Title: Falling Down Under
Author: Errin Krystal
Pub. Date: March 9, 2021
Rating: 4

This will be a spoiler free review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Um, I inhaled this in one sitting. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. I’m already ready for the next one and I can’t wait to see which couple is next. I loved this and easily recommend it.

I was really surprised when an eARC of this book hit my inbox. I hadn’t heard of the author before, but two authors I do know – and I love their books – recommended it. So I downloaded it and fell in love. And I need book 2.

I started it and finished it in one day. True, it’s not an incredibly long book, but I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t want to put it down. It has evil stepmothers, life changing events, small town love and a vineyard/restaurant. And I’m 100% a sucker for small town love. Especially when the love interest is the boyfriend who was left behind, utterly broken, but still wholly in love.

This book had me lowkey wishing my life played out like this – I want a hot grumpy chef. And the fact that he’s described as Chris Hemsworth meets Charlie Hunnam…

Yes. Please.

Also, this takes place in London and Australia and I love it. Legit, send me to Australia with the promise of finding the love of my life, and I’d be gone in a heartbeat.
But back to the book, and not my own wishful fantasies.

Georgia was such a fun character. I loved that her personality came out through the book. It’s rough in the beginning. We’re just tossed into her world, and it’s crumbling. Everything was okay, and then it wasn’t.
Her stepmother is a bitch.
So is her stepsister for that matter.
And her fucking boyfriend.
They can all go kick a bag of rocks.
Allegra and Miranda were the best – true friends and I loved them. I thought their personalities all melded well together and just seemed like a great group.
But seriously, all the other people in her life, prior to go back to Australia, sucked.
Jax was terrible – was a shit boyfriend. Honestly, he sucked so much. After everything Georgia does for him, he does that?? The fucking audacity. The nerve. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan.
And the stunt her stepmom pulls – that shit stresses me out. Evil stepmoms stress me out with the injustices they wield.

Then Georgia gets to Australia – and it becomes a little predictable, but it doesn’t matter. I loved that she chose to change her life, change the narrative – after quite a bit of time being sad. Her reunion with Jared is so good, despite its rocky start. She’s just someone you can’t help but like and she quickly wins everyone over. Watching them become friends again, become close is so much fun and just so enjoyable.
There’s even a little bit of steam in this book, and honestly, Georgia – you’re lucky. LOL
Again, Chris Hemsworth meets Charlie Hunnam. He can cook. He can bake and he’s sexy af. Can you blame me?

I loved this book, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in this series. I have my suspicions of who might be the next focus – assuming I’m right about how I think this series is going to play out. If it’s either of the two people I’m thinking of, I cannot wait to watch them fall in love.
This was such a fun, light read. I just sat down and enjoyed it, no pressure. I could just turn my brain off, squeal a little and just have fun. This book is fun, it’s pure enjoyment and such a cute romance. I highly recommend it if you just want to get lost for a little bit. It’s out March 9, so you really don’t have a long wait.

I like to try out new authors every once in a while. Because you never know what kind of gem you will find. So, when I was offered the arc for Falling down under, I happily dove into the story. And it is lovely.

We meet Georgia, rushing to the hospi­tal, where her father is dying. Shortly after, she learns that she was taken out of the will of her father, and her evil stepmother and stepsister are to inherit the multimillion houses and the company.

When her rockstar boyfriend also breaks up with her, she has nowhere to turn to than her nona and grandfather back home in Australia. Penniless and humiliated, Georgia decides to lick her wounds and start a new life.

Soon she realizes that she likes this way of life better than her Instagram fame, resulting from her famous ex-boyfriend and her father's millions. And when she finds out that her grandparent's restaurant is struggling to survive, she offers to help them out, by using her Instagram followers to promote their restaurant, with a growing success. If only, Jared, the grumpy chef of the restaurant (and Georgia's high school sweetheart) would give her some benefit of the doubt. When Georgia was taken to London by her father a decade ago, Jared's heart was broken. And maybe, it just never healed. So, the moment Jared learned that Georgia was back in Australia, in his restaurant, he vowed to keep his distance from her. Because he will never let her hurt him again, when she goes back to her glamorous life. Georgia has never stopped loving Jared. But Jared doesn't believe she is here to stay. How can she convince him that she is not leaving him behind? A sweet and funny story, about heart­break, family ties and second chance love. Especially the kitchen staff is hilarious and I do hope they get their own stories in the next book. Four out of five stars from me and a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

A disinherited London socialite is forced to return to her childhood roots in Australia—and confront her high school sweetheart, whom she left over ten years ago.

I’d been struggling to find the time and energy to read recently, and this sounded like an easy, enjoyable read. While romance is not my usual go-to genre, this sounded perfect.

After finishing Chapter 2, I predicted the rest of the major plot points in the novel. Predictability is not inherently bad. Sometimes, it’s comforting to know what will happen and that the leads will be okay. However, there was no variation or twist on the typical romance tropes. I don’t mind tropes—they can be useful in storytelling. I just wanted at least one thing to surprise me, even a little. Unfortunately, that did not happen. That’s not necessarily the author’s fault. I feel like the blame lies with the genre and the expectations readers have built up over the years.

Overall, I enjoyed the idea and potential of this story. However, two things kept me from totally enjoying it. The first thing is that the characters, especially Georgia, have no real flaws. Georgia partied hard and did drugs in the past. However, we don’t experience that or any real consequences from her past actions. She is also incredibly skilled at everything she does at the vineyard. I don’t remember her ever struggling.

At one point, she helps the vineyard get an unrealistic amount of new customers literally overnight. She uses her influencer power to accomplish this. However, social media algorithms are not kind or in the users’ favor. If you post new types of content (which she does) or take a break (she takes a small one), it’s easy to fall off other users’ homepages. This incident felt incredibly unrealistic and took me out of the story.

The other thing that prevented me from truly enjoying the novel was that I felt like the author told me everything instead of allowing me to experience it. It’s the classic “show, don’t tell” writing advice. Instead of saying something like “Georgia was nervous,” show us that she is nervous! Tapping feet, playing with the hem of a jacket sleeve, a bead of sweat, blurry vision—all of these show us what the character is feeling, which is more engaging than being told. Let the reader infer some things! I also wanted to experience more of the vineyard and restaurant. The locations were, unfortunately, hard to picture. I wish there had been more description with sensory details (i.e. what did the restaurant smell like, what sounds could she hear when she walked around the vineyard, how did Jared’s jacket feel when she put it on, etc.).

Despite the low review, I would still recommend this book. Yes, it has its flaws. However, the story is told with conviction and genuine heart. Regular readers and fans of romance books will probably enjoy this novel. Even though I found aspects of this story frustrating, I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. I am excited to see how the author grows and what will happen to the characters next.

Falling down under by Errin Krystal feels like coming home to me.

This heart warming and heart felt, this book will lift your spirits. Just when Georgia hits rock bottom, it's home and family who fill her soul.

This book is such a refreshing breeze to read, Erin's use of language and writing style is immaculate. The scenes flow, the dialogue is real and her depictions of food and vineyard life....wow. Almost seems like she lives that life herself *wink*

Falling Down Under feels like coming home to a close friend at the end of the day, warm, comforting and just what you need. I seriously hope there's more of this genre of book coming from this amazing author.

If you're looking for an easy, heartfelt and comforting read, Falling Down Under is the perfect choice.

Falling Down Under by Errin Krystal is the 1st book in the Seven Sisters Vineyards, and my first book by this author. London Socialite Georgia Bailey has lost everything, her father, her boyfriend, and her money. Georgia turns to the only people that can help, her deceased mother's parents who live in Australia. I really enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed watching Georgia turn her life around and her romance with Jared. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book, especially is you like sweet romances.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The funny thing is that when I read the first chapter, I felt that this book had so much potential though I could guess the ending just from Chap 1.
The MC felt really strong and that's when things started going downhill. While I did sign up for lovey dovey stuff, I didn't sign up for inane stories and that's what Falling Down Under became.
The plot felt artificial and there was zero tension between the MC and her love interest.
So I'm rating it 2 stars
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

Falling Down Under is such a refreshing and cute read. I feel in love within the first chapter and could not put this book down. Not only is the story brilliant but so are the characters and the scenery.

Georgia began the story as our typical party girl who soon becomes a broke heiress after her father passes away before truly finding her place running the family vineyard in Australia. Georgia’s growth throughout the entire story was amazing and I felt she grew from a somewhat petulant child to a strong young woman who discovers the joy of truly living.

Jared’s character is someone that I feel in love with almost instantly and he provided me with many laughs. I also loved the fact that he was such a talented cook. Which brings me to the rest of the characters in the story…they are brilliant! I loved each and every one of them as they are such hilarious characters who truly care for one another.

The story has a brilliant balance of humour, loss and heartache and these elements all work together to create such a beautiful romcom. I utterly loved this book and I can’t wait to see what Errin does with this series next.

Thank you to NetGally and Trash Dog Media for the earc in return for my review.

Thank you NetGalley, Errin Krystal and Trash Dogs Media LLC for the ARC of Falling Down Under. This is my personal review.
Georgia has had a one too many nasty things happen in her life--- her father dies, and the stepmom makes sure she has nothing left to her and her boyfriend dumps her. She knows it is time to make a change in her life and that decision sends her to Australia to her family’s vineyard to work and rethink her life.
The story was a great escape for me. The romance was just the right touch. The pieces of the story all fell together to give me that feeling of joy to see Georgia get her life back together and is happy!

Georgia is down on her luck. After her father, her only living parent dies, her rockstar boyfriend breaks up with her and her bitchy stepmom writes her out of her fathers will. Having no where to go, she returns home to her grandparents winery where she grew up and is reunited with old friends, some new challenges and Jared, her first true love.

Wow did I love this book! It was quaint and interesting and I couldn't put it down! All the characters in her hometown are so cute and unique. I loved that Georgia wasn't just thrown into a waitressing job but she actually helped bring her families vineyard into the 21st century. Some of her influencer tendencies were a bit cheesy and basic. I can definitely see the start of a series here and will definitely look out for new books in the series! 4.5 stars!

This was my first book by this author and let me say that I wasn't let down. I really enjoyed this book. Yes, at first the cover bought me, but the story is so wonderful. I love the characters and I just read it in one sitting. Soo sooo cute. 4 stars.

Second Chance Romance
This is a pretty good second chance romance. The sex was pretty graphic, but the reader could skip past it as it was unnecessary to the story. Which is why I gave it four stars, I almost gave it three stars. The story is really good with a plot that touches many emotions. Although there are humorous parts, it did not rise to the level of being a romantic comedy. The setting of a rural Australian vineyard is very good. And, of course, a happy ever after ending. I could easily see this become a series with each book about different characters. But the fact that it is not a clean romance totally ruined it for me. It added nothing to the story and could easily be omitted. I will not be reading future episodes as I prefer clean romance. If open-door sex does not bother you, I am sure you will love the romance. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Wow! What a refreshing, cute book to read. Georgia is a broke heiress who moves back to Australia after her dad passes away. It turns out her ex boyfriend is now the chef of the vineyard and they need to learn how to work together. The story was carried by so many great characters and I think my absolute favorite were Ben and Ruby.

Erinn Krystal is a descriptive writer and I was able to transport myself to the vineyard and watch Georgia pick up the pieces of her life. I kept saying to myself "wow, I really feel like I'm in Australia!!"

I cannot wait to read the rest of the books because there are so many characters (Allegra, Miranda and Ben) I want to read more about.

Thank you Trash Dogs Media and Netgalley for an ARC. I really enjoyed it!

The publishers offered me an ARC-in-exchange-for-review of this book and I took them up on the offer without bothering to really look too closely at what the book was about. For some reason I was expecting it to be a cozy mystery but turns out it's a straight forward romance. Although I enjoy some romance mixed into the genres I do read, I don't read a lot of straight romance so I can't really tell you how this book compares to others in it's class. It is however a quite enjoyable and well written, if fairly predictable, read. There is quite a lot of swearing for my tastes, but to be honest probably not as much as people would actually use in casual conversation nowadays. The prose was engaging and easy to read and the characters were likeable people you could get behind.

As an Australian myself, it's great to read a book with familiar slang and terminology, but as usual for books set in Australia, you always get the impression that the author is trying to make sure you never forget for a moment that this is all happening in the Land Down-under. For example, from fiction you'd think every town in Australia was named after the local flora and fauna, in this book it's "Wattle Valley" in others it could be something like "Possum Ridge" or "Platypus Creek". While there are plenty of real places with names involving native plants and animals in Australia, it's far more common to find towns named after places in the UK, prominent people from the time the towns were founded, or places with names taken from local aboriginal words. So why in fiction is it always, absolutely always, "Wattle Valley" or "Possum Ridge"? And let's be realistic, if Australian towns really were all named after local flora and fauna there'd be a lot more "Filled-With-Snakes-That-Can-Kill-You-Town" and "Bloody-Huge-Spiders-(That-Can-Also-Kill-You)-Valley" than anything else. As a local these sort of things niggle at the overall enjoyment level, but anyone from further afield won't even notice them.

So, overall, this is a fairly fun read to fill a couple of hours.

well this was fun !

i am a huge ( huge! ) fan of a plot where mc leaves their old life and moves somewhere else to begin a new chapter in their life so i instantly knew im gonna enjoy this book. and when i read the description about having a kangaroo as a friend, working in a family business and a reunion with a childhood sweetheart ... it was literally impossible for me not to be excited.

and i wasnt disappointed ! i got everything i expected from this book : a second-chance romance between a grumpy chef and sunshine instagram influencer, a lot of family&friends interactions which i always appreciate and a journey of finding yourself and your own way in life. main characters, especially georgia!, were very likeable, funny and entertaining. absolutely loved the dynamics between everyone. and the romance was fine as well, cute and sweet, i was smiling almost all the time during georgia&jared scenes.

3.5/4 stars from me! very excited to read the rest of the series when it comes out. errin krystal did a great job.

- arc kindly provided by independent publishers group via netgalley.

Wonderful light easy read. Typically I anticipate a lot of drama in these tropes. I was really happy for that to not be the case. I love second chance romance stories as well.

This was a really enjoyable light-hearted book that thankfully less drama than I imagined from a riches-to-rags style story. It's also a childhood/teenage lovers to lovers second chance romance which I love.

Georgia is an heiress that grew up in rural Australia, but when her Mum dies ended up in boarding school in the UK when her Dad remarries. When her Dad passes away, she is disinherited unexpectedly, with everything her Dad owned going to her step mother. With nothing left, her grandparents come to the rescue. She's not seen them for ten years, but she's heading back to Australia and their vineyard.

Jared is the typical grumpy chef persona. Georgia was his first girlfriend she broke his heart when she left. But now she's back - and even worse she is waitressing at the restaurant he works at.

What I loved about this book was Georgia's healing - she was such a mess before going home and it was heart-warming to see her return to her roots. She also uses her social media influencing to help her family and puts her internet cleverness to good use. I liked Georgia's friends, because they don't ditch her when she loses her fortune. Instead, the visit her and genuinely have a good time, it was really endearing.

Overall this was a cute romance, and I'm excited that there will be more stories that take place at Seven Sisters Vineyards (there had better be Boomer the Roo cameos that's for sure!)

The description of this book is utterly charming and seemed like the perfect way to escape on a rainy Saturday. However, I just could not get into it. The plot felt a little too much like listing events rather than developing a story and the characters came off as a bit one-dimensional. It was a miss for me, but hopefully it will be a better fit for other readers.

It is so nice to read a book set within Australia with modern Australian mannerisms - (that are not cliche)
(Boy problems? Heck yes we devour a pack of tim tams with our bestie!)

This story is about Georgia - a party girl, heiress to a media mogul - who suddenly finds herself penniless, homeless and having to deal with a wicked stepmother to boot. With over a million instagram followers - Georgia realises there isn't a person among them that knows the real her.
Returning to her childhood home, Georgia quickly discovers she is more than what the media has dubbed her, and that there are in fact people in the world that know the 'real' her.

This book has all the warm and fuzzies that accompany the genre, and it is so refreshing to read a 'love interest' that is shy, awkward and a little old fashioned.
I read this in one sitting, it was so easy to fall into this story and fall in love with all the characters.

Why have I just heard of this book only now? It deserves all the praise!

I love love loved this book! This was fantastic! It had everything I look for in a rom com. It had love, it had a great trope, it had steam (!!), it had amazing characters, and it had amazing writing! I'm so beyond happy to have picked this up, I think it's a genius of a rom com, truly.

Let me start off my saying how much I love Jared's character. He's the ultimate book boyfriend in my books. His character was written so well and the character in general was just fantastic and a joy to read. And can we talk about the other characters too? Because they were all so entertaining to witness, their dialogues were the best!

This is my first read from Errin Krystal and I already love her writing. The dialogues were the best and it was such a fun story overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group for the earc in return for an honest review.

I thought this was a good story that had some lovely elements. I wasn't overly enthralled with the social media element of the story, but I enjoyed the character development that happens to Georgia. She's not very easy to like at the beginning of the story, but she grows on you as she begins to grow herself!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.