I truly enjoyed this book, it's almost too smart, but I found myself hooked in and when I finished reading I was in absolute tears. The story is compelling, the characters well developed, and the romance an eat-you-alive kind. It's rushed, but sexy and despite the speed of the smut, the actual development of the romance is really well done. I didn't know it was a duet, but now I've bought the second!

How Not To Fall is the first book in the Belhaven series by Emily Foster. The Belhaven series is an adult contemporary romance, that I think will also appeal to new adult readers because the character starts out in graduate school, so it is a great crossover between older new adult and younger- adult romance. This is a forbidden romance between a teacher/student and It was a fun read for me.

In How Not to Fall we meet our main characters Annie and Charles. Annie is a graduate student and Charles is her professor. I loved Charles- he is a British nerd so I am not really sure what isn't to love, but he was hot and adorable all at the same time.

I will say, this book was a lot hotter and sexier than I was thinking that it would be. My last read was a sweet and wholesome romance. This is...not that. Once Charles gets the go ahead in his mind to start something with Annie, boy oh boy do they go full hog into it. Whew! This book was hot hot hot, and I liked it!

If you are in the mood for a hot and sexy romance with nerdy and sexy characters, How Not to Fall is a great book for you to check out. I enjoyed it!

It's been a while since I've read a novel that reminds be about how much fun it is to read New Adult fiction. How Not to Fall had so many great elements:
the whole rush of being in college and stressed and young
a smart and funny and talented heroine (I absolutely LOVED her confidence)
a smart and funny and infuriating hero (I loved him and then I wanted so much to hate him)
their sex-mance--because it was romance through sex and sex through romance
the intensity of the last part of the book
There were many, many things to enjoy about all of the things I've listed but primarily, I think, I enjoyed reading this novel because I enjoyed falling in love with Annie falling in love. I loved how wonderfully open and confident she was; it's not that she wasn't afraid of the outcomes of things, it was that she was either confident in her ability to be successful in whatever she tried and/or she was unwilling to live with the regret of not trying for what she wanted and I just feel like there's so much wisdom in her approach (and one I hope I'm giving to my daughters). I also appreciated that Foster didn't make Annie absolutely perfect, she was by no means perfect, but in her less than stellar moments, her honesty and her struggles were so real and open. Anyway, I'm rambling but my first sentence stands--Annie's exploration of her "thing" with Charles was funny and fun and sweet and naive and vulnerable and compelling. I really liked the way Emily Foster approached it, even if I had my doubts that Annie and Charles had even close to reasonable expectations for how things would end...I mean it's a romance so naturally there has to be a conflict of some sort, right?

I don't want to ruin this review with a deep dive into Charles, or Charles and Annie together, because I feel like I'd go in a hundred different directions and I'd end up in the same place which is basically this: As much as I liked him, I also found him frustrating. As much as I appreciated where he was coming from, I was perplexed. As much as I adored his adoration of Annie, I wanted to open his eyes and heart and brain even wider so that he could really see more than what he saw. Basically, I had a complicated and conflicted reaction to Charles. What I didn't have a complicated and conflicted reaction to was the sexual education he gave to Annie. Damn. We should all have experiences like this. Sex positive, consensual, sensual, and powerful. I don't think I've had nearly the experiences Annie has had and I don't mind saying that I'm jealous. I'm absolutely jealous of a fictional character's sexual awakening.

I probably should've mentioned earlier that this ends in a cliffhanger of sorts, or maybe it's more accurate to say that it ends with an ending that will leave you wanting. I happen to like the ending but I know it's not for everyone and luckily there is a second book for those who want to know what happens next for Annie and Charles. Strangely, I haven't decided if I want to know; there's a large part of me that wants to leave them where they are or imagine my own ending for them but because I'm a curious cat, I'll probably capitulate and read it.