A Stella Review: Falling Down by Eli Easton

RATING 5 out of 5 stars

Josh finds himself homeless at eighteen, but he has a plan. He’ll head north on the bus to New England and spend October there for his mother’s sake. She always talked about going to see the fall leaves someday. And when the leaves are done and the harsh winter comes, Josh plans to find a place to curl up and let go. It will be a relief to finally stop fighting.

Mark spent his life trying to live up to the tough swagger of his older brothers until he pushed himself so far against his nature that he cracked. Now a former Marine, he rents a little cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where he can lick his wounds and figure out what to do with the rest of his life. One thing was clear: Mark was nobody’s hero.

Fate intervenes when Josh sets up camp under a covered bridge near Mark’s cabin. Mark recognizes the dead look in the young stranger’s eyes, and he feels compelled to do something about it. When Mark offers Josh a job, he never expects that he’ll be the one to fall.

The snow is coming soon. Can Mark convince Josh that the two of them can build a life together before the flurries begin?

Trigger Warning: Suicidal thoughts

I probably already said this a thousand times, but I have to repeat myself: Eli Easton is a guarantee in the mm community. She is an amazing writer and each new story is a powerful gem. Like Falling Down.

I knew since I read the blurb, this new book was going to leave me as an emotional wreck for a long time, and it actually did, but with a gentleness and a lightness I wasn’t expecting. I’m pretty sure I will remember those characters forever. I have to say I fell in love with them from the start.

Josh took my heart and gave it back to me just at the end when I realized things were really going to work out well for him and his Mark. He is so young and depressed and it went through so much in his life. I could relate to him because I went through the same grief when I had his age and so he touched my heart deeply. And then there was Mark, who is everything a person should be, good, caring, strong willed , trusting, imperfect. Two lonely souls who fate put on each others path and although hard lives, painful pasts and dark thoughts, an HEA is coming their way.

Eli wrote a beautiful slow burn story, Mark and Josh became first friends, while working together on Mrs. Fisher house and let the old woman take care of them just how much they start caring for her and for each other. A slow burn story but full of chemistry, the attraction between them is clear and strong.

Yes the book is full of angst (read the warning!) but in my opinion the author was great at dosing it in the right way. Although the angst and more than one intense scene where I cried all the tears I had in my eyes, Falling Down isn’t heavy or oppressing at all. It’s full of emotions and it filled my heart so much, I just surrender and loved it. It deserves more than five stars. Highly recommended.

I like the cover art by Eli Easton very much in general but I can’t actually see Josh in the model, he simply is not like I had pictured him in my mind. That said the cover is very well done.

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BOOK DETAILS

Kindle Edition, 252 pages

Published November 7th 2016 by Pinkerton Road LLC

ASIN B01MSIYOHB

Edition Language English