Sophia is feeling suffocated by her family who keep comparing her to her 'perfect' big sister. The idea of sitting in a hospital waiting room for hours is too much to bear, so she runs away.
Parker is also running away from the same hospital. In his case, it's from his mother's diagnosis. Sophia jumps into his taxi and despite himself he cares that she might not be safe.
Eventually, they make a pact to have this one day to run away from their problems. One day to forget it all and have fun. One day in which they fall in love.
Both Sophia and Parker start the book in terribly bad moods. They are sharp and angry and snipe at each other. As time goes on, they mellow.
This is a slow burn (despite it all happening in one day!), introspective, character driven romance. I love this kind of thing. Sophie is prickly and blunt. Parker is adorable and kind. They complement each other beautifully. It's a minor thing, but I liked how Cape Town was so vivid that it almost became a character in the book too.

This is the first Therese Beharrie book I've read. I will definitely be reading more.
I got an advance copy of the book via Netgalley.

I requested this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review at the same time that I requested Therese Beharrie’s Island Fling with the Tycoon. I’m so glad I was given both books. I follow Beharrie on Twitter, were she is funny and smart. One Day to Fall is so good. It’s out on August 12.

Sophia is at the hospital with her mother and younger sister while her older sister is in labor. Parker is at the same hospital where his mother has been treated for injuries after being hit by a car. Sophia’s relationships with her mother and sisters has been strained for a while. Parker has just received bad news from his mother’s doctor and his estranged father has arrived acting like he’s got the answers. One of Parker’s jobs is as a driver for hire. Sophia, needing to escape family tensions gets in his car thinking he is available to drive her away. They end up reluctantly and then not so reluctantly spending the day together.

Beharrie takes a rather improbable premise – strangers meet and fall in love in one day – and makes it completely believable, and enjoyable. Parker and Sophia are both under tremendous stress and take a day as each other’s distraction. They have stepped outside their normal and are more open and vulnerable than they would be on a normal day. The sparks they strike start as irritation and annoyance. Sophia, like Island Fling‘s Piper, is guarded and straight forward. She knows her own worth, she just doesn’t have a lot of experience with other people knowing her worth. Parker has always been a team with his mother but now everything he thought was true about his life is being challenged. Beharrie keeps them grounded and relatable, which keeps the relationship believable.

Having stepped out of their normal lives, Parker and Sophia end up doing the sort of touristy things in Cape Town that residents don’t normally do. looking at their city from different perspectives give them a chance to look at their lives from a different perspective. It also gives Beharrie a chance to show off her city. Therese Beharrie is delightful on Twitter and in her books. I look forward to reading her back catalog.

this was my first book by this author and i quite liked it. i did feel like the pacing was a bit odd at times, like too much page time spent on certain things that made it a bit of a slog to get through those pages, but that could be because the whole book was just one day. honestly, it was a teensy bit of a hard read with the things it talks about and focuses on. but it was realistic in that sense. i really liked sophia and parker and liked them together. i didn't realise this was part of a series, i would have read the sister's book first but i'll go do that next :) overall, it was cute and fun with a few dashes of serious/heavy stuff.