I really really wanted to love this book! I mean Fall time love story?!? But goodness it just fell so flat for me. I struggled to finish this one so much it took me a good four tries to get through it. It is closed door, but honestly I've read some amazing closed door romances I've fallen in love with! This one just missed the mark for me.

I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sophie Sullivan. ❤️

ARC BOOK REVIEW: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Emojis: 💍📈💰🍲🎓

As always, firstly thank you to @netgalley for granting me an #ARC of #CantHelpFallingInLove by @authorsophiesullivan from @stmartinspress

This book follows young, “fake” couple Lexi and Will as they collide (literally) and try to make the most of a tangled web of lies situation. What neither of them plans for is how fast and how hard they’ll fall for each other.

I really enjoyed the main characters of this book because they genuinely loved each other. This is a classic Cinderella story, Prince & the Pauper vibes. However, class and money doesn’t stop Will from being the ultimate golden retriever beau. This was a closed door romance but it really felt like the heat got turned up slightly in some spots (that bath tub scene was so intimate, without being smutty!)

I also loved the setting up of characters for future stories and the representation (Wills sister and her wife were perf!)

If you like:
🩷 fake dating
🩵 he falls first
💙 found family (to an extent)
💜 love at first sight

This book is just for you! I really enjoyed this read. It’s out September 17, 2024 and it will be one I’m recommending to my romance friends. Thanks again for the advanced copy! #boldsbooks #bookreview #bookrecommendations #romancebooks #fakedating

Thank you NetGalley for this arc! a very sweet book about a fake engagement with the twist that they are actually dating. A surprisingly tender book about families, trauma and grief. The actual relationship is very lovely and the conflict is mostly the heroines fears of turning out like her mother who is mired in her own grief for her late husband and her own imposter syndrome and disappointment with the turns her life took.

This is a small book where the stakes aren’t super high but there is a lot of heart to it and that really spoke to me.
CW: grief, family conflict, mental heath

This book has my heart. It started off with such a sweet "meet cute" that brought Lexi and Will into each other's lives. I loved how they both seemed to bring out the best in the other throughout the course of the book. Their initial meeting turned into fake dating turned into a fake engagement to real love is the type of story I fall in love with. One thing I love about Sophie Sullivan's writing is the special moments she creates through her words. There are so many parts of the story that I wanted to highlight and annotate as I read. There are moments toward the end of the book where Lexi was realizing some things about her life and the advice her mom gave her were words I needed to hear myself. At times, I felt a connection to Lexi with feeling a little sad about not being where I had wanted to be by a certain age but, like Lexi, learning it is okay to be where you are. I cannot wait for this book to come out so I can mark all my favorite parts of the story and then add it to my bookshelves.

Loooove Sophie Sullivan and I was looking forward to her newest novel. The characters were spot on and I lol’d numerous times through the book. It kept my interest until the end!

I absolutely ate this book up! Fake dating/fake engagement troupe. It's a quick, clean read!

Lexi is waitressing as a second job trying to pay for tuition. She's not very good at it by any means. When a young man sits in her section reading a book, she has no idea the path that it would take her down. But will the loss of her dad prevent her from finding love?!?!

A story about accepting yourself and embracing what scares you.

I loved the fall vibes, the banter, the portrayal of grief, family dynamics, and the chemistry between the two main characters.

Can't Help Falling in Love is like a cozy hug on the perfect fall day. What happens when you put down the weight of the burdens you've been carrying? As someone who doesn't always trust when things go well, Can't Help Falling in Love is a reminder that life can only be great if you are living it and not if you are terrified of it.

While this book holds tropes you would typically see in a romance novel, it does it in a way that doesn't seem trivial or like another book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a sweet, cozy romance with a side of the power of friendships and believing in yourself.

Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for this free ARC for my review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had high hopes for this book, but it felt slow from the start and didn't engage me. The characters, especially Lexi and Will, explore deep emotions like insecurity and family expectations. There are nods to other romance novels, which was nice. It's a cozy read with light banter, but the insta-love between Lexi and Will didn't work for me. Despite liking the cover, I couldn't finish it.

I usually love a fake fiance situation, but this one didn't quite hit for me (as much as I wanted it to). I cared about the characters and was committed enough to find out how everything ended, but it wasn't very compelling and I didn't find myself dying to read it. Overall, still was worth my time and I liked the characters. The setup didn't feel very plausible.

This is such an extremely adorable romance! I love how Lexi and Will click in the beginning of the book it was beautiful. I enjoyed reading about their relationship blossoming throughout the book.

If I'm being completely honest.. this book made me cry. The mom's trauma, the pure rawness of love, and how messy it can be. Expectations and how high society views people. Let's not forget the judgment we place on ourselves at the end of the day. I'm glad this book shows that normal people regardless of how successful they are.. aren't always perfect, and we all have bad days and rough starts.

DNF

Wanted to love this one but couldn't force myself to keep going.
Found this to be incredibly slow and the characters to be half baked. Didn't buy into the chemistry and their fake engagement made no sense.

I read Sophie Sullivan's book: "How to Love your Neighbor" and since then I always wanted to read more from her. I think that her writing is stunning, it flows easily and her characters have been pretty relatable to me.

"Can't Help Falling in Love" is a cozy, friends to lovers with one of the most adorable meet cute I have ever read about. That whole sequence at the beginning was so fun and made it even more easy to connect and care for both of our main characters.

I also appreciate the attention to detail when it came to the setting because I was able to picture almost every single description. This was a great fall romance read with a mix of humor, friends to lovers, marriage of convenience and kind of "insta-love" but not in a bad way. I think that Sullivan did a wonderful job balancing that initial spark between Lexi and Will, without making it seem like it was just attraction between them but rather genuinely care and love for each other. It was so sweet seeing them taking the time to know each other.

Overall, I throughly enjoyed this!! It was very cute.

“You can’t become who you’re meant to be if you stand still.”

Can’t Help Falling In Love was a fun, sweetly emotional story with well-developed characters and an original storyline. Lexi and Will’s meet-cute was absolutely adorable and I loved watching them fall for each other. I loved the interesting twist on the fake dating trope and how this author made it completely her own.

“I think you’re so much more than you see yourself as.”

Lexi was such a relatable character. Her life fell apart after her dad’s death and it sent her on an unexpected life path. She’s struggling to pull her life together and without even realizing it, she’s stuck in the past and too focused on other people’s expectations and thoughts about her. I loved how being with Will slowly brought her back to life and had her facing her fears.

“He hadn’t realized he was missing anything in his life until she sat down with him. Maybe the best things in life weren’t planned down to the minute.”

I loved Will. He was so funny and encouraging. Basically, an all-around good guy who was all about his family. His kindness and heart was absolutely swoonworthy.

“Us. I want it all to be real. The engagement. A life together. It’s not pretend for me. Any of it. It’s not a misunderstanding. It’s the most real thing I’ve ever known.”

Can’t Help Falling In Love was a beautiful, emotional story that was full of humor and heart. The character growth was stunning and it gave me all the feels. Sweet, funny and heartfelt, it is definitely worth a read.

Can't Help Falling in Love follows Lexi, a (not very good) waitress/shop manager/part-time college student/former track start, who is also trying to get her mom and herself back on their feet after her father's unexpected death. During one of her waitressing shifts, Will ends up in her section and, after some of Lexi's old friends show up, smoothly gets her out of an awkward situation. Lexi really can't add anything else to her already full plate, but Will is cute and charming and she could really use something fun. As it turns out, Will is considered Seattle's most eligible bachelor so when a misunderstanding means that people believe he's engaged to Lexi, it at least gets his mother off his back.

The characters in this book are really enjoyable! Lexi's reasons for walling off her heart make sense and her determination to fix things for her family without help means that she's gripping so tightly things are bound to pop out of her grasp. Will is an absolute sweetheart and his relationship with his sisters is so endearing. Will, who is older and more settled, does a great job of pointing out to Lexi when she's brushing off compliments or selling herself short which I found to be very refreshing. Their relationship is adorable and I really enjoyed this story. I've read a few other books by this author but this was my favorite. I'm hoping to see the characters in another book soon!

Can't Help Falling In Love by Sophie Sullivan

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this early copy to read!

I absolutely adored this book and read in a day and a half. That silly thing called work got in the way or it would have been less.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lexi is waiting tables as a second job and really not doing it well. She isn't used to failure. She was a track star and had to quit school just a little shy of graduation when her father died unexpectedly. This second job is allowing her to finish school, while living with her mother and trying to pull her from the depths of her grief. Her mother won't leave the house.
Waitressing she meets Will , her customer who comes to her rescue, when girls from her past sit down. Lexi is embarrassed that she hasn't made anything of her life and somehow, she ends up dating Will, her customer. They go to an engagement party for the high school friend, and somehow end up fake engaged themselves.
Lexi doesn't know that Will is heir to a major company and the city's most eligible bachelor.
As these two get to know each other, you know they begin to fall head over heels. Will she be able to cut it in his world, or fall short because she's too scared to try!
#crazybooknerd
#netgalley
#bookstagram
#sophiesullivan
#stmartinspress
#can'thelpfallinginlove

Caty Ordonez | Catysreads07 rated a book it was amazing
Can't Help Falling in Love by Sophie SullivanCan't Help Falling in Love
by Sophie Sullivan (Goodreads Author)
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This is the first book I've read from this author but I loved it a lot. I'll definitely be reading more of her books and this was such a fun read. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a cute fall read that has great banter. Oh my goodness, it's just so cute.

This was my second marriage of convenience and I loved the way this was done. It's just adorable.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. (this is a closed door romance, adorable meet cute, fake engagement, he falls first, and opposites attract

The story blends a few different tropes (friends-to-lovers, fake dating) and sets it up with a meet cute. Lexi is the tough, determined main character who always puts others first and never wants to ask for help. When Lexi has to drop out of college, her dreams of becoming a track star seemed to vanish. Lexi meets Will ask she is waitressing, him as charming as ever. Will helps Lexi out by pretending to be her boyfriend, but a misunderstanding ends with Lexi "engaged" to one of Seattles A-listers. This book left me giggling and wanting more. It was a heartwarming romance that defied expectations.

I loved this book. I could really relate to Lexi feeling like she isn’t good enough. I also loved that Will knew what he wanted and never waivered from it when there were people telling him Lexi wasn’t from the right type of family or upbringing.

I’m forever in awe of how Sullivan, dives deep into the hearts of their characters, exploring their vulnerabilities and desires with raw honesty. The writing is beautifully evocative, capturing the complexities of love in every sentence. A poignant and unforgettable read that tugs at your heartstrings long after you finish.

I love this author, but for some reason, I just couldn't get into this book. I think I would have been able to sink my teeth in if the story had been told in the first person. However, I found myself a little bored in the first few chapters of this.