Bastone is as much at the top of her romance-game in Can’t Help Falling as she was in Just a Heartbeat Away. I may have enjoyed the latter a smidgen more than the former, but it doesn’t stop Can’t Help Falling from being one of the best romances I’ve read this year.

Falling picks up where Heartbeat leaves off and includes lovely cameos from the first romance’s hero and heroine, hero’s son and pooch, Seb, Via, Matty, and Crabby. While Heartbeat tells Seb and Via’s romance, Falling is about the road to love and commitment for Seb’s and Via’s best friends, Tyler Leshuski and Serafine “Fin” St. Romain:

Serafine St. Romain doesn’t need her psychic powers to know she’s no longer in Tyler Leshuski’s good graces. True, she did tear him to pieces when he asked her out, accusing him of being shallow and selfish. Despite the energy crackling between them, the gorgeous sports writer is a no-strings, no-kids kind of guy. And Serafine, raised in the foster system, intends to be a foster parent herself. She won’t compromise that dream, even for a man as annoyingly appealing as Tyler.

In a simpler world, Tyler would already have gotten Serafine out of his system. For him, women equal fun. Not this kind of bone-deep, disconcerting desire. Life gets even more complicated when he becomes the guardian of his much younger sister. Suddenly, he’s way out of his depth. Serafine’s the only person who can connect with Kylie. He can’t jeopardize that for a fling. But maybe…just maybe…he’s finally ready to risk everything on forever.

The blurb, however, makes the romance more lighthearted than it is. While Bastone can write great comic scenes and with great wit, neither Tyler, nor Fin start the narrative in a particularly good place and they experience anguish, doubt, and heartache.

First, there is Fin’s rejection of Tyler, with, as he put, “quite the tonguelashing.” Fin’s lacing-into Tyler is unjust because Tyler is a mild-mannered, gentle giant. But Fin is, if not an angry heroine, definitely one who has the makings of a feral spinster. She has reason to be angry: given her great beauty, more curse than gift, Fin is right about the world, especially a world that catcalls, whistles, and comes on to a woman when she’s not interested, going about her business, etc. But Tyler retreats, is downright scared when Fin is around from that moment on. Which is what makes Bastone such a refreshing, interesting romance writer. Because she manages to stay true to the genre and yet breaks stereotypes. Case in point, late in the novel, when Tyler confesses to best friend Seb that he and Fin are together (hey, it’s a romance, not a spoiler, you know they’re together): “Tyler suddenly found himself the recipient of a disgustingly sweaty hug from his best friend [they’ve been playing basketball with Matty]. “Dude. Space.” He shoved away and then got a look at Seb’s face. ‘Are you crying?’ ‘It’s just cool is all,’ Seb said, brushing a tear or two off his face with the inside of his elbow.” I love that Bastone portrays the guy-friendship beautifully and never resorts to alpha-posturing with her heroes. I also love that friendship is as important to her characters as the relationship they share with their beloved.

To return to the novel’s opening, when Fin eviscerates Tyler and leaves him gasping, she does so thanks to her weaknesses and vulnerabilities, as we and she figure out in the narrative’s course. Tyler is a hurt-puppy who has clung to the only meaningful relationship he’s had — with Seb and Matty, especially because we learn he left his work and life in California to return to Brooklyn to help Seb raise Matty (when Seb’s wife was killed in a car crash). You’d think this kind of love and sacrifice would be enough for Fin, who is a psychic, to realize this is a good man. Nope. She hits him where it hurts the most, in this new dislocated emotional universe where Seb and Matty are forming a family with Via. As lovely and inclusive as they are, Tyler feels he’s being left behind, a visitor to their family circle when he was once the circle. It’s a hurtful, unbecoming thing Fin does. But she too is starting from a, if not dislocated, disappointed, heartbroken place and while it doesn’t excuse, it does endow her with a sympathy-inducing quality for the reader to be able to like her: her umpteenth attempt to become a foster parent has been rejected yet again.

So two not-quite easy in their lives people are thrown together when Kylie, Tyler’s fourteen-year-old niece, enters the picture. And a wonderful portrayal of a difficult, close-mouthed, hurt teen she is too. I loved her and her eventual relationship with Tyler, who gains custody when Kylie’s mother abandons her. No matter how Tyler, with humour, thinks of his “status” with his two women, Kylie and Fin, who get along like a house on fire, or as he calls them, “his skeptical sister and his biggest hater,” he would never push away any opportunity to make Kylie more comfortable in her new home, deprive her of someone to talk to no matter how much he wants that someone to be him. Because he’s selfless, loving, caring, funny, and goofy, Fin comes to see how wrong she was about him. Because he is those things and more, unable not to forgive when someone is both contrite and affectionate, what was a reluctant relationship for Kylie’s sake becomes a friendship, blossoms into love, inflames into “in love,” admits desire and culminates in Bastone’s remarkable love scenes, always positioned near the romance’s end when the emotional connection sees both hero and heroine are “goners” for the other. Lest my review makes Falling sound too sombre, let me regale you with one snippet of how very much Tyler wants Fin and how funny and lovable he is even when she chastises via text: “He glared at his phone, feeling like he’d just been slapped across the hand by a nun with a ruler. He pictured Fin in a nun’s outfit and absently wondered if she was wearing her fur bikini under there.”

You’re likely thinking, “MissB., this sounds great. What niggling detail saw you enjoy Falling ‘a smidgen less than’ Heartbeat?” It was Fin’s woo-woo. I didn’t mind her sharp tongue, not when she saw the error of her ways and made sure Tyler knew it. I didn’t mind her feral-spinster-in-the-making personality either, au contraire I enjoyed it. But the woo-woo, the crystals, auras, and herb teas, I have a skeptical reaction to that stuff and don’t enjoy reading about it, especially when it defines one of the two protagonists. But that’s my personal ugh and doesn’t deter from the quality of Bastone’s romance. It’s fun, fresh, funny, centred on the opening of the heart, and wonderfully written, witty, heartwarming, with lovely turns of phrase and a penchant for unusual, original metaphor. With Miss Austen, we agree Can’t Help Falling offers “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Cara Bastone’s Can’t Help Falling is published by HQN. It was released in August 2020 and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-galley from HQN, via Netgally.

Ok, I am absolutely obsessed with Cara Bastone. She is forever on my auto buy list. Her books are absolute magic in my book. I love how she weaves a story, by the end of the book I feel so immersed in the characters and as in I know them intimately. And the yearning and slow burn, I love it! She basically has me eating out the palm of her hand with her words. Seraphine might be one of my favorite heroines ever. She is just so quirky and interesting and mystical. And somehow her and Tyler just work. I cannot say enough good things about this book and this entire series! And the adoption + fostering plot was A+. Beautiful book!!

The more you resist,

the deeper you’ll fallSerafine St. Romain doesn’t need her psychic powers to know she’s no longer in Tyler Leshuski’s good graces. True, she did tear him to pieces when he asked her out, accusing him of being shallow and selfish. Despite the energy crackling between them, the gorgeous sports writer is a no-strings, no-kids kind of guy. And Serafine, raised in the foster system, intends to be a foster parent herself. She won’t compromise that dream, even for a man as annoyingly appealing as Tyler.

In a simpler world, Tyler would already have gotten Serafine out of his system. For him, women equal fun. Not this kind of bone-deep, disconcerting desire. Life gets even more complicated when he becomes the guardian of his much younger sister. Suddenly, he’s way out of his depth. Serafine’s the only person who can connect with Kylie. He can’t jeopardize that for a fling.

But maybe…just maybe…he’s finally ready to risk everything on forever.

I'm officially obsessed with Cara Bastone's words and characters. I spent six days savoring this book instead of reading it cover to cover in one sitting and I regret nothing. I just wanted to bask in the glowy feeling her characters were giving me. There was something magical about Fin and Tyler together. I also enjoyed the family aspect with Tyler's sister and ward Kylie.

I think that if I hadn't read this author previously and wasn't prepared for her writing style I would have been disappointed because the MCs are just friends for most of the book. It ended up being a cute story even though I wish we had gotten to see more of the reaction from their friends learning that they were dating.

Thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for a copy to review.

I loved the first full novel in Cara Bastone's Forever Yours series, Just a Heartbeat Away which featured a widowed single dad and a teacher. In that story secondary characters Serafine St. Romain and Tyler Leshuski were introduced as friends of the heroine and hero respectively, and seemed to clash at every turn. So it's only fitting that the next story in the series is theirs, a classic enemies to lovers trope story though with a rather unconventional heroine. While Can't Help Falling didn't make as much of an impression on me as the first in the series did, it's still an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Serafine is a psychic with an ability to read people and a firm belief in the healing powers of certain crystals and herbs. But she doesn't need her powers to know that Tyler is a playboy who could break her heart. So she's quick to turn down his advances. But as they spend time together due to their mutual friends, and Tyler's unexpected guardianship of his younger sister, she has second thoughts. Perhaps Tyler isn't quite the shallow guy she'd believed him to be. And if she was wrong about that, is it possible that he's actually the perfect guy for her?

So, a heroine with psychic powers in a contemporary romance (versus a paranormal one) is a little out of my realm of believability which is probably why this book didn't resonate for me as well as the first did. But on the plus side I really like Serafine as a person despite these quirks and while she comes off a bit snooty at first, she is willing to admit that her first impressions of Tyler were mistaken and sincerely offer her apologies as they move onto better footing.

Tyler is a more complicated character than he seems at first. Yes, he's commitment shy and likes his women sexy, fun and uncomplicated (which Serafine definitely is not) but he's been a steadfast friend to Sebastian through his struggles as a widowed parent and now he has his own challenge – becoming the guardian of his younger sister. Serafine bonds right away with Kylie to his chagrin but they both have had difficult upbringings (and Tyler is much older than Kylie so didn't grow up with her). Still, Serafine, who has intentions of becoming a foster parent herself, sees the effort Tyler makes with his sister and this goes a long way to softening her feelings for him. Plus he takes her crystals and herbs and psychic abilities in stride and isn't rebuffed by them.

This is a slow burn story with some eventual sexy scenes for the couple as they move past wariness to friendship to romance. I really enjoy this author's writing style and the real feeling to her characters. They show genuine growth over the course of the story, especially Tyler as he goes from bachelorhood to being a parent of a teenager. The emphasis on found family and friendships is evident. The happy ending is sweet and well worth it for this couple and I'm looking forward to reading whatever is next for this author. I would put her with the likes of Jill Shalvis, Lucy Parker and Kate Clayborn, definitely one to consider for your contemporary romance reading shelf.

This review will be posted at All About Romance and feedback updated with the link.

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for a gifted copy of the ebook.

This was 2nd book in this series and I did not read the first one and didn’t feel lost with the story. I love seeing how Fin and Tyler developed from barely friends to lovers. Kylie was such a good kid and added a great dimension to the story. I now need to go back and read the first book.

After really loving the first book, CAN'T HELP FALLING was... fine. I think my biggest problem is that the hero does something really terrible and I never forgave him for that.

3 - 3.5 stars, I can't decide -

Ngl, this was hard to get into, mainly because I couldn't connect to the main characters, so everything was boring me. Plus I didn't like bratty kids in romance, so that was kind of a factor too. The only reason why I didn't DNF this is because of sheer "my friends loved this, why can't I love this too????" stubbornness.

Have to say that I didn't read the first book, but I think this book works well as a standalone. Nick was saying I should've started with book 1 so I could have loved this one better but eh.

I love the gang's friendship and camaraderie, but I've only started loving the connection between Tyler and Serafine at the 70% mark (yes, I took note lol). The last 30% was so adorable and satisfying, I just wish that I felt the same way about the whole book.

Anyway, that excerpt for Mary's book? Chef's kiss. I'm definitely reading that one.

This is book 2 in the series but it easily stands alone. It stars Fin/Sarafin who is a life coach and Tyler who is a playboy. Its a bit of a love hate thing with a love at first sight angle.

Fin meets Tyler and he falls into insta lust for her but she shoots him down in the worse way and so their love/hate romance starts. Now months later her sister and his best friend are together and then Tyler becomes an insta dad to his young sister.

Fin ends up really connecting to his sister and so she tries to be nicer to him and she ends up falling for him but Tyler got shot down before, she now has to let him know she is interested.

This was a pretty great story. I loved all the characters and I loved how Tyler made Fin work hard for his heart.

* Note I received an arc from netgallery for review purposes.

One of the aspects of romance books I’m extremely interested in is non-traditional family. We talk a lot about found family in Romancelandia and generally I think of creating a family out of the friends you make. But in these two books the author emphasizes a different kind of non-traditional family and I’d love to see more of it in romance. Both books feature main characters who are intimately familiar with the pains of dealing with the foster system, or being abandoned by their origin families. Just a Heartbeat Away deals with Via desperately chasing normality and stability in her life after dealing with the uncertainty of her past. Via and widower dad Sebastian

And Can’t Help Falling has Serafine, also raised in the foster system, wanting to be a foster parent because she wants to provide for someone like herself. I loved that part of the book because it frang so true to me. But we also get to see Kylie, an abandoned kid, dealing with not wanting to trust anyone and walling herself off from everyone. Seeing the two of them connect slowly and having Kylie’s brother, Tyler, trying so hard to build their family packed a huge emotional punch for me. In my opinion there is no true traditional family anymore. Whatever your family is? It’s valid. And books like these just reinforce that and I hope to see more and more. I’ve read quite a few with these kinds of themes in YA and I can’t wait to get more in adult romance.

I am a sucker for books with dogs on the cover.

I had read the first book in the series and I did love it so i couldn't wait to get my hands on this book.

I love this story so much. It was a cute/sweet slow burn story that I just couldn't put down.

I do recommend this one.

After her childhood Serafine is working becoming a foster parent but its not easy. Tyler is not interested in kids and a no-string type of guy. Both have an attraction but its clear they want different things and Serafine was clear on that. But things get complicated when Tyler ends up guardian to his teenage sister. He clearly doesn't know what to do with a teenager but Serafine feels a kind of kinship with the girl since their backgrounds are similar and so she offers to help him out.

If you like contemporary romance you'll find yourself enjoying this book. I loved getting to know Serafine and her quirk of having psychic powers. I loved the attraction between Serafine and Tyler like you can't help but root for them to get together. I enjoyed seeing the interactions between Tyler and his sister, there was plenty of issues going around but they are working on it. The girl clearly has some deep rooted issues and there was the clear boundary, plus the fact that shes a teen can't make things too easy. There was just so much to enjoy about this book and I recommend you lovely readers to check out this book.

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.

Oh y'all, as cheesy as this sounds, like the title, I can't help falling in love with Cara Bastone's writing or her stories. In book one, there is crackling energy between Tyler and Fin and watching all of that crackling energy come bubbling up was incredible. I think some people are likely going to struggle with how harshly Fin tells him off in the beginning and how long it takes for her to apologize. But, for me, the sort of very interested to extremely shut down and not interested, to tentative almost allies to oops is this a crush???? to oh crap, I'm in love was literally everything. The journey is absolutely something to behold and I cannot recommend enough.

We meet Fin and Tyler in the first book in the series, <em>Just a Heartbeat Away</em>, which is phenomenal. Fin is a psychic and so there's a lot about energy and crystals and auras because of that. It feels natural to me, not forced, but Tyler is a bit of skeptic. Fin was raised by her aunt because her mom abandoned her as a child. She has this intense desire to become a foster parent because of her experiences. Tyler, who has always been very attracted to Fin, is much more of a chill, dude bro, who definitely does not want children. Things go pretty disastrously when he asks her out, but then his entire life is changed when his 14 year old half sister is abandoned by her own mom. Fin both wants to repair her relationship with Ty, well, kind of, and wants to help Kylie adjust to living in NYC. This slow build is so beautiful. I'm honestly so in love with Bastone's writing and I just want everyone to experience the joy of her stories!

I'll call this one a 50/50 split decision. I thought the basic storyline had plenty of potential and I could really get behind the enemies-to-lovers, single dad-ish and age gap tropes. I found the male lead character, Tyler likable enough if a bit typical. I did enjoy watching him struggle the situation, his confusion about his emotions and the changes he went through because of it all. My feelings about the female main character were much more complicated. While I could admire her feelings about family and her fierce determination to be a foster parent, I also felt she was quite unlikable with her hash judgements and mulish opinions.

A heartwarming romance that develops as Tyler and Fin while deal with their responsibilities, fears, friends, and family. Tyler Leshuski goes from being besotted and tongue tied around Serafine St. Romain, to avoiding her like the plague after she rejects him. Unfortunately, fate has different ides and the two of them are unable to stay apart. When Tyler gets custody of his little sister, both Tyler and Fin begin to question their judgements of each other.

It is a typical feel-good romance but written with insight into the lives of these characters making them three dimensional. I have read the first novella in this series, and was pleasantly surprised at the depth of character and plot in this novel. While part of a series, the book can stand alone, and is a fun, light read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

The second book in the Forever Yours series by Cara Bastone picks up shortly after where the characters left off in her first book… but now the focus has shifted to their friends and their attraction/ revolution for each other.

Serafine St. Romain, Fin, has known that men would be her downfall since her physic mother told her that as a child. After growing up with only females in her life, her aunt and foster sister, and being a beautiful woman often gaining unwanted make attention, she finds her tolerance for the male sex to be pretty minimal.

When her best friends boyfriends attempts to ask her out, she doesn’t hold back and completely shatters him. But a few months later when Tyler finds himself as the guardian of his little sister, Fin finds a kindred spirit in Kylie… Now she will have to make up with Tyler if she ever wants to be let into Kylie’s life to help her adjust to all these changes.

Will connecting with Kylie lead to connecting with Tyler? You bet it will! Oh boy, the chemistry between these two was literally sparking! I adore the enemies to lover trope, and this was no exception! Fin and Tyler have such a connection that a scared Fin pushes him away hard enough that they become enemies… but once she opens herself up to look past the fact that Tyler is not just another male attracted to her, she find his caring and generous heart is also forgiving… awwww!

Great banter, lots of angst that’s lead up to to fireworks in the bedroom- this book was a delight and I could not put it down!

Can’t Help Falling by Cara Bastone is scheduled to release August 25th, 2020.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harlequin- Romance. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#CantHelpFalling #CaraBastone #NetGalley #pinkcowlandreads

This was such an enjoyable book and I loved getting to know Tyler and Fin better. I already loved these characters from the first book so I was really excited to see. that they were getting their own story!

While this book had an amazing slow burn romance it was about so much more and we really see both Tyler and Fin grow as people throughout this book. This book was about family, life changes and figuring out it is okay if your future doesn't look exactly like you thought it would.

The slow burn between Tyler and Fin had me waiting with baited breath for them to finally figure out they were perfect for each other! Even before the romance developed the banter and friendship they formed was just the best. I loved seeing it, particularly how they interacted with Kylie. Tyler's younger sister. My only complaint is that I wish we got a little more of the two of them as a couple before the end but the ending was also the most adorable thing ever. It look me a little bit to get into this book but once I hit the middle I absolutely flew threw it!

One of my other favorite aspects both about this book and the previous, is the way NYC and Brooklyn are described! The writing was so vivid I felt like I was there walking towards the train with Fin myself. It had me absolutely dying to visit NYC again!

Ugh neither Fin nor Tyler was likable. He was self-centered and a womanizer she was stubborn and judgmental. She's also for some reason psychic? I dunno I read this entire book and it was so unenjoyable I've already forgotten most of the plot.

Tyler's best friend is Sebastian. He has a seven year old nephew Matty. I like the name Tyler. Sebastian is going out with Via. Via is soon to move in with Sebastian. Tyler is trying to get along with Vias best friend Serafine. I like the name Serafine. I didn't like Serafine and thought she was a witch.