Review: Falling Under (#3, Falling Into You) by Jasinda Wilder

My Thoughts

Beautiful. Magic. Musical. Emotional. Perfection.
A powerful sequel to one of my all-time favorite books that beyond delivered in every which way.

• Related Posts: 2014 Favorites, Music Lovers, Unforgettable Romances, Emotional Powerhouses, My review of Falling Into You (#1), My review of Falling Into Us (#2)

Synopsis

My name is Colton Calloway. You’ve heard part of my story, but it turns out there’s more. My little girl, Kylie, is all grown up. Seventeen, beautiful, and talented, just like her mother. And just like Nell, my daughter seems to have fallen for a bad boy, one with a lot of darkness and a lot of secrets.

* * *

You thought you knew the whole story. You thought it was over. Happily ever after for everyone. You were wrong. My name is Oz Hyde, and you’ve never met me. I’m part of the story, too, but I’m an aside, a quick line or two you’d all but forgotten about. Well guess what? I’ve got my own story to tell. Buckle up, ‘cause this is gonna be a hell of a bumpy ride.

My Review

How can a follow-up novel rival an all-time top fiver? Impossible. I was sure of it.

I was so wrong.

This book. These people.

Jasinda Wilder was somehow able to forge that intangible magic once more, making me feel, revel,get lostin the brokenness and the healing… the love and the chemistry… the music of the soul. Yes, Colton and Nell are back!!! But wait until you meet Oz and Kylie. Their story is just as heart-rending … twisting and turning with unforseen complications, rough and raw with the pain from the past staining a future full of possibility. For me, however, one of the most entrancing and magical elements of both Falling Into You and Falling Under is the music. I can almost see it curl around me, enveloping my heart, gripping my soul, threading it’s tendrils through every significant moment in this story. There’s just something that pulls that crackling connection between the two characters closer, making me feel like I’m right there with them, witnessing a chill-inducing, soul-deep kind of thing that’s unforgettable. Add to it, the continuation of a life well-lived, well-loved by two of our most beloved characters and you’ve got literary gold.

Kylie Calloway is a good girl. She’s smart. She’s never let her parents down. About to turn eighteen, life throws her together with this boy. Long hair, all rough around the edges, tattered heavy metal shirts, motorcycle and something else. Something more. Something deeper. Something she’s drawn to. But her best friend, Ben is absolutely incensed. He harbors feelings for Kylie he’s yet to share and now, this guy … trouble incarnate … comes in and steals Kylie’s attention. Hell no. And once Ben Dorsey tells her dad, Colt Calloway … well, the fun is just beginning.

“I understand him better than you could ever know.”

One of the ingenious things about this book is that it’s completely narrated though a male point-of-view, alternating between Colt and Oz. And so we really see everything through their discerning eyes, their abrasive nature, but at the same time, their very big hearts. Colt adores his daughter, but seeing Oz is a reflection personified. He reminds him so much of his younger, troubled self. Does he want the dark, the pain, the rough and the real for his daughter? Caught between a rock and a hard place, he must let her go and hope she doesn’t fall into the turmoil that Nell and Colt experienced, and survived.

“You’re not a grown-up yet, but you’re close… You’re my little girl. My only child. And I want you to stay innocent forever. But you won’t and I can’t pretend you will. So what do I do? I wish I knew.”

Oz is such a complex, dynamic, intelligent and broken character. He’s brilliant, a mind far beyond the opportunities his lack of means affords. He’s also had it rough, burying a deep feeling of pain and abandonment, coping with his darkness in ways he shouldn’t. He seems to go through life sustaining, not living and certainly not dreaming beyond the dirty walls of their next apartment, forever on the move and always alone with a mother who seems to be drowning in the depths of her own problems. Whereas Kylie represents a goodness … an innocence … a light, he finds himself a stain, dark and penetrating and wholly unworthy of a girl like her. But the feelings they have for each other cannot be denied.

“You … you’re perfect, Kylie. So perfect. Every inch of your body is perfect. You soul is … so beautiful. Your mind, your heart, your personality, you just glow like a sun in the darkness, Kylie. You light up the blackness that has been my life, and I don’t know how to ever be the kind of man you need and deserve, but I want to try. For you, for me, and for us. For the possibility of us.”

Part of the connection they share is amplified through a mutual love of music and to see that come alive, slow and raw, unleashing pain and possibility, it was magnetic and magical. It gave me chills. Especially as I remembered how Nell and Colt got started, it was a real full circle moment for me. I loved seeing that like Colt, Oz blossomed and strengthened with acceptance and love, flourishing with each strum of the guitar, making music next to Kylie.

“This is so, so intense, almost frightening how intense. How much I feel every particle of her soul within me, how I know she’s consuming all that I am and that I have absolutely no wish to take myself back. I’ve never belonged, never fit, never been a part of anything. Now I do, now I’m part of an ‘us’ with Kylie, and I’m totally abandoned to it.”

But it wouldn’t be a Jasinda Wilder book if your heart wasn’t smashed into a million tiny little pieces. Time and time again. I wouldn’t dare spoil any piece of this book, but know that there is so much that complicates everything, that has the power to unravel all that’s come together. This is a story about truth and acceptance. About seeing beyond the roughened exterior. It’s about potential and possibilities. It’s love and desire and grabbing hold of the opportunities fate sometimes thrusts at us. It’s music and magic and it’s unbelievable. It moved me to tears and I know that fans of Falling Into You and Falling Into Us will be holding your breath as I did, reveling once more in this beautiful tale where love and brokenness are twisted together to create an unforgettable magic.

One final thought … the epilogue. Perfection.

“Now that fate has intervened
And drawn us closer together
Past our fears and all the pain
Behind our eyes
Despite the ghosts trailing around us
Like a fog of haunting souls
You’re still trying hard to heal me
To take my pain and make it yours
Your beautiful eyes are smiling
Into mine

Now I’m falling, falling under with you.”

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jasinda Wilder is a Michigan native with a penchant for titillating tales about sexy men and strong women. When she’s not writing, she’s probably shopping, baking, or reading. ​Some of her favorite authors include Nora Roberts, JR Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Liliana Hart and Bella Andre. She loves to travel and some of her favorite vacations spots are Las Vegas, New York City and Toledo, Ohio. You can often find Jasinda drinking sweet red wine with frozen berries and eating a cupcake. Jasinda is represented by Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency.

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