A past murder and present clues combine for a suspenseful thriller. The premise sucked me in and kept me engaged. Was the correct murderer arrested, or is someone else responsible for the untimely death? All is not as it seems in the twisty, intriguing thriller. Thank you NetGalley and Random House for my copy.

What an outstanding debut from Allison Buccola! This twisty thriller follows Micah, a young woman who as a senior in high school had a boyfriend who murdered her best friend. It's been ten years and she's moved on when a true crime blog pops up forcing her to reexamine her memories from that night. It starts Micah down a rabbit hole that has her spiraling over whether someone else could have killed her best friend. And could she be next? This was a wild rollercoaster ride of a thriller and I enjoyed every second of it! Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys thrillers. Be sure to check out Catch Her When She Falls today!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group ​and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
Wonderful debut. Love the flashbacks. Fast-paced. The description initially intrigued me and I'm glad I was able to read it. Not what I expected but better. Well done, Allison!

3.6, really.
Missing points because literally everyone is just damn unlikable. The turgid characters were difficult to read with anything approaching sympathy. That said, the MC, while unreliable as a narrator, was also uniquely logical in a way I found engaging.

This is one of those books that's difficult for me to review - I liked it but I didn't love it. It's touted as a thriller, but I'm not sure it quite fits that category. And while it's a debut novel and there were some issues I personally had difficulty with, it was interesting enough to make me want to see what the author comes out with next. It jumps around in time and occasionally the timeline is difficult to keep straight, and the main character, Micah, does some things that made me want to shake her and tell her to get off the darned internet and back into her real life. But with all of that, it was an interesting premise, with an surprising answer to the central mystery and an unexpected ending. I can see why many people would really love it, and as I said I'll be on the lookout for Allison Buccola's next book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

#Catch Her When She Falls is a wonderful debut by # Allison Buccola. It's a mystery and a thriller. With a young woman questioning everything she thought she knew. When in highschool her boyfriend was convicted of killing her best friend. When reminders of her past began appearing she starts to doubt.....
Thank you for the advance copy,
# Netgalley and # Random House Publishing 💜🐾🐾

In high school senior Micah ‘s boyfriend Alex is convicted of killing her best friend Emily Why? Micah has come back home. She is 27 years and successfully running a coffee shop. She keeps running into Alex’s current girlfriend Julia who is a legal secretary. Julia is doing her best to overturn Alex’s conviction. Micah thinks she is just trying to impress Alex. Micah starts reading online discussion which list how the police did a poor job of investigating and lack of forensic evidence. Micah starts investigating herself. Is Alex guilty?

It’s a tense mystery novel. It’s a gripping story. I didn’t like how suddenly (at least it seemed that way to me) flashbacks suddenly happened. I didn’t let it stop me from reading the novel but the last page surprised me. I didn’t like how it ended.

I just didn't like it. I'm really sorry to say that, truly I hate leaving less-than-stellar reviews but I was given an ARC on the promise that I would share my thoughts. I didn't like the protagonist, couldn't connect with her and honestly she just rubbed me the wrong way as most of the characters did. I liked Ryan! That's something.

The timeline was more confusing than it needed to be when switching between present and past and the use of "you" without it being clear who "you" was (it's not the reader, which was my assumption in the beginning since it wasn't indicated otherwise) was also confusing. The mystery wasn't enough to pull me further than the first 100 pages.

I was really looking forward to this one, crime thrillers are a favorite of mine, but this one just didn't work out for me. Give it a try for yourself though! Never let a bad review stop you from trying a book for yourself.


Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

3.5/5

Catch Her When She Falls by Allison Buccola is a slow-burning debut novel that keeps you wondering. I'm not actually sure I would call it a thriller because I didn't get any 'thrills' out of it, but it does have some great mysterious qualities to it. I really liked the way the book is broken up into how many miles Micah has to go to get to her destination, while also providing plenty of backstory. The end is where you finally find out what lead Micah to do what she is doing, and the format reminded me a bit of Don't Turn Around. I can't say I liked any of the characters including Micah, but I thought she was a very interesting viewpoint to read from. She is SUPER paranoid, and her paranoia started to make ME paranoid even though I had no reason to be.

I have seen quite a few reviews say this book was way too long, and while I do think it could have been a bit shorter, I didn't get that vibe as much as I did with The Spanish Love Deception. I found myself enjoying it for the most part, and this could also have been because of the audiobook. Frankie Corzo is the narrator, and I loved every moment of listening to her, so much so that I would probably listen to her read anything. I think listening really helped me get in the zone and become more invested in the book overall. The biggest bummer for me ended up being the ending, and I was hoping it would be a bit more twisty than what it ended up being. Catch Her When She Falls was still a solid debut in my eyes, and I will definitely be reading whatever Buccola writes next.

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

This is the first novel by Allison Buccola, and I believe she has a great career in front of her. The novel slowly reveals what happened the night when the main character, Micah Wilkes, is hanging out with high school friends and finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her best friend. The next morning she finds out her best friend was found dead in the woods close to where the friends were together the night before. The police investigate and determine that Micah’s ex-boyfriend is the killer. He is tried and sent to prison where he has been for the past 10 years. Now 10 years later, Micah has moved back to her home town, opened a coffee shop, and someone begins to send messages and to harass Micah about what happened then. There are many branches to the story, and as I said before, the story develops slowly, but you are never bored because the author keeps you guessing. She builds the story and reveals information along the way to keep you guessing about who was involved 10 years ago and who is reviving the story in present day. I look forward to more novels from Allison Buccola because this is a great first effort

I never want to give a so-so review to a debut novel, because, yay to the author! Such a great accomplishment, however this one is just not for me. The story line is catching but I lost interest around the middle.

I thought the premise of this book sounded very interesting but it didn’t really live up to my expectations. Did a teenage boy kill a promising, young ballerina? Or has he spent the last 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit? The book’s chapters alternated between present day and a road trip the main character is taking. It was a very quick read but I thought it was just okay. The ending really seemed implausible. I read a ton of these types of thrillers so maybe I am just being too picky.

Catch Her When She Falls by Allison Buccola is about the murder a teenage girl Emily and the fallout experienced by her friends and family. The narrator is Micah, her best friend, whose boyfriend Alex also happens to be the one convicted of Emily’s murder. The story takes place in present day. Micah is on her way to talk to Emily’s younger brother Josh, who moved away and changed his name after the murder. The story alternates between the past, leading up to the murder, and the present with Micah struggling to remember what really happened. She now is in a relationship with Ryan who was Alex’s best friend and they live together. Micah always believed Alex was guilty but Ryan wasn’t so sure. As Micah makes the long drive to find Josh, truths come to light and not everything she finds out is what she believed.
I really enjoyed this book because I like unreliable narrators. Surprises come out little by little as Micah finds out more about what really took place the night of Emily’s murder. I look forward to many more books by this author. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Random House for an early copy of Catch Her When She Falls by Allison Buccola. I could not put this down! What a great book! The characters were well fleshed out and the plot was fast paced and kept me riveted to the page. Micah ‘s boyfriend Alex is convicted of killing her best friend Emily while they’re in high school. The story starts 10 years later with Micah still dealing with it. There are flashbacks to when it happened. You will love this book. I highly recommend it.

Book Review: Catch Her When She Falls by Allison Buccola

Catch Her When She Falls is a contemporary adult suspense novel about a decade old murder that a man may have been unjustly imprisoned for. When the best friend of the murdered girl discovers a website dedicated to the case that she believed was solved she starts to have doubts and her life begins to unravel.
Micah was a teenage girl when her best friend fell out a window during a party. The police immediately discovered a secret relationship between the dead girl and Micah’s then boyfriend Alex. He is quickly prosecuted and is ten years into his sentence when Micah returns to their hometown to open her own coffee shop. Although haunted by the events of that night Micah has moved on to building her business along with a romantic relationship with childhood friend Ryan. But everything starts to fall apart when she discovers a website that analyzes the case. Who really killed Emily? Was it Alex, Emily’s younger brother Joshua, a jealous high school girl or someone even closer to Micah? Finding out the truth will cost Micah everything as she goes down the rabbit hole of amateur crime solving.
This wasn’t always the easiest book to love because Micah’s mind-frame and behavior are so erratic but I also couldn’t put it down. The author touched on some serious developments over the last few years which is the tendency for amateur detectives and armchair experts to try to solve cases via the internet but also insert themselves into the investigation. Despite the decade since the murder Micah is still in a lot of pain and this website only causes her more distress as she becomes paranoid and afraid. It’s difficult as a reader to watch someone completely unravel and lose themselves along the way. I appreciated how the author used realistic portrayals of websites involving true crime and women dating imprisoned men which gave the book a gritty, grounded in reality feel. This isn’t the first mystery I’ve read around this type of topic (dead friend, implicated boyfriend) but I liked that this one didn’t end in Lifetime movie dramatics with an overly convoluted plot. The ending leaves some questions and a general lack of resolution which I prefer because not everything involving crime ends up with perfect justice delivered.
I recommend this one for true crime fans that like fictional reads and readers that enjoy gritty realistic depictions of what happens to a community even a decade after a tragedy occurs.

3.75 stars rounded up to a 4

I was beguiled by the advertising descriptions to download this advance copy: a “propulsive” debut thriller; “a riveting game of cat and mouse”; “ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—She Reads” Then of course there is that irresistible opening line: “Ten years ago, my boyfriend killed my best friend.”

This novel has likely found an audience in a subset of twenty-something readers who may identify with the characters, largely ten years post- high school. I would describe the novel not as a thriller but rather as young adult mystery and suspense/ women’s fiction. While I found the action overly drawn out, at times difficult to follow, I appreciate the effort in to plot development details that the premier author applied to this work. I rate it 3+ stars, rounded up.

In accordance with FTC regulations, please note that I was provided with an advance digital galley by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

𝕋𝕖𝕟 𝕪𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕤 𝕒𝕘𝕠, 𝕞𝕪 𝕓𝕠𝕪𝕗𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕕 𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝕞𝕪 𝕓𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕗𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕕

This line alone has gripped my attention and pulled me into this one.

This is twisty and gripping in all the right places. I have loved how this has been written I have felt as though I have been watching the events play out in front of me.
This is irresistible, the unpredictability has kept me completely unwilling to put this gem down! I have loved everything about this one.
Micah has annoyed me in parts but overall I’ve liked her! This has been an absolute pleasure to read and I’m definitely going to be recommending this one.

I loved this book so much! I love a good "coming home" tale, especially where there is a past trauma, and this certainly fit the bill! I also loved the way that author kept the reader in suspense about who Micah would visit at the end, and all the red herrings. Couldn't stop recommending this one!

The description of this book intrigued me and I am glad I got a chance to read it. Overall it was a good thriller, although not exactly what I was expecting.

I had high hopes for this book! Back in high school Micah’s boyfriend was convicted of murdering her best friend. Ten years later Micah starts to question the events of that fateful night.

My biggest issue was that the story seemed to unnecassarily dissect the characters ideas and feelings. While I love a slow buildup this one was just too drawn out for me.

However, I truly did not know how the story would end and, for that, I hung in there until the end and glad I did. The ending, while not extraordinary, surprised me.

Thankyou NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for the ARC and chance to review.