Deeper We Fall - Review

Deeper We Fall (Fall and Rise, # 1)

By: Chelsea M Camerson

Published: January 2013 by DRC Publishing

453 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!)

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Goodreads description--Two years after her best friend was involved in a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury, Lottie Anders is ready to start her freshman year of college. Ready to move on. Ready to start forgetting the night that ripped her life apart.

Her plans come to a screeching halt when not one, but both brothers responsible for the accident end up back in her life again.

Zack is cruel, selfish and constantly rubbing what happened to her friend in Lottie's face.

Zan is different. He listens to her awkward ramblings. He loves "To Kill a Mockingbird" as much as she does, and his dark eyes are irresistible. His words are few and far between, but when he does speak, she can't help but listen.

The trouble is, Zan was the driver in the accident, and now Lottie's discovered he lied to her about what happened that night. Now she must decide if trusting him again will lead to real forgiveness, or deeper heartache.

I really liked the concept for Deeper We Fall. I know of a situation similar to what happened with Lottie's friend, Lexie. There was a car accident, and the girl involved was left with a brain injury that completely changed her personality. For Lexie, this accident left her very childlike with her mental capacity including fits of rage and moments of spacing out. Lottie is torn up over this because she tried not to let Lexie get into the car that night. She tried so hard to talk her out of what Lexie was dead set on doing, but she just couldn't. Of course, Lottie carries around the guilt of feeling responsible as well as an almost survivors guilt because she has a life and can continue to live hers like normal, and Lexie won't ever be the same.

I enjoyed the dual POVs in Deeper We Fall. Lottie was a good character and I related to her, but there were moments when she would act or speak that I felt were out of character. I think the reason why I felt this way was because we aren't shown any internal dialogue that would have indicated that she felt the way that she did and thus acted or said whatever she said. I know that's somewhat vague, but I'm going to be completely surprised that "you" show up at a certain person's doorstep and say you want to be friends when you haven't even mentally thought about how maybe you guys could actually be friends.

Zan was fun to read. Like Lottie he carries so much guilt over that accident since he was the one driving that night and he had been drinking. But you can't help but feel sorry for him because that night changed his life, and unlike his brother, Zack, Zan was not a bad guy BEFORE the accident. Despite his past with girls, alcohol, and drugs, Zan has some majorly hot characteristics. He reads. He likes poetry. He runs. He plays the banjo. He's just a really good guy.

The secondary characters are strong and very present. I was actually a little surprised at the number of secondary characters. They each have just enough of a role not to wonder why they're even in the story. There's Lottie's twin bother Will, who I really liked. Lottie and Will's relationship is one of my favorite sibling relationships that I've read. Will's best friend and roommate, Simon, who fills the box of gay character needed to fulfill publishing requirements, but who I also just generally liked as a person. Katie is Lottie's roommate and possibly the character that I understood the least. Hopefully that will change with book 2, Faster We Burn, being about her. Trisha works with Lottie at the fabric store--a completely original place for a part time job. Trisha's brother and friend of Zan, Stryker--Mortal Kombat 3 anyone? :) And then Audrey who is in Lottie's English class. I look for one of the future books to be about her also. And the of course, Zack, Zan's brother. (This book was filled with sibling relationships.)

I really enjoyed this cast of characters and I'm looking forward to reading more about each one of them. While I read this book fairly quickly, I did feel like SOME of the emotional connection that I usually feel was lacking just a bit. It didn't have anything to do with whether I liked the characters or not. I'm not sure what the issue was there.

I will say that the potty mouth was RIDICULOUS! Specifically the f-bombs. Man, they were all over the place and completely unnecessary to be that inundated. You have been forewarned.

All in all, I enjoyed Deeper We Fall and I'm looking forward to book 2, Faster We Burn. Fans of the new adult genre will enjoy this read though it's less graphic than most of the other new adult books I've read (score as far as I'm concerned). Deeper We Fall gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read Deeper We Fall? What did you think? Let me know!

"'You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don't.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly.'

You're not the only one with regrets. -Zan"