Sophie Sullivan always writes the sweetest characters, and this book was no different!

A fake engagement that leads to real dating? sign me up!! Lexi, the FMC who is extremely relatable, is someone who continues to work hard as life keeps trying to beat her down. When an awkward encounter leads her to Will, one of Seattle’s top eligible bachelors, she now finds herself with a fake fiancé, putting on a front for old friends and Will’s very influence family.

I adored the parts with Lexi’s mom, loved loved loved Will’s relationships with his sisters, and thought the family dynamic made this book even better! If you are looking for a cute, closed door romance, look no further!!! Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC.

Can't Help Falling in Love Sophie Sullivan 🍃
Overall Rating: 3.5/5

I enjoyed this cute and quick fall romance!

I liked the premise and the meet cute and thought it was a well written story! I love a good fake engagement story and this was a fun take on that trope.

Some parts of the story and characters felt a bit boring, and the ending felt a bit underwhelming, but overall it was a solid read to add to your fall TBR list.

Thank you @netgallery and Sophie Sullivan for allowing me early access to this book to read and review!

This is the perfect story for hopeless romantics out there!! There's a meet cute, insta-love, lots of pining, and a sweet MMC! Lexi and Will couldn't be any more different - especially with their families and background. As they get to know each other and spend more time together, their attraction and chemistry is undeniable! There are discussions about love, grief, career and everything about adulting which makes this book so relatable. By the end of the story, they have created their own found family which is so heartfelt.

This was a cutesy romance that takes place in Seattle during the fall season. It felt like the perfect book to introduce the fall vibes.

I enjoyed the beginning scenes and it was very entertaining and roped me in. I loved that both characters knew they liked each other and that there wasn't a bunch of unnecessary drama.

I could relate to the feelings around grief and I teared up more than once when we hear about how much her father's death got in the way of her mom living her life without her soulmate. I can understand why Lexi was so closed off to falling fully in love.

Part of the story started to feel repetitive when it came to Lexi's insecurities, but it also made sense that she wasn't ready to accept the way her life course had turned out. There were a couple moments in the book that threw me off, and that was the way Will reacted to Lexi's insecurities. I felt some of his reactions were harsh and toxic.

I didn't realize the spice was closed doors and I actually didn't mind, but I would have preferred some lead up into those moments with more chemistry.

Other than those small things, I did enjoy their love story and the way things finished off. Will Gregory and Gwen get together?

Title: Can’t Help Falling In Love
By: Sophie Sullivan
Pub. Date: September 17, 2024

*Slow Burn
*Fake Relationship
*Meet-Cute

Genre:
Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Chick-lit

Trigger Warnings:
Loss, Grief, Depression, Lack of Self-Confidence
(Scene Situation - Mild Content Chapter 23)

Favorite Quotes:
“Focus on what you can control.”

“Sometimes our own self-doubt colors how we think others see us.”

“Therapy is for everyone. Broken, glues back together, sagging in the middle, whatever.

“Finding this place was something that just happened at a time in my life when I thought I knew what I wanted, but it turned out not to be what I needed.”

Summary:
Lexi Danby’s life was nothing like she expected it to be…she was known for her speed as a track athlete, was skillfully competing, when her life quickly shifted, and she felt internally defeated. Her heart was shattered in a million pieces, and she didn’t know how to make a comeback. She manages to get a job waiting tables, although she is only subpar for the job. While trying to save face at the restaurant, after a complete disaster, Lexi meets Will.

Will is beneficiary of his family company, and very affluent. While reading at the restaurant, he is distracted by his waitress, Lexi. Will knows she is terrible at her job, but he finds her charming and attractive. Together, they are mistaken as a couple and to their benefit a fake romance begins…

Review:
Sophie Sullivan’s writing is engaging, empathetic, and thought provoking. Her storyline is fast paced, plot driven, and has complex characters. I love that Sullivan’s writing creates thought provoking questions for the reader to think about… How do you come back from tragedy? How do you pick up the pieces of your broken heart while trying to support others with their own grief? How do you diminish self-doubt and gain self-confidence back? These are the types of internal questions this novel provoked in me. These contemplative and absorbing questions are unique to the romance genre. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them in Sullivan’s writing. I am anxiously awaiting her next novel!

Books similar to:
Melissa Wiesner
Ally Carter
Sophie Cousens

Thank you Sophie Sullivan, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#Can’tHelpFallingInLove
#SophieSullivan
#StMartinPress
#reluctantreaderreads
#advancedreadercopies
#NetGalley

3.5 ⭐️

Aww I loved it, it was so cute! Gave me fall Hallmark vibes. Lexi in the opening scene when she meets Will is so relatable when I’m a hot mess. Haha. I highly recommend if you’re looking for a feel good romcom. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I enjoyed this one more than I expected to. Will and Lexi were great together and I thought it had a great balance of chemistry and heart and emotion and fun. It didn’t lean into the fall vibes quite as much as I was expecting but they’re definitley there, and I would highly reccomend this book.

Thank you to Sophie Sullivan, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of Can’t Help Falling in Love! All opinions are my own.

3.5 rounded up. Cute but just fell a bit flat. I really love a fake dating/fake engagement trope, but usually love when behind that, the couple’s real relationship is a bit of a slow burn. This one felt like everything happened super quick.

I would have loved more slow simmering tension! I also think that some of the wisdom Lexi was given - from her mom, her friends, and Bitsy - felt like it was a bit cookie-cutter self-help book. I’ve never seen real people talk the way they did 😅

Overall it was cute, just not phenomenal.

POV: dual third person

You can expect: fake dating, fake engagement, opposites attract, he falls first.

Rep: queer side, grief.

Spice: closed door

CW: death of a parent

This was sweet and fun. I really connected with the main character (I, too, would make a terrible waitress), and I thought the two love interests had amazing chemistry. I read through it pretty quickly and overall enjoyed myself, though at points the instalove got to be a bit too much for me and some of the writing toward the end got a bit trite and sentimental. Still, I had a good time getting immersed in the world and characters.

Thank you to SMP Romance and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

This book is so much fun. It begins with an absolute catastrophe of a meet cute. Lexi is a waitress having a really tough time. And Will is one of her customers. I won't spoil the amazing scene, but they get to know each other, one thing leads to another, and suddenly, they are fake engaged.

She is exactly the kind of waitress I would be (horrible). And I kind of loved seeing the respect for just how hard serving is. She's rather down on herself and not where she expected to be in life. And I loved seeing her grow into greater belief in herself.

Fake dating and fake engagement are some of my favorite tropes when done right. And it was so well done here. I loved that both Lexi and Will were clear about which parts were pretend and so honest and authentic with each other.

This book also tackles some tough topics that I found especially meaningful relating to grief and familial expectations. It was just the book I needed to read. And it's a delight for the fall season.

I moderately enjoyed this read and it was certainly very quick and easy. It felt quite generic in its conflict and overall just felt a little bland.

I loved this one so much!! It was such a sweet story. Lexi's story really pulled at my heart strings and had my heart breaking for her. All the life that happened to her was so overwhelming. Meeting Will was such a blessing to her. Not only does he teach her how to love but he helps her to see how valuable she really is and that is just so priceless. I could not put this down. Thanks to the publisher and author for the ARC of this book!

"She might not be who you would have chosen for me. But she's who I choose for myself and I hope you'll accept that. Accept her. Because I'm in love with her and my world won't be right without her in it. I need to go".

Hehe, I'm not going to give any spoilers on this book because I've chosen a pretty long quote. But I'll tell you this: SOPHIE SULLIVAN HAS NEVER DISAPPOINTED ME.

This is the perfect book to read if you love fake-dating to lovers (or in this case: fake-fiancés to lovers), and if you love a romance between two people that come from two different worlds. In this case, a heir and a waitress.

This was an excellent use of the fake dating trope! If felt real, because neither character had anything to lose from the fake engagement. They just got caught in a lie and decided to let their feelings play out. I loved it.

2.5 Stars

Lexi Danby is trying to keep her head above water these days. Her father passed away, leaving her to worry about her grieving mother. She was on the way to being a track star in college but had to ditch her dreams once she returned home to take care of her mother. She works whatever jobs she can to try to keep food on their table. Nothing in her life right now is exciting except her encounter with Will Grand.

Will is a member of Seattle’s wealthy families. He is trying to dodge his nosey mother’s matchmaking schemes and stay out of the fray. He meets Lexi at a diner in town when she screws up his order and makes a mess of things. He finds her cute and different. When they are at a party together, things get interesting when the rumor flies that they are in a relationship. He could clear the air real quick, but he kind of likes having a buffer between him and his mother.

I enjoyed this story. It is cute and romantic, but it is a bit slow. There is not much memorable about the story despite it ticking most of my boxes. There are times when I wanted more tension between the two characters. There was barely any conflict outside of the author, showing us falling in love in their fake relationship.

Lexi and Will find themselves pretending to be engaged rather quickly. I didn’t like how the lie continued to escalate. It’s one thing to be in a relationship and another to pretend to be engaged for no reason. Lexi’s reason was that she wanted to impress people that she went to high school with, which was hard for me to believe. She is an adult, and this isn’t really labeled as a high school romance.

Will, on the other hand, is all in and more committed to the relationship. He makes the romance more palatable. I think the secondary characters all play their part, but they don’t necessarily add much bonus to the story.

Overall, fans who like the author’s previous work or need a quick contemporary romance story will enjoy Can’t Help Falling in Love.

~ Samantha

3.5 stars

This was a very cute and sweet romance that also touches on grief and healing. It has the fake dating trope, which is always fun to read!

I really liked watching Lexi and Will fall in love. Plus, I enjoyed Lexi’s journey of self-love and growth. However, I do wish that Will had some more development and we got more of his back story, especially with his family. I just felt that he was a little underdeveloped compared to Lexi’s character.

While I did enjoy this one, I also found it hard to connect to the characters, especially Will.

Overall, this is a cute fall romance that I would recommend if you’re into fake dating/fake engagements!

“Can’t Help Falling in Love” was such a fun, autumnal read! 🍂🍁

As a Seattle local and student at UW, I was immediately drawn in by the atmosphere and setting. I loved all of the autumn ambience— apple picking, drinking cocoa, galas, etc.!

I loved how Will and Alexandria’s relationship was believable; while eccentric and insta-lovey at times, their relationship still felt well-rounded. I loved their attentiveness and commitment to “knowing” each other.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie Sullivan , back again with an easy breezy romance to give that little energy boost as the weather gets gloomier.

Lexi, the main girl, reminded me a lot of myself. She was witty and fun and immediately had a good aura about her. She's just an average person doing what she could to survive- and yes- I too was an awful waitress ... Then enter Will. Handsome, quick and intrigued by Lexi. By some twist of luck, they were both committed to a lie - one where they both are engaged to eachother !

Now, I've seen fake dating, and I've seen a fake engaged, but I haven't often seen fake engaged while real dating. So that was a fun twist. I'd like to say that there was a little more opposites attract, but other than their upbringing there are a lot more similarities between them than I originally thought!

This was easy to read, and in true Sophie Sullivan fashion - had you cheering on the couple. There wasn't much conflict, but there sure was a lot of growth in the characters which left the story feeling quite wholesome. And when I say wholesome I mean it, the spice level was mild .. so definitely a safe bet for book clubs with anyone with a more gentle romance preference.

I've been in a bit of a reading rut but I plowed through this in just over a day!

Thank you St Martins Press for the early copy, and for all you romance readers - you can get your copy in stores today!

4 stars

Recommend if you've enjoyed her other stories, or if you're into authors like Clare Gilmore, Erin Hahn, or Erin Sterling.

Can't Help Falling in Love is a cute , cozy, fun Fall read. I loved this book so much and all the feelings it sparked. A romance for the season thar makes you feel good out of reality is what this story embodies.

This was really cute and fun to read. The plot, fake dating, was predictable, especially when adding in the wealthy guy and struggling female, but I still found myself looking forward to reading it at every chance I got. The characters were really well done, their chemistry was amazing and the banter was fun. I enjoyed how the both grew as individuals and together during the course of the book. They both had their family issues, that they supported one another with. Despite being a troupe that I have read a lot of, this one felt fresh and fun. Definitely pick it up if you are looking for something cute to read.
Thank you netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my advanced reader copy.