Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
# Pages: 196 (ebook)
Publication Date: 05.13.25

“I’ve never felt before. Skating and being around all these badass people make it feel like my blood is fizzing, like I’m standing on the precipice of something exciting and scary and dangerous.”

🛼 YA Contemporary Romance
🛼 Sapphic Romance
🛼 LGBTQ+ Rep
🛼 Roller Derby
🛼 Found Family
🛼 Self Discovery
🛼 Anxiety Rep

Book Blurb:
- A YA debut about found family and queer awakening, set in the lively world of roller derby, perfect for fans of Whip It and Heartstopper.
- “Meet Casey. She doesn't know it yet, but her life is about to change. A chance encounter ends up with Imogen inviting her to see some live roller derby where she finds herself surrounded by fearless women and non-binary players who aren't afraid to speak their minds-- and body slam each other.
Some crushes just hit different.”

“Learning To Fall” by Peach Morris was a cute and quick read. They really helped to show that it’s okay to love who you love and try new things. Even if those new things are scary at first. The character development and world building was good. I feel like the characters are likable and easy to relate to.

The romance isn’t the primary focus, which in this case, works out great. It allows you to really get yourself into Casey’s shoes and experience all aspects of her life. Including her mental health and the anxiety she felt a lot. She faced a lot of heavy topics and it was done well.

Overall, I think Peach Morris did a great job. I do recommend this book and I think it’s perfect for queer teens looking for a safe place to explore. I look forward to more work from Morris in the future.

Thank you netgalley and 8th note press for this ARC read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An ode to found family, growing up and trying new things, this YA novel will appeal to queer folks who need a safe space to be themselves without shame.

With that said, I had a hard time believing the age of the main and side characters. Had it been a lower YA book, it would have made sense. But what was the point of making the MC nineteen years old and her closest friend twenty-three? The players are supposed to be adults but it didn’t feel like it at all. Besides, the writing style didn’t help because it was very poor, and made it feel even younger.

Once I grew accustomed to the writing style, I must say that the roller derby part of the story was very compelling. I love when authors create a montage of the MC growing stronger and more confident in their skills throughout the pages, and that’s exactly what we have here.

I also liked the anxiety representation, even though it becomes quite prominent at the end of the book (it is understandable but still a bit heavy after spending the majority of the book mentioning it in passing).

The sapphic romance is cute and messy, and I liked the resolution, because for a while I was scared that their issues wouldn’t be addressed.

Overall, it’s a fun and fast-paced read that tackled really well the queer-safe-space aspect of roller derby.

4⭐️

“Learning to Fall” by Peach Morris is a quick, sapphic sports young adult novel.

I was instantly drawn to the cover of this book, and luckily, the story itself didn’t disappoint.

I absolutely loved every aspect of this book, from the queer found family to the way it represented mental illness.
I liked the romance between Casey and Imogen, and at the same time, I appreciated how, at least in my opinion, it wasn’t the main focus of the story.

I really connected with Casey and her characterisation. All her fears and concerns really shaped her into a well-developed and realistic character.

In conclusion, I was totally captivated by this author’s debut, and I can’t wait to read their other works in the future.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Aaaaaaaa.

I wanted to love this. As a gay derby gal I desperately wanted to love this. But so much of it felt cliched, shoehorned in or kind of empty? Plus name checking an actual team that folded? A bit shady… did the author check with the Nottingham Hellfire Harlots before using their name in the book? Seems like the kind of thing you should really ask permission for first especially when other teams are fictionalised.

There were also some really peculiar quotes like “Derby practice…” “I was confused, we don’t live in Derby”. Palm, meet face. You can make it clear that someone knows nothing about the sport without so much exposition dumping. There was a lot of “telling” the reader rather than showing, which also left me a bit cold.

The book did tackle heavy topics like sexuality, gender identity, mental health, chronic illness and alcohol abuse, but it felt like each thing was being shoehorned in for the plot. That being said I loved Mel so much, she was a perfect character and I liked that the fact she’s trans was entirely incidental.

The book did get better as it went along but I found the ultimate ending pretty predictable.

It’s a nice, entertaining and fluffy read and I do wish the author all the best and I hope she keeps writing and honing her craft because I do think there’s loads of potential and talent there. However, despite being about two of my great loves - roller derby and queer awakenings - this just read like any other sports romance book on the market. It’s candyfloss in book form, very sweet, but little substance to be had.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 61% (chapter 17 out of 25)

Words cannot describe how desperately I wanted to love this book. I was so beyond excited to receive an E-ARC and put all my other books on hold to binge read. A sapphic romance novel and roller derby?! The dream for any Whip It fan! Which is why I am so devastated that this book just does not work for me for a handful of reasons.

The characters: Are about as flat as can be. I wasn't hating Casey, our MC, for the first 40% of this book and actually could really relate to her as an anxious, introverted people pleasure and former baby gay. But the author fails to really do much exploration with her character even as we see Casey grow. Her growth on page feels as though we're just hitting that milestone because we're nearing the end of the book instead of because there's actual change and growth.

There's really no exploration into Casey's queerness outside of "I have a crush on Imogen." which is really a shame because the supporting cast of characters is such an unique range of queer, nonbinary and trans characters who could've offered insight and mentorship to a baby queer.

There were also some strange character moments that often too suddenly or happened out of the blue. For example there's ONE chapter where Imogen is pissed off and being really mean to Casey with no explanation given in the moment or leading up to it. And by the next chapter....it's just....resolved? Same with a lot of Casey's relationships outside of her crush; a lot of tension, general meanness that is just suddenly...."okay" after a few chapters.

The plot: or lack there of really. Of the 61% of that I read, 90% of the chapters felt like we were recycling scenes. How many scenes of the group getting drunk, Casey thinking "oh yeah I may be queer", Casey crying because people just don't get her passions, do I have to read over and over before something meaningful happens? I can see what the author is trying to do, showing a progression of Casey coming out of her shell or using these scenes to allow Casey to have reflective moments. But there is no depth to it. There's nothing more than surface level blandness.

The pacing: just....yikes. This ties in with the reasons I feel like the plot didn't work; repeating the same 3-4 events without investigating or exploring more in depth or providing good dialogue makes the pacing of Learning to Fall incredibly tedious. Especially once you hit the 30% and you start to see the pattern.

I'd give this a 2.5 (being generous) for the few moments of queer joy that I really loved and the good representation for chronic illness. Overall this was a big disappointment for me though

ARC received from the publisher via NetGalley.

3.75 stars rounded up. Learning to Fall is a young adult debut novel set in the UK. It's about finding your true self and learning to cope with mental health issues. It has a love story plot on the side but the novel is more about coming to terms with yourself and falling in love with a sport and the community it comes with. And it's about roller derby. There's chronic illness rep (wide character), bipoc love interest, trans and non-binary rep (side characters) in the novel. There are a lot of difficult and serious topics in the book, like alcohol abuse, mental health issues, and toxic family dynamics.

For me there was a bit too much roller derby in the book. For someone who has seen Whip It (2009) but basically does not know anything else about the sport, all the practice and scrimmage and game description were a bit boring. But most of those bits helped to build Casey as a character.

It was a good read and the novel was well written. Really well done debut. It would be great read especially for a teen reader.