjoyed reading & some things work for me & some things don’t feel as considered as I would like.

4 ⭐️.

CW: Eating disorder reference; another woman repeatedly refers to the heroine as “fat girl” to Wes; Wes’s mother is on drugs on-page & another man refers to a “trade” they made for her drugs. Please check out other trusted reviews for CWs, too.

[ID: on the left is a pair of black tennis shoes with fluorescent purple, orange, & blue accents. On the right, an ebook is on top of a hardback which is resting on a series of different sweatshirts placed next to each other. The first sweatshirt is pink, then aqua, purple, & finally black. Also on top of the sweatshirts is a pink Fitbit.]

About Denise.

Denise Williams wrote her first book in the second grade. I Hate You and its sequel, I Still Hate You, featured a tough, funny heroine, a quirky hero, witty banter, and a dragon. Minus the dragons, these are still the books she likes to write. After penning those early works, she finished second grade and eventually earned a Ph.D. in education, going on to work in higher education. After growing up a military brat around the world and across the country, Denise now lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with her husband, son, and two ornery shih tzus who think they own the house.​