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How Not to Fall
An “extremely intelligent, witty, nerdy, and oh-my-god over-the-top sexy” debut novel—first in a New Adult romance series (Fresh Fiction). Data, research, scientific formulae—Annabelle Coffey is completely at ease with all of them. Men, not so much. But that’s all going to change after she asks Dr. Charles Douglas, the postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to have sex with her. Charles is not only beautiful, he is also adorably awkward, British, brilliant, and nice. What are the odds he’d turn her down? Very high, as it happens. Something to do with that whole student/teacher/ethics thing. But in a few weeks, Annie will graduate. As soon as she does, the unlikely friendship that’s developing between them can turn physical—just until Annie leaves for graduate school. Yet nothing could have prepared either Annie or Charles for chemistry like this, or for what happens when a simple exercise in mutual pleasure turns into something as exhilarating and infernally complicated as love. “The smart characters and Annie’s earnestness as a heroine are so refreshing.” —Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 28, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 417 reviews
April 15, 2018
A feminist, inclusive, sex-positive, fully consensual, intelligent, nuanced, hot as fuck erotic romance.
3.5 stars
This book feels like it was written in answer to FSoG. Seriously, there are SO many parallels. Down to minute details like the main character being Annie (short for Annabelle), the male lead Charles (hmmm...sort of similar to Ana (Anastasia) and Christian), and the fact that Charles calls Annie Miss Coffey, much like Christian calls Ana Miss Steele.
So, I hated FSoG with the all the power of a dying star mid-supernova. To say that I was a little concerned when I started to notice these parallels is an understatement.
What saved this novel was how it handled these similarities. I don't want to go into exactly how in this review, because a lot of what I want to touch upon would be pretty spoilery. Suffice it to say that if you hated FSoG and need something to erase that book from your mind and replace it with something more consensual and less abusive, but still pretty dark at times, try this one.
And for those of you who loved FSoG, (seriously, no judgement) you might really like this one, too. Because even though the themes and scenes that connect the two are similar and yet handled differently, this never feels like a copycat or like it's trying to insult FSoG.
Okay, moving on from the comparisons. Other things you should know about this book: First off, it's, at times, hilarious.
Secondly, it's brainy as hell. The MC has been accepted into doctoral programs at both Harvard and MIT, and the male lead is a post-doctoral fellow who assists the professor in the MC's senior psychophysiology lab.
Something you should know about me: I'm an aeronautical engineer. I spend my days conversing with other engineers and people with advanced mathematical degrees. We even have a rogue astrophysicist or two wandering our hallways that I avoid speaking to, because, honestly, I think I'm pretty smart and I can barely interpret some of the things that they say.
This book is soooooo well researched. The first 1/3 of it is devoted to the friendship and mentoring bond between Annie and Charles, and a lot of their time together is spent discussing her thesis. In detail. I was legitimately blown away by the depth to which this is covered without ever feeling like it was dry or too detailed. Not saying that other readers won't think that it is, just that, to me, this book and the relationship between its male and female lead is nerdlust goals.
Thirdly, this book doesn't shy away from touching upon some very serious subjects, like abuse, mental health, traditional gender roles, male gendered violence, rape, and mass killings. It handles them with the detail and depth they deserve.
Lastly, we have the sex. Whoo-boy, Foster can write some seriously steamy scenes. As I said a few paragraphs ago, the first 1/3 of this is devoted to the friendship aspect of this couple's relationship. Once Charles is technically no longer in Annie's teaching chain, things...change between them, and the last 2/3 of the book contains A LOT of sex. And, damn, is it
Is this book perfect? Nope. One part particularly annoyed me. Minor spoiler: But other than that I wholly enjoyed this read, and I fully recommend it for anyone looking for a feminist, brainy bit of erotica.
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3.5 stars
This book feels like it was written in answer to FSoG. Seriously, there are SO many parallels. Down to minute details like the main character being Annie (short for Annabelle), the male lead Charles (hmmm...sort of similar to Ana (Anastasia) and Christian), and the fact that Charles calls Annie Miss Coffey, much like Christian calls Ana Miss Steele.
So, I hated FSoG with the all the power of a dying star mid-supernova. To say that I was a little concerned when I started to notice these parallels is an understatement.
What saved this novel was how it handled these similarities. I don't want to go into exactly how in this review, because a lot of what I want to touch upon would be pretty spoilery. Suffice it to say that if you hated FSoG and need something to erase that book from your mind and replace it with something more consensual and less abusive, but still pretty dark at times, try this one.
And for those of you who loved FSoG, (seriously, no judgement) you might really like this one, too. Because even though the themes and scenes that connect the two are similar and yet handled differently, this never feels like a copycat or like it's trying to insult FSoG.
Okay, moving on from the comparisons. Other things you should know about this book: First off, it's, at times, hilarious.
"ME: I'm going to do it for real. I'm going to ask Charles to have sex with me.
MARGARET: laughs uproariously.
ME: completely straight face.
MARGARET: abruptly stops laughing. You're serious?
ME: As a hemorrhage. (NB: I didn't really say this. It's the kind of thing I imagine myself saying. I think I actually said something pithy, like, "Yes." Also, don't be fooled into thinking I actually know how to spell hemorrhage. That baby is all spell check.)
Secondly, it's brainy as hell. The MC has been accepted into doctoral programs at both Harvard and MIT, and the male lead is a post-doctoral fellow who assists the professor in the MC's senior psychophysiology lab.
Something you should know about me: I'm an aeronautical engineer. I spend my days conversing with other engineers and people with advanced mathematical degrees. We even have a rogue astrophysicist or two wandering our hallways that I avoid speaking to, because, honestly, I think I'm pretty smart and I can barely interpret some of the things that they say.
This book is soooooo well researched. The first 1/3 of it is devoted to the friendship and mentoring bond between Annie and Charles, and a lot of their time together is spent discussing her thesis. In detail. I was legitimately blown away by the depth to which this is covered without ever feeling like it was dry or too detailed. Not saying that other readers won't think that it is, just that, to me, this book and the relationship between its male and female lead is nerdlust goals.
Thirdly, this book doesn't shy away from touching upon some very serious subjects, like abuse, mental health, traditional gender roles, male gendered violence, rape, and mass killings. It handles them with the detail and depth they deserve.
Lastly, we have the sex. Whoo-boy, Foster can write some seriously steamy scenes. As I said a few paragraphs ago, the first 1/3 of this is devoted to the friendship aspect of this couple's relationship. Once Charles is technically no longer in Annie's teaching chain, things...change between them, and the last 2/3 of the book contains A LOT of sex. And, damn, is it
Is this book perfect? Nope. One part particularly annoyed me. Minor spoiler: But other than that I wholly enjoyed this read, and I fully recommend it for anyone looking for a feminist, brainy bit of erotica.
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October 20, 2016
How I feel about this book is perhaps a bit overly complex. On the one hand, it's well written, entertaining, and it got me thinking about things far more deeply than I thought I would. But on the other hand it wasn't what I was expecting. After picking it up and seeing that it was very science based, I wasn't expecting quite so much explicit sex.
Still though, I want to stress that it's still a great and emotionally deep story.
How Not To Fall is the story of Anna, a girl who is about to head off to New York to attend medical school, and Charles, a post-doc in the lab Anna works in. Although their relationship starts as a strictly professional one, as Anna is soon to leave the relationship takes a turn and they realize that they might mean more to one another than they had previously realized.
Or, as they so annoyingly call it, they have "a thing." Sometimes, as if that wasn't annoying enough, they refer to it as "a sexy thing." It's a bit distracting but not awful.
I'll be honest. I was disappointed when I realized this story wasn't what I had hoped. But as I continued to read (I'm weird and have a hard time just quitting on books), I realized that it's depth is actually surprising. Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that if you lived your life as if it were your last day on earth that you might be too freaked out to actually enjoy it? I hadn't but this story is just that. How do you enjoy something when you know that it must eventually end?
What did I think?: I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much, but I actually really did like it. I'm not one for explicit sex usually in terms of my literary choices, but since this one went beyond that I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable I found it to be.
Who should read it?: If you want 50-shades but with more emotional depth, this is a step in the right direction. It's sexy without being terribly vulgar, and it's playful in a way that is oddly endearing. Not to mention it's easy to read and leaves you feeling like things came to a sufficient end.
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Still though, I want to stress that it's still a great and emotionally deep story.
How Not To Fall is the story of Anna, a girl who is about to head off to New York to attend medical school, and Charles, a post-doc in the lab Anna works in. Although their relationship starts as a strictly professional one, as Anna is soon to leave the relationship takes a turn and they realize that they might mean more to one another than they had previously realized.
Or, as they so annoyingly call it, they have "a thing." Sometimes, as if that wasn't annoying enough, they refer to it as "a sexy thing." It's a bit distracting but not awful.
I'll be honest. I was disappointed when I realized this story wasn't what I had hoped. But as I continued to read (I'm weird and have a hard time just quitting on books), I realized that it's depth is actually surprising. Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that if you lived your life as if it were your last day on earth that you might be too freaked out to actually enjoy it? I hadn't but this story is just that. How do you enjoy something when you know that it must eventually end?
What did I think?: I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much, but I actually really did like it. I'm not one for explicit sex usually in terms of my literary choices, but since this one went beyond that I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable I found it to be.
Who should read it?: If you want 50-shades but with more emotional depth, this is a step in the right direction. It's sexy without being terribly vulgar, and it's playful in a way that is oddly endearing. Not to mention it's easy to read and leaves you feeling like things came to a sufficient end.
*I was provided with a copy of this book in order to conduct this honest review.*
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June 15, 2016
4 Stars
People don’t fear heights. They don’t even fear the fall. They fear the consequences of the fall. The greater the height, the greater the consequences, and so the greater the fear.
Annabelle and Charles have A Thing. Well, at least Annabelle’s hoping Charles feels the mutual thing like she does. After two years of working together as student/postdoc, Annie’s ready to lay it all on the line and find out where Mr. Hot Brit Charles stands. Why not take advantage of their mutual Thing and enjoy each other until Annabelle leaves for grad school? At first glance, a friends with benefits arrangement with a built in end date seems like the perfect solution for exploring the attraction between these two. Unfortunately things are rarely go as easy as predicted.
“Friends, colleagues, and parenthetical lovers,” I repeat.
“Agreed.”
There were so many things about this book I enjoyed but first and foremost was the writing. Told from Annie’s POV, both the banter between her and Charles as well as her inner ramblings and thoughts are well done and passed my ultimate test of never sounding stilted or awkward. Annie’s a bit socially stunted but she owns it and I loved that aspect of her personality. For a main character in a NA novel, there’s surprisingly little angst in Annie’s world and that’s a refreshing change of pace for me. Charles, on the other hand, is a completely different story. There’s just enough angst provided by Charles and his issues to keep things interesting but nothing over the top to overwhelm the reader.
Did I mention the sexytimes?
For a girl that just managed to lose her v-card, Annie catches on fairly quickly and these two end up burning up the sheets.
“What’s it feel like?” he whispers. “Like you put your penis in my vagina,” I whisper back, and we both laugh
Okay, that was far from hawt but I still laughed my ass off!
Far be it from me to complain about the amount of sex in a book but you know what? This book bordered on too much sex. There, I said it and I’m not gonna apologize for it! I could’ve used a little less bed time and a little more convo time between Charles and Annie but in the grand scheme of crap to complain about, that’s pretty low on my list of aggravations.
If there’s such a thing as a kinder, gentler cliffy, How Not to Fall ends on one. While the ending didn’t surprise me, I’m thrilled to see the story of Annie and Charles isn’t over yet. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and am already looking forward to what promises to be an entertaining conclusion.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
People don’t fear heights. They don’t even fear the fall. They fear the consequences of the fall. The greater the height, the greater the consequences, and so the greater the fear.
Annabelle and Charles have A Thing. Well, at least Annabelle’s hoping Charles feels the mutual thing like she does. After two years of working together as student/postdoc, Annie’s ready to lay it all on the line and find out where Mr. Hot Brit Charles stands. Why not take advantage of their mutual Thing and enjoy each other until Annabelle leaves for grad school? At first glance, a friends with benefits arrangement with a built in end date seems like the perfect solution for exploring the attraction between these two. Unfortunately things are rarely go as easy as predicted.
“Friends, colleagues, and parenthetical lovers,” I repeat.
“Agreed.”
There were so many things about this book I enjoyed but first and foremost was the writing. Told from Annie’s POV, both the banter between her and Charles as well as her inner ramblings and thoughts are well done and passed my ultimate test of never sounding stilted or awkward. Annie’s a bit socially stunted but she owns it and I loved that aspect of her personality. For a main character in a NA novel, there’s surprisingly little angst in Annie’s world and that’s a refreshing change of pace for me. Charles, on the other hand, is a completely different story. There’s just enough angst provided by Charles and his issues to keep things interesting but nothing over the top to overwhelm the reader.
Did I mention the sexytimes?
For a girl that just managed to lose her v-card, Annie catches on fairly quickly and these two end up burning up the sheets.
“What’s it feel like?” he whispers. “Like you put your penis in my vagina,” I whisper back, and we both laugh
Okay, that was far from hawt but I still laughed my ass off!
Far be it from me to complain about the amount of sex in a book but you know what? This book bordered on too much sex. There, I said it and I’m not gonna apologize for it! I could’ve used a little less bed time and a little more convo time between Charles and Annie but in the grand scheme of crap to complain about, that’s pretty low on my list of aggravations.
If there’s such a thing as a kinder, gentler cliffy, How Not to Fall ends on one. While the ending didn’t surprise me, I’m thrilled to see the story of Annie and Charles isn’t over yet. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and am already looking forward to what promises to be an entertaining conclusion.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
February 6, 2017
2.5 Stars
Well, it started really well. This was funny in a sciencey pretentious geek kinda way. It was awkward and kinda sexy if you're especially into the proper genitalia words being used throughout some of the sex scenes, it's also sexy if you like to read about a lot of foreplay - I don't. (Get to the penetration already Charles).
BUT, big Kardashian BUTT, somewhere around the 60% mark the author decided to turn Charles into this tormented man that can't love anyone and then this turned into a dreary slow struggle. The lighthearted awkwardness disappeared into a cloud of 50 shades duplicate boredom-ville.
And dare I say that there was too much sex - too many orgasms, too much juice sharing, too much toe sucking - it lost the easy amusing dialogue and dragged. Introducing that level of angst so late into the story ruined everything I had loved about this.
It's doubtful I'll read the next book at the moment.
Sincerely
Annoyed and disappointed.
December 19, 2017
So I did A Thing...I read this book. And since I reached the end, I have been trying to find the words to tell you how much I adored it.
Long story shortish: It's brilliant. And not because it's going to rip your heart out, or make you bust a gut laughing, or keep you on the edge of your seat. (Though all of those things will happen at one point or another while you are reading it.) This book is smart, well crafted, and well executed. It's not overwrought or over dramatized. But you still feel every possible emotion while turning the pages.
This book, y'all. It's all the things. The wit is sharp. The banter. Oh, the banter is top notch. And the swoon? This book contains the most swoony line I have EVER read. (Best part: I'm not even sure it was meant to be swoony. It just was!)
Yes this book is $7.99 but it needs to be read. Don't look at the cover. Don't read the blurb. Don't even read the reviews (besides this one! HA!) Just download the sample and give it a shot. I was hooked by the third paragraph, and I didn't put it down until I reached the end.
I don't know this author. She doesn't know me. Actually, I had never even heard of her before my Secret Santa sent me this duet. But after reading and falling in love with Charles and Annie...I need all of you to pick this book up and get to know Author Emily Foster as well.
Long story shortish: It's brilliant. And not because it's going to rip your heart out, or make you bust a gut laughing, or keep you on the edge of your seat. (Though all of those things will happen at one point or another while you are reading it.) This book is smart, well crafted, and well executed. It's not overwrought or over dramatized. But you still feel every possible emotion while turning the pages.
This book, y'all. It's all the things. The wit is sharp. The banter. Oh, the banter is top notch. And the swoon? This book contains the most swoony line I have EVER read. (Best part: I'm not even sure it was meant to be swoony. It just was!)
Yes this book is $7.99 but it needs to be read. Don't look at the cover. Don't read the blurb. Don't even read the reviews (besides this one! HA!) Just download the sample and give it a shot. I was hooked by the third paragraph, and I didn't put it down until I reached the end.
I don't know this author. She doesn't know me. Actually, I had never even heard of her before my Secret Santa sent me this duet. But after reading and falling in love with Charles and Annie...I need all of you to pick this book up and get to know Author Emily Foster as well.
July 13, 2016
Click on the banner to read this review on my blog
How Not to Fall is written by a New York Times Best Selling author of a non-fiction sexual education title. This book is her fiction debut. This book is very clearly written by someone with a Ph.D. in Health Behavior with a concentration human sexuality with its detailed and almost-clinical sexual descriptions. What the synopsis promised was a steamy forbidden romance between a college senior and her advisor, but what was delivered was an extremely derivative erotic romance that was lacking in story and characters.
Annabelle is on the verge of graduating college and going off to an intense graduate school dual degree program (PhD/MD). For the last two years she has been lusting over her advisor, Dr. Charles Douglas. With nothing to lose she asks him to sleep with her. At first, he declines, but agrees to talk to her about their "Thing" after she finishes finals. Following finals, they can ethically be together and Charles confesses he's been equally attracted to her. After finding out Annie is a virgin, Charles requests to go slow with start their no-strings sexual relationship. In the month leading up to Annie departure, she starts to fall for him. But ghosts of Charles past make it impossible to reciprocate her feelings.
I've mentioned before that I'm such a huge fan of forbidden romances, so when I came across this New Adult title I wanted to give it a try. In the beginning, I enjoyed Annie's witty inner dialogue and awkwardness; I was hopeful that I was going to enjoy this. But it didn't take long for me to get annoyed with her and the turn of events.
Charles is British and portrayed as being very restrained and awkward but with crazy sex appeal. Almost instantly, Charles turns into a sexual alpha male after finding out Annie was a virgin, chomping at the bit to teach Annie the sexual ropes. He confesses that he's wanted to sleep with her for over a year. The rest of the book is all sex scenes and a few fights on the topic of "I'm broken" and "You can't change me".
This book was very derivative of Fifty Shades of Grey to the point where I wondered if this was fanfiction, rather than a wholly original work as its being touted. This really bothered me. There were some differences to the characters, story, and setting. For example, Annie is much more confident than Ana and Charles isn't a dominant like Christian. But there are shockingly similar plot points, character traits, and situations taken from Fifty Shades of Grey. Here are just some of them:
• Annie = Ana, Charles = Christian
• Prior to starting their sexual relationship, Charles picks up a a drunk Annie and allows her to sleep peacefully with him.
• Annie, like Ana, was a virgin yet becomes a sex goddess on her knees in from of Charles. After Annie's last final, Charles goes to town on Annie spend most of their time between the sheets.
• He ties her up and brings out the Ben Wa balls in their sexual escapades.
• For her graduation gift, Charles gives Annie a very valuable first edition book of Origin of Pieces. Annie struggles with whether to accept this gift.
• Like Christian, Charles is emotionally broken from childhood trauma and won't allow himself to fall in love with anyone, leaving an in-love Annie frustrated and desperate to fix him.
•
But even putting the blatant similarities aside, there was really very little plot to the story. The author tried to inject plot with scenes outside the bedroom, including rock climbing and dancing lesson scenes but it wasn't enough to be compelling. The sex scenes were numerous, long, and highly descriptive to the point that I began to question whether this was new adult or erotica. Further, Charles's British dialogue was almost painful to read. His pet names for Annie were strange and archaic—"my termagant", "my shrew", and "my harpy". Charles social status as a viscount was also ridiculous and unnecessary.
I didn't know this going into the book but rather discovered about 60% in that this was going to be duology. The next installment of Charles and Annie's story is called How Not To Let Go and will be out later this year.
1 star
* I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Read this Review • My Website • Facebook • Twitter • Pinterest • Instagram • Subscribe by Email
****************
★★UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES★★
****************
How Not to Fall is written by a New York Times Best Selling author of a non-fiction sexual education title. This book is her fiction debut. This book is very clearly written by someone with a Ph.D. in Health Behavior with a concentration human sexuality with its detailed and almost-clinical sexual descriptions. What the synopsis promised was a steamy forbidden romance between a college senior and her advisor, but what was delivered was an extremely derivative erotic romance that was lacking in story and characters.
Annabelle is on the verge of graduating college and going off to an intense graduate school dual degree program (PhD/MD). For the last two years she has been lusting over her advisor, Dr. Charles Douglas. With nothing to lose she asks him to sleep with her. At first, he declines, but agrees to talk to her about their "Thing" after she finishes finals. Following finals, they can ethically be together and Charles confesses he's been equally attracted to her. After finding out Annie is a virgin, Charles requests to go slow with start their no-strings sexual relationship. In the month leading up to Annie departure, she starts to fall for him. But ghosts of Charles past make it impossible to reciprocate her feelings.
I've mentioned before that I'm such a huge fan of forbidden romances, so when I came across this New Adult title I wanted to give it a try. In the beginning, I enjoyed Annie's witty inner dialogue and awkwardness; I was hopeful that I was going to enjoy this. But it didn't take long for me to get annoyed with her and the turn of events.
Charles is British and portrayed as being very restrained and awkward but with crazy sex appeal. Almost instantly, Charles turns into a sexual alpha male after finding out Annie was a virgin, chomping at the bit to teach Annie the sexual ropes. He confesses that he's wanted to sleep with her for over a year. The rest of the book is all sex scenes and a few fights on the topic of "I'm broken" and "You can't change me".
This book was very derivative of Fifty Shades of Grey to the point where I wondered if this was fanfiction, rather than a wholly original work as its being touted. This really bothered me. There were some differences to the characters, story, and setting. For example, Annie is much more confident than Ana and Charles isn't a dominant like Christian. But there are shockingly similar plot points, character traits, and situations taken from Fifty Shades of Grey. Here are just some of them:
• Annie = Ana, Charles = Christian
• Prior to starting their sexual relationship, Charles picks up a a drunk Annie and allows her to sleep peacefully with him.
• Annie, like Ana, was a virgin yet becomes a sex goddess on her knees in from of Charles. After Annie's last final, Charles goes to town on Annie spend most of their time between the sheets.
• He ties her up and brings out the Ben Wa balls in their sexual escapades.
• For her graduation gift, Charles gives Annie a very valuable first edition book of Origin of Pieces. Annie struggles with whether to accept this gift.
• Like Christian, Charles is emotionally broken from childhood trauma and won't allow himself to fall in love with anyone, leaving an in-love Annie frustrated and desperate to fix him.
•
But even putting the blatant similarities aside, there was really very little plot to the story. The author tried to inject plot with scenes outside the bedroom, including rock climbing and dancing lesson scenes but it wasn't enough to be compelling. The sex scenes were numerous, long, and highly descriptive to the point that I began to question whether this was new adult or erotica. Further, Charles's British dialogue was almost painful to read. His pet names for Annie were strange and archaic—"my termagant", "my shrew", and "my harpy". Charles social status as a viscount was also ridiculous and unnecessary.
I didn't know this going into the book but rather discovered about 60% in that this was going to be duology. The next installment of Charles and Annie's story is called How Not To Let Go and will be out later this year.
1 star
* I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Read this Review • My Website • Facebook • Twitter • Pinterest • Instagram • Subscribe by Email
****************
★★UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES★★
****************
July 1, 2016
4.5 Stars.
Well, I have to say wasn't expecting this to be as sex-fuelled as it was. Not that I'm grumbling, far from it because despite the fact that after some perfect build-up this couple went at it like a pair of rampant little bunnies, indulging at every opportunity, there's also a deeper story and whilst it unfolded later on, the pacing was right and it's set the next book up nicely. Yes, there are two parts to Charles and Annie's story although there's not a particularly painful cliffhanger.
"I have been imagining you naked since the day last summer when you came into the lab soaked through with rain."
I love a bit of forbidden love. I love smart, intellectual, slightly awkward characters and I love a bit of debauchery, and How Not to Fall absolutely ticks these boxes. Annie and Charles have spent the past two years working together in a research lab, her student to his post-doctoral fellow. But they have A Thing and, with Annie's time up in the lab fast approaching she decides to act on her feelings for the slightly untidy, English sex-god.
What a fabulous surprise Charles was. Beneath the creased shirts and well-spoken, professional exterior is a very dirty English gent, who takes Annie on a journey of discovery, sexually and emotionally. She's young and inexperienced but she's no wallflower and her awkward honest musings and thoughts, internally and vocally, made for a great POV. And what's meant to be a few weeks of fun, no-strings sex with their friendship in tact at the end of it, soon starts to gather a bit of meaning, which Annie is fine with and Charles isn't so much.
"I’m fucked up, but I’m not a complete arsehole."
It could have been heavy but it wasn't and Charles' personal torment added depth, emotion and a whole raft of potential for the next leg of their journey. And Annie matured hugely from the character we met in the opening pages.
I'm glad this couple's story isn't over. And, if Emily Foster drifts away a little from the sex aspect and focusses on the real issues between them then I'll be one very happy reader. Of course I'm not going to grumble if they're still a pair of dirty bunnies, but there's so much more to both Charles and Annie than that and I'm looking forward to seeing if they can find their HEA in How Not to Let Go. December's not that far away.
Copy received courtesy of Kensington via NetGalley for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Well, I have to say wasn't expecting this to be as sex-fuelled as it was. Not that I'm grumbling, far from it because despite the fact that after some perfect build-up this couple went at it like a pair of rampant little bunnies, indulging at every opportunity, there's also a deeper story and whilst it unfolded later on, the pacing was right and it's set the next book up nicely. Yes, there are two parts to Charles and Annie's story although there's not a particularly painful cliffhanger.
"I have been imagining you naked since the day last summer when you came into the lab soaked through with rain."
I love a bit of forbidden love. I love smart, intellectual, slightly awkward characters and I love a bit of debauchery, and How Not to Fall absolutely ticks these boxes. Annie and Charles have spent the past two years working together in a research lab, her student to his post-doctoral fellow. But they have A Thing and, with Annie's time up in the lab fast approaching she decides to act on her feelings for the slightly untidy, English sex-god.
What a fabulous surprise Charles was. Beneath the creased shirts and well-spoken, professional exterior is a very dirty English gent, who takes Annie on a journey of discovery, sexually and emotionally. She's young and inexperienced but she's no wallflower and her awkward honest musings and thoughts, internally and vocally, made for a great POV. And what's meant to be a few weeks of fun, no-strings sex with their friendship in tact at the end of it, soon starts to gather a bit of meaning, which Annie is fine with and Charles isn't so much.
"I’m fucked up, but I’m not a complete arsehole."
It could have been heavy but it wasn't and Charles' personal torment added depth, emotion and a whole raft of potential for the next leg of their journey. And Annie matured hugely from the character we met in the opening pages.
I'm glad this couple's story isn't over. And, if Emily Foster drifts away a little from the sex aspect and focusses on the real issues between them then I'll be one very happy reader. Of course I'm not going to grumble if they're still a pair of dirty bunnies, but there's so much more to both Charles and Annie than that and I'm looking forward to seeing if they can find their HEA in How Not to Let Go. December's not that far away.
Copy received courtesy of Kensington via NetGalley for an honest and unbiased opinion.
July 8, 2016
Still sorting out my feelings because damn son, this book just gave me All The Feels.
I didn't think I would like this book at first. In fact, a few pages into it, I decided that this book is not for me. Well the joke's on me because this book is totally for me and I'm so glad I was so bored off studying that I decided what the hell might as well just finish this book and now I'm crying because imagine if I hadn't been bored af I would've just tossed this into the DNF pile. Wow.
So here's a list including the things I LOVED about this book and also of the (very few) things that I didn't like:
-Annie. What a fantastic heroine she is. At first I thought she was pretty childish but eventually realized wow she is so me so of course I love her.
-The writing!!! So good. So, so good!!! Like how to write like this pls?
-The sex scenes are very well written and all served a purpose to the story. It did feel like there were too many of them but I'm not really complaining. Hehe.
-Charles is a dominant hero done right. What I disliked about him was sometimes he didn't feel like a real person? He talks too much and uses all these big words like do people really talk like that?? Idk.
-There were plenty of times--especially near the end--when I felt like crying because of all the feelings. Read this book guys and have your heart shattered by that ending. Thank God for the sequel--which feels like light years away but at least we're getting one--because that ending!!!
I didn't think I would like this book at first. In fact, a few pages into it, I decided that this book is not for me. Well the joke's on me because this book is totally for me and I'm so glad I was so bored off studying that I decided what the hell might as well just finish this book and now I'm crying because imagine if I hadn't been bored af I would've just tossed this into the DNF pile. Wow.
So here's a list including the things I LOVED about this book and also of the (very few) things that I didn't like:
-Annie. What a fantastic heroine she is. At first I thought she was pretty childish but eventually realized wow she is so me so of course I love her.
-The writing!!! So good. So, so good!!! Like how to write like this pls?
-The sex scenes are very well written and all served a purpose to the story. It did feel like there were too many of them but I'm not really complaining. Hehe.
-Charles is a dominant hero done right. What I disliked about him was sometimes he didn't feel like a real person? He talks too much and uses all these big words like do people really talk like that?? Idk.
-There were plenty of times--especially near the end--when I felt like crying because of all the feelings. Read this book guys and have your heart shattered by that ending. Thank God for the sequel--which feels like light years away but at least we're getting one--because that ending!!!
February 9, 2024
This could have been something better if a) it didn't end on a stupid cliffhanger just to drag out the couple getting their HEA for reasons that didn't really make much sense. Authors stop scamming your readers into buying duets just because you want to make more money! Knock it off. Put it all in one book! and b) if the conversations and reactions felt more realistic and not read like fanfiction. The hero Charles Douglas sounded too perfect and too good to be true for me. Nobody talks like this guy especially with the constant praises like "you are magnificent" "you are remarkable" "you are a marvel" following every orgasm or conversation between them. I didn't feel like he was real. These two had sweet moments but you can't have your hero having the same reaction and dialogue to everything. lol
According to the author's bio, Emily Foster has a background in writing about sex, sex science to be specific (whatever that means) and a professional sex educator and it definitely shows here. However, I just didn't think her style of writing is very sexy to be frank. This is definitely an erotica since 80% of this book is sex. Looooots of sex. But it oddly felt like a lot more telling rather than showing even though it's 1st person POV and in present tense. It read more like two people going through step by step instructions rather than feeling the moment if you get my drift. A lot of "insert slot A into slot B" type of narration. Also a lot of the times the actual orgasm is treated like some rushed conclusion that happens off the page which for me was a bit annoying, like they are the middle of going at it and it just fades to black suddenly. WTF? It just felt like the only way Foster knew how to make her lingo sound sexy is by throwing the word “fuck” in there as many times as possible. Which is fine but everything else still felt very mechanical and text book clinical for me. “He fucks into me hard once" "he's kissing me with his tongue in my mouth” "His pelvis is grinding against my vulva” "he puts his hand on my trapezius" (can't you just say neck? lol) etc. The words labia and vulva are especially used to exhaustion. There were some hot moments for sure but things just read very awkward and gangly overall.
Just a friendly suggestion for Ms. Foster, using the term "genitals" during a sex scene is never sexy.
The whole “face the monster” thing was ridiculous and very hamfisted conflict near the end. I didn't believe it or buy it. I just found it so silly because through the whole book Charles is not portrayed as some dark brooding damaged hero. Yes there’s some hints he had an unhappy childhood but other than that he’s a pretty normal stable affable guy but suddenly I’m supposed to believe he’s so damaged and emotionally unavailable because he had an abusive father growing up? And what "monster" dude? He sleeps with socks on and has the temperament of a golden retriever. Once again this is another book that suffered from the annoying “Bad Gene” Trope. If I never again read the words “I’m afraid my monster will come out” coming out of the mouth of a grown man in a romance book I’ll forever be happy. Do CR authors realize how stupid and trite this makes their character's look even saying this?? Unless the monster your hero is referring to is his dick or some shapeshifting dragon, please for the love of gawd spare me.
This wasn't a bad book, in fact this felt like a prototype for the more popular book The Love Hypothesis but just make it erotica. This also takes place in the Academia/brainy smarts world with two intelligent, awkward people who are crushing on each other trying to work around their attraction. The difference here being, Annie speaks what's on her mind and never hides her feelings or what she's thinking which frankly given the mess that other book was for me, was very refreshing here. Sometimes she's a little too blunt and pushy ("no means no" goes both ways Emily Foster ahem <_<) but I appreciated Annie's honesty and just saying how she feels. The hero Charles is the post-doctoral fellow who assists the professor in Annie's senior psychophysiology lab, she's been crushing on him and proposes they have sex but he refuses until she's graduated and he's no longer her mentor. While I 100% appreciate consent and being on the same page about everything, the whole making "plans", deals and debating or making a big fuss about every single thing got tiring the more it went on. This also goes back to my issue that a lot of the conversations Annie and Charles had felt unrealistic and textbook template on how to be socially and politically conscientious and correct on everything (feminism, anxiety, depression and oddly mass shootings?), especially the hero. This was very low in angst with a hero and heroine just having fun exploring each other intimately and bonding over mutual interests until the 70% mark with the "Monster Deal" bullshit that had no rhyme or reason.
Also, having your hero describe the heroine physically as someone who could be mistaken for an "awkward 14 year old boy" just really leaves something to be desired for this reader. It was like a bucket of ice water for me. Ick. Considering the heroine Annie pretty much has no face in this entire book, this visual near the end really didn't help and creeped me out. It was weird.
Overall, this was not bad and ok aside from the issues I had. This definitely did not need to be a duet. This couple is not that deep or angsty that they need two books to get to their HEA. There's not enough turmoil or conflict to do that and I'm gonna take a wild guess Book 2 is once again filled with mostly sex with barely any plot. It could have all been covered and wrapped up nicely in 1 book IMO.
According to the author's bio, Emily Foster has a background in writing about sex, sex science to be specific (whatever that means) and a professional sex educator and it definitely shows here. However, I just didn't think her style of writing is very sexy to be frank. This is definitely an erotica since 80% of this book is sex. Looooots of sex. But it oddly felt like a lot more telling rather than showing even though it's 1st person POV and in present tense. It read more like two people going through step by step instructions rather than feeling the moment if you get my drift. A lot of "insert slot A into slot B" type of narration. Also a lot of the times the actual orgasm is treated like some rushed conclusion that happens off the page which for me was a bit annoying, like they are the middle of going at it and it just fades to black suddenly. WTF? It just felt like the only way Foster knew how to make her lingo sound sexy is by throwing the word “fuck” in there as many times as possible. Which is fine but everything else still felt very mechanical and text book clinical for me. “He fucks into me hard once" "he's kissing me with his tongue in my mouth” "His pelvis is grinding against my vulva” "he puts his hand on my trapezius" (can't you just say neck? lol) etc. The words labia and vulva are especially used to exhaustion. There were some hot moments for sure but things just read very awkward and gangly overall.
Sunday morning I learn how complicated it is to split my attention between the sensation of Charles's tongue and mouth on my genitals and the sensation of my mouth and tongue on his genitals.
Just a friendly suggestion for Ms. Foster, using the term "genitals" during a sex scene is never sexy.
The whole “face the monster” thing was ridiculous and very hamfisted conflict near the end. I didn't believe it or buy it. I just found it so silly because through the whole book Charles is not portrayed as some dark brooding damaged hero. Yes there’s some hints he had an unhappy childhood but other than that he’s a pretty normal stable affable guy but suddenly I’m supposed to believe he’s so damaged and emotionally unavailable because he had an abusive father growing up? And what "monster" dude? He sleeps with socks on and has the temperament of a golden retriever. Once again this is another book that suffered from the annoying “Bad Gene” Trope. If I never again read the words “I’m afraid my monster will come out” coming out of the mouth of a grown man in a romance book I’ll forever be happy. Do CR authors realize how stupid and trite this makes their character's look even saying this?? Unless the monster your hero is referring to is his dick or some shapeshifting dragon, please for the love of gawd spare me.
This wasn't a bad book, in fact this felt like a prototype for the more popular book The Love Hypothesis but just make it erotica. This also takes place in the Academia/brainy smarts world with two intelligent, awkward people who are crushing on each other trying to work around their attraction. The difference here being, Annie speaks what's on her mind and never hides her feelings or what she's thinking which frankly given the mess that other book was for me, was very refreshing here. Sometimes she's a little too blunt and pushy ("no means no" goes both ways Emily Foster ahem <_<) but I appreciated Annie's honesty and just saying how she feels. The hero Charles is the post-doctoral fellow who assists the professor in Annie's senior psychophysiology lab, she's been crushing on him and proposes they have sex but he refuses until she's graduated and he's no longer her mentor. While I 100% appreciate consent and being on the same page about everything, the whole making "plans", deals and debating or making a big fuss about every single thing got tiring the more it went on. This also goes back to my issue that a lot of the conversations Annie and Charles had felt unrealistic and textbook template on how to be socially and politically conscientious and correct on everything (feminism, anxiety, depression and oddly mass shootings?), especially the hero. This was very low in angst with a hero and heroine just having fun exploring each other intimately and bonding over mutual interests until the 70% mark with the "Monster Deal" bullshit that had no rhyme or reason.
"You feel like shit and you also feel like shit about feeling like shit. I feel like shit too, but for different reasons, and I also feel frustrated that you're too busy feeling like shit to be nice to me while I feel like shit, but I also understand why you feel like shit, and I'm mad at myself for not being totally fine with you feeling however you need to feel, and I know that probably you feel this shitty in part because you've been trying to do the Monster Deal, which has torn down your defenses, so it's kind of my fault that you feel shitty."
"You, Miss Annabelle Coffey, are remarkable," he says. "No one could process today better than you are currently doing."
Also, having your hero describe the heroine physically as someone who could be mistaken for an "awkward 14 year old boy" just really leaves something to be desired for this reader. It was like a bucket of ice water for me. Ick. Considering the heroine Annie pretty much has no face in this entire book, this visual near the end really didn't help and creeped me out. It was weird.
Overall, this was not bad and ok aside from the issues I had. This definitely did not need to be a duet. This couple is not that deep or angsty that they need two books to get to their HEA. There's not enough turmoil or conflict to do that and I'm gonna take a wild guess Book 2 is once again filled with mostly sex with barely any plot. It could have all been covered and wrapped up nicely in 1 book IMO.
October 28, 2017
Actual rating is 2.5
What prompted me to read this novel was listening to a podcast (featuring the author) in which she explained why she felt the need to write her version of 50SoG, the different thought processes she went through as she created what ended up being a duology, etc. FWIW, I think of 50SoG as poorly written porn that jumped to the top of the heap due to a mix of timing and v. astute use of the canon it’s ~inspired by~. And, with another exception that I’m looking forward to reading, the 50SoG remixes (as I like to call them) is a genre that I tend to ignore due to lack of interest.
After seeing how this book came to be, however, I was curious enough to snag a copy.
Readers familiar with the original can tell where the author departed from the 50SoG narrative. Like, instead of Christian’s dismissive/reductive attitude regarding Anastasia’s physical virginity, Charles proposes slowing things down so that, by the time the penis-in-vagina moment happens, Annie is not only super aroused, but also truly enjoys the experience. Which, yeah, that's cool.
I liked and sympathized with Annie 80% of the time. She’s ambitious when it comes to her professional career, had a good and close relationship with her parents and friends, and had a solid idea of what she wanted to do with Charles. At times, she was a little pushy, but that fit with her character’s motivations so I couldn’t fault her for that.
Because of what "inspired" the author to tackle this story and the overall theme, the novel has a lot of sex scenes. I give props to the author for keeping the focus on Annie’s pleasure. The author took some time creating a complex female character and so Annie’s exploration of her intimate and sexual desires were really neat to read.
HOWEVUH, with that in mind, I’ll admit that there were scenes during Annie and Charles’ convos that left me sorta cold. As characters who moved in Academia, their dialogue skewered heavily to the $10 words.
The book--which is told from Annie's POV--has a tone that wavers between clinical and didactic. This translated into a certain level of detachment in her narration that made for awkward reading at times.
Out of the two, I was less enthused with Charles. The author really went deep when it came to Charles: he’s a handsome British guy who has genius-level intellect, rich, and has a royal title. Like, the only thing missing was a hidden ability to fart kittens, IDK! Also, his dialogue is kinda OTT half of the time. The nicknames he gives Annie alone… #EYEROLLCITY
The author did give Charles a level of self-awareness that made him less insufferable. He’s self-deprecating enough to cushion my side-eye at his perfection. I’m not sure I’d want to be friends with him IRL, tho. :-/
As the story progressed, there were some latter reveals about his background that explained his achievements, his drive, etc. The downside was that Charles’ darker side was also unveiled in what I found was an overtly dramatic way. The way that he talked about it and Annie’s reaction to seeing Charles behaving in a more brusque manner were straight out of a soap opera. #Forrealsies
And, maybe this is where the plot’s strangely formal vibe backfired for me. I was never sold on that particular conflict cuz it was mostly telling instead of showing. Like, Charles would go on about the trauma he’d endured (etc) and it was v. messed up. But, it didn’t convey the pain or despair that the author was aiming for. In addition, I thought that, by focusing so much on Charles’ pain, the novel grew weaker.
I mean, there’s a neat conflict in how Annie and Charles only had about a month or so before she had to leave. So, to shift from that to Charles’ manpain was DISAPPOINTING AF.
The tone went from Annie’s happy and fun sexual escapades to Annie doing a poor job of avoiding manpain. This kicked off the Annie cry-a-thon. She literally cried at least once in each chapter for the last third of the book.
One last thing that, while for me was a #sadtrombone, I'm super sure some readers might appreciate: interwoven amid the sexy times are several instances of foot worship. Mainly in the form of kissing and licking them. There's no doubt that Annie and Charles enjoy the experience. It just isn't a thing for me.
TL;DR: Yet another version of 50SoG in which the female character has more backbone and the male character is less of an outright jackass. As far as het stories go, it’s OK. I wasn’t super convinced on the romance. The kink was mostly D/s and v. light bondage. I don’t regret reading it, but I can’t help my #sadtrombone at the last 70% manpain conflict bullcrap.
There was queer POC rep via Sally (Annie’s roommate) and her girlfriend. Sadly, neither of them were involved in the story as much as I wish they had been.
Is it a good book? If you’re a fan of 50SofG this is a good alternative. If you’re not a fan of that book/series, it’s an interesting take because Annie has more agency when it comes to learning about herself. It does end in a definite cliffhanger (just like the first book in 50SoG). I’m reading the second book if only to see how everything gets patched up.
What prompted me to read this novel was listening to a podcast (featuring the author) in which she explained why she felt the need to write her version of 50SoG, the different thought processes she went through as she created what ended up being a duology, etc. FWIW, I think of 50SoG as poorly written porn that jumped to the top of the heap due to a mix of timing and v. astute use of the canon it’s ~inspired by~. And, with another exception that I’m looking forward to reading, the 50SoG remixes (as I like to call them) is a genre that I tend to ignore due to lack of interest.
After seeing how this book came to be, however, I was curious enough to snag a copy.
Readers familiar with the original can tell where the author departed from the 50SoG narrative. Like, instead of Christian’s dismissive/reductive attitude regarding Anastasia’s physical virginity, Charles proposes slowing things down so that, by the time the penis-in-vagina moment happens, Annie is not only super aroused, but also truly enjoys the experience. Which, yeah, that's cool.
I liked and sympathized with Annie 80% of the time. She’s ambitious when it comes to her professional career, had a good and close relationship with her parents and friends, and had a solid idea of what she wanted to do with Charles. At times, she was a little pushy, but that fit with her character’s motivations so I couldn’t fault her for that.
Because of what "inspired" the author to tackle this story and the overall theme, the novel has a lot of sex scenes. I give props to the author for keeping the focus on Annie’s pleasure. The author took some time creating a complex female character and so Annie’s exploration of her intimate and sexual desires were really neat to read.
HOWEVUH, with that in mind, I’ll admit that there were scenes during Annie and Charles’ convos that left me sorta cold. As characters who moved in Academia, their dialogue skewered heavily to the $10 words.
The book--which is told from Annie's POV--has a tone that wavers between clinical and didactic. This translated into a certain level of detachment in her narration that made for awkward reading at times.
Out of the two, I was less enthused with Charles. The author really went deep when it came to Charles: he’s a handsome British guy who has genius-level intellect, rich, and has a royal title. Like, the only thing missing was a hidden ability to fart kittens, IDK! Also, his dialogue is kinda OTT half of the time. The nicknames he gives Annie alone… #EYEROLLCITY
The author did give Charles a level of self-awareness that made him less insufferable. He’s self-deprecating enough to cushion my side-eye at his perfection. I’m not sure I’d want to be friends with him IRL, tho. :-/
As the story progressed, there were some latter reveals about his background that explained his achievements, his drive, etc. The downside was that Charles’ darker side was also unveiled in what I found was an overtly dramatic way. The way that he talked about it and Annie’s reaction to seeing Charles behaving in a more brusque manner were straight out of a soap opera. #Forrealsies
And, maybe this is where the plot’s strangely formal vibe backfired for me. I was never sold on that particular conflict cuz it was mostly telling instead of showing. Like, Charles would go on about the trauma he’d endured (etc) and it was v. messed up. But, it didn’t convey the pain or despair that the author was aiming for. In addition, I thought that, by focusing so much on Charles’ pain, the novel grew weaker.
I mean, there’s a neat conflict in how Annie and Charles only had about a month or so before she had to leave. So, to shift from that to Charles’ manpain was DISAPPOINTING AF.
The tone went from Annie’s happy and fun sexual escapades to Annie doing a poor job of avoiding manpain. This kicked off the Annie cry-a-thon. She literally cried at least once in each chapter for the last third of the book.
One last thing that, while for me was a #sadtrombone, I'm super sure some readers might appreciate: interwoven amid the sexy times are several instances of foot worship. Mainly in the form of kissing and licking them. There's no doubt that Annie and Charles enjoy the experience. It just isn't a thing for me.
TL;DR: Yet another version of 50SoG in which the female character has more backbone and the male character is less of an outright jackass. As far as het stories go, it’s OK. I wasn’t super convinced on the romance. The kink was mostly D/s and v. light bondage. I don’t regret reading it, but I can’t help my #sadtrombone at the last 70% manpain conflict bullcrap.
There was queer POC rep via Sally (Annie’s roommate) and her girlfriend. Sadly, neither of them were involved in the story as much as I wish they had been.
Is it a good book? If you’re a fan of 50SofG this is a good alternative. If you’re not a fan of that book/series, it’s an interesting take because Annie has more agency when it comes to learning about herself. It does end in a definite cliffhanger (just like the first book in 50SoG). I’m reading the second book if only to see how everything gets patched up.
June 7, 2019
Comprei este livro completamente pela capa, sabendo que é uma duologia, acabei por comprar os dois volumes, na esperança que fosse uma leitura do género Nicholas Sparks ou Jenny Colgan, não podia ter estado mais longe, não se deixem enganar pela foto do casal a beijar-se à chuva e a contra capa ser cor-de-rosa, este livro não é propriamente um romance cor-de-rosa, é um livro que não tem grande conteúdo para além do sexo, de uma jovem estudante universitária em fase final que perde a sua virgindade para o seu mentor de tese e passa a explorar todo o prazer é os limites do mesmo, basicamente quase sexo do princípio ao fim, quando não o estão a fazer, estão a falar sobre ele.
Foi uma desilusão, fiquei muito arrependido desta compra e nem vontade tenho de ler o segundo...
Foi uma desilusão, fiquei muito arrependido desta compra e nem vontade tenho de ler o segundo...
March 10, 2017
Urgh, what a pile of boring, immature horse shit. And it ends on a "cliff hanger" if anybody would be mad enough to want to keep going.
January 30, 2024
I was only asking for an academia romance but.. No, thank you, This Thing is not at all what I was expecting.
So, Annie and Charles are Ana and Christian from Fifty Shades of Grey in an alternate universe, a more respectful one obviously (seems like a given fact by the author now that I've read the reviews). I'm sorry it still sucks.
So, Annie and Charles are Ana and Christian from Fifty Shades of Grey in an alternate universe, a more respectful one obviously (seems like a given fact by the author now that I've read the reviews). I'm sorry it still sucks.
March 4, 2017
3.5 stars.
You know what this book made me realise about myself?
I may be slightly Eton-ist.
The fact that this hero went to Eton, compounded by the fact that he was born in 1988 and went to Cambridge and thus could have been any one of the Eton boys I met whilst I was there, has caused me to read and review this differently.
An Eton man with a progressive attitude to women and sex – "as if!" WHG exclaimed.
This is based on a sample size of about eight. So, like any prejudice, it’s wholly unreasonable, but, it is there. What can I say? I am not perfect – a shock to you all, I know. Anyway, take note: the impartiality of this review is impacted by my human failings.
This started out well, like, five stars well. It’s first person and the heroine Annie is a little bit delightful. A positive, funny, intelligent, intellectually confident and robust, feminist with a big crush on her post-doc supervisor (I think that's his title - American College education is a mystery to me). She is convinced they have A Thing and she is right. Ultimately she approaches him for a month of sex in the gap between the end of her degree and her leaving to go to Harvard medical school.
Charles, the object of her affection, is a hot, kind, intelligent, amazing man with some Massive Childhood Issues which translate into relationship issues. He’s also English, Eton educated and the heir to a Viscount. Charles was a bit much and a bit unbelievable. His issues felt somewhat tacked on to his character rather than integrated organically. Perhaps its possible for a person to have that much horror and tragedy in their background and barely reveal it (other than when they talk about it), but it didn’t sit that well with me. He’s also supposed to be the hot older man, but he’s only four years older than Annie and not yet 30 himself, so that felt a bit daft.
The story was up and down for me. The pre-amble to the sexual relationship was great. The introduction to the characters and the secondary characters was charming. When we moved on to the sexual relationship it was well-written and hawt, but I think there was too much sex (I know, I can hardly believe I am typing these words either). This book is sitting on the line between romance and erotica and I don’t think the balance is right. That said, Charles and Annie continue to be charming together and have fun, talky sex which is right up my street. Their romance develops wonderfully.
Then, at about 75%, Charles’s issues come in like a steam train and mow them down. There’s this whole thing about his ‘monster’ which was constantly mentioned and analysed and I never really got. Annie spends a lot of time crying and trying to make it work, when I sort of think someone as great as her should just have said - "you know what dude, your loss. I’m off to be a bad ass at Harvard and meet someone just as hot as you who isn’t an idiot.” (hashtag: bitchesgetstuffdone).
I have bought the second book (this one ends on a cliffhanger), because this was good, but it was also uneven.
You know what this book made me realise about myself?
I may be slightly Eton-ist.
The fact that this hero went to Eton, compounded by the fact that he was born in 1988 and went to Cambridge and thus could have been any one of the Eton boys I met whilst I was there, has caused me to read and review this differently.
An Eton man with a progressive attitude to women and sex – "as if!" WHG exclaimed.
This is based on a sample size of about eight. So, like any prejudice, it’s wholly unreasonable, but, it is there. What can I say? I am not perfect – a shock to you all, I know. Anyway, take note: the impartiality of this review is impacted by my human failings.
This started out well, like, five stars well. It’s first person and the heroine Annie is a little bit delightful. A positive, funny, intelligent, intellectually confident and robust, feminist with a big crush on her post-doc supervisor (I think that's his title - American College education is a mystery to me). She is convinced they have A Thing and she is right. Ultimately she approaches him for a month of sex in the gap between the end of her degree and her leaving to go to Harvard medical school.
Charles, the object of her affection, is a hot, kind, intelligent, amazing man with some Massive Childhood Issues which translate into relationship issues. He’s also English, Eton educated and the heir to a Viscount. Charles was a bit much and a bit unbelievable. His issues felt somewhat tacked on to his character rather than integrated organically. Perhaps its possible for a person to have that much horror and tragedy in their background and barely reveal it (other than when they talk about it), but it didn’t sit that well with me. He’s also supposed to be the hot older man, but he’s only four years older than Annie and not yet 30 himself, so that felt a bit daft.
The story was up and down for me. The pre-amble to the sexual relationship was great. The introduction to the characters and the secondary characters was charming. When we moved on to the sexual relationship it was well-written and hawt, but I think there was too much sex (I know, I can hardly believe I am typing these words either). This book is sitting on the line between romance and erotica and I don’t think the balance is right. That said, Charles and Annie continue to be charming together and have fun, talky sex which is right up my street. Their romance develops wonderfully.
Then, at about 75%, Charles’s issues come in like a steam train and mow them down. There’s this whole thing about his ‘monster’ which was constantly mentioned and analysed and I never really got. Annie spends a lot of time crying and trying to make it work, when I sort of think someone as great as her should just have said - "you know what dude, your loss. I’m off to be a bad ass at Harvard and meet someone just as hot as you who isn’t an idiot.” (hashtag: bitchesgetstuffdone).
I have bought the second book (this one ends on a cliffhanger), because this was good, but it was also uneven.
April 17, 2017
This is a tough one.
I both liked and didn't like this book.
First of all, I think is important to note that I did totally read this as a supposedly smart, feminist, progressive and consensual take on Fifty Shades of Grey. I say "supposedly" and I'll get to that later. The book draws some very obvious comparisons not to the "BDSM/rich boy/virgin girl" romance trope but to the actual FSoG book. And as such, I mostly judged it based on those correlations instead of its own merits as a separate story. And that was the first problem for me.
The book is about a girl, Annie, who has the hots for her lab supervisor and plans to make her intentions clear at a date she sets up in a coffee shop. In a matter of weeks their student/teacher relationship will be over and she feels she's got nothing to lose by just asking and then if he says no, he says no and that's it. The object of her lusty thoughts is Charles, English, brilliant, hot and tall. Up until that point (and the scene in which she actually asks, which is fucking hilarious) everything was running smoothly. But then the parallelisms began.
After some longing they both do decide to start a sexual relationship. The parameters for said relationship are set from the beginning and are amply clear. I felt they were realistically drawn and I was liking the general idea of the book. It seemed original. And then everything went downhill from there. My issues can be summed up into three categories in no particular order:
- The supposedly smart, feminist, progressive and consensual story. I now go back to my previous statement. One of the first things that happen when Charles and Annie get together is that Annie reveals she's a virgin. Then they proceed to have a conversation about the social construct around the concept of virginity and what it means to both of them specifically, both the healthy and unhealthy connotations they each assign to it. That sounds good right? Problem was, it sounded snooty as hell. This was the very first glimpse into how disdainful this book would read to me.
And it didn't get better from then on. As their relationship progresses Charles makes up a series of "rules" as to how far into their sexual explorations they should go in a progression of day-to-day basis. First of all, it was fucking ridiculous. Secondly, it basically obliterated Annie's own take and definition of her virginity. There is even a point where they've done almost everything except penetrative intercourse and she even asks herself if it shouldn't be her who gets to define whether she's a virgin anymore. And the answer should be "hell yes!". But the power to set her own sexual and physical milestones is taken away from her and instead Charles is the one defining what is and isn't an important sexual activity or discovery. And that's where the book completely fails at making itself anything progressive or feminist. It's utter bullshit. And the fact that Charles gets to make a big deal out of inserting his penis in her vagina, instead of letting Annie be the one to determine that takes away not only her choice but her control over her own body. Since we get this book from Annie's POV we know she isn't entirely on-board with that, and we see her go from a self-assured, strong-willed woman to a complacent idiot.
Basically, it was at that point that I started nit-picking everything. And even though the book didn't lose my interest, it did lose my respect.
- The very obvious parallelisms with FSoG. It seems to be a fad now to take the tropes we saw in the wildly famous FSoG and deconstruct them. And that's fine. The tropes themselves aren't anything new under the sun, and after the clusterfuck that FSoG was at taking BDSM seriously and respectfully (not to mention its other various problematic content) I get why authors are jumping in at the opportunity to show a smarter way of doing it. The problem here was that this book sometimes read as the author's take on those tropes (which I reitarte: I like and applaud) and it sometimes read as the author's take specifically on FSoG. And there is where it massively fails. For two reasons mainly:
The final reason that made How Not to Fall a flop for me was:
- I didn't much like the heroine. This one is a totally personal pet-peeve and it probably won't be a problem for the majority of other people who read the book. The woman fucking cries at least once a chapter for the first 40% of the book. UGH. And then, she is a bit too bubbly- at times she sounded almost childlike. I could have bought the act had she been playing it as a means to flirt (maybe) but in some scenes she was basically being either purposefully obtuse or just plain stupid and naive. And I can't with that either. For someone who's supposed to be super smart she acted and sounded like a 13 year old for half of the story.
I felt on the fence about the book while I was reading it, but I was also sufficiently intrigued for me to buy the second one, especially after the cliffhanger. (If you've read FSoG, you know what cliffhanger I'm talking about). It's basically the same (with a slight twist if you will, but the same nonetheless). I also have to say that there were some parts of the book that I loved:
- Some of the dialogue is highly comical.
- There's no abandoning of outside responsibilities.
- No sexual encounter in their place of work (thank you all of the gods!!!!!!). They were both actually very professional when they had to be and neither of them neglected their research or work goals.
- The secondary characters were well portrayed without ever taking away protagonism from the story.
- The book is very relationship- centred. Which is something I now pretty much demand from contemporary romances. I fucking loathe reading a romance where the main story turns out to be "coming-of-age", or a mystery or anything other than the actual romance. There's on page interaction between the MCs constantly. The MC that doesn't get a POV is not shrouded in mystery and we do get to know him. Major kudos for that.
I both liked and didn't like this book.
First of all, I think is important to note that I did totally read this as a supposedly smart, feminist, progressive and consensual take on Fifty Shades of Grey. I say "supposedly" and I'll get to that later. The book draws some very obvious comparisons not to the "BDSM/rich boy/virgin girl" romance trope but to the actual FSoG book. And as such, I mostly judged it based on those correlations instead of its own merits as a separate story. And that was the first problem for me.
The book is about a girl, Annie, who has the hots for her lab supervisor and plans to make her intentions clear at a date she sets up in a coffee shop. In a matter of weeks their student/teacher relationship will be over and she feels she's got nothing to lose by just asking and then if he says no, he says no and that's it. The object of her lusty thoughts is Charles, English, brilliant, hot and tall. Up until that point (and the scene in which she actually asks, which is fucking hilarious) everything was running smoothly. But then the parallelisms began.
After some longing they both do decide to start a sexual relationship. The parameters for said relationship are set from the beginning and are amply clear. I felt they were realistically drawn and I was liking the general idea of the book. It seemed original. And then everything went downhill from there. My issues can be summed up into three categories in no particular order:
- The supposedly smart, feminist, progressive and consensual story. I now go back to my previous statement. One of the first things that happen when Charles and Annie get together is that Annie reveals she's a virgin. Then they proceed to have a conversation about the social construct around the concept of virginity and what it means to both of them specifically, both the healthy and unhealthy connotations they each assign to it. That sounds good right? Problem was, it sounded snooty as hell. This was the very first glimpse into how disdainful this book would read to me.
And it didn't get better from then on. As their relationship progresses Charles makes up a series of "rules" as to how far into their sexual explorations they should go in a progression of day-to-day basis. First of all, it was fucking ridiculous. Secondly, it basically obliterated Annie's own take and definition of her virginity. There is even a point where they've done almost everything except penetrative intercourse and she even asks herself if it shouldn't be her who gets to define whether she's a virgin anymore. And the answer should be "hell yes!". But the power to set her own sexual and physical milestones is taken away from her and instead Charles is the one defining what is and isn't an important sexual activity or discovery. And that's where the book completely fails at making itself anything progressive or feminist. It's utter bullshit. And the fact that Charles gets to make a big deal out of inserting his penis in her vagina, instead of letting Annie be the one to determine that takes away not only her choice but her control over her own body. Since we get this book from Annie's POV we know she isn't entirely on-board with that, and we see her go from a self-assured, strong-willed woman to a complacent idiot.
Basically, it was at that point that I started nit-picking everything. And even though the book didn't lose my interest, it did lose my respect.
- The very obvious parallelisms with FSoG. It seems to be a fad now to take the tropes we saw in the wildly famous FSoG and deconstruct them. And that's fine. The tropes themselves aren't anything new under the sun, and after the clusterfuck that FSoG was at taking BDSM seriously and respectfully (not to mention its other various problematic content) I get why authors are jumping in at the opportunity to show a smarter way of doing it. The problem here was that this book sometimes read as the author's take on those tropes (which I reitarte: I like and applaud) and it sometimes read as the author's take specifically on FSoG. And there is where it massively fails. For two reasons mainly:
a) The condescending, patronising and arrogant tone of it. The whole time a scene is very obviously depicting or resembling a FSoG scene there's this tone to it that reads like "hey, lookie here!, this is how it's done". And I'm sorry, but I'm not fucking reading a romance to be fucking lectured. I read contemporary romance for entertainment and if I learn something along the way, cool. But I'm not looking forward to a fucking lesson.
b) The book would have probably worked better, or at least for me, if it hadn't made it's mission to draw evident comparisons against FSoG. Honestly, the book was doing fine and the story was completly interesting without inserting those minuscule details that makes indisputable to which other book it is referring. We have Annie (Annabelle) and Charles. Annie is an inexperienced virgin. She lives with her best friend and confidant. She has two loving parents. She's sweet and hard-working and smart and naive. Charles is a rich lord from England, sexually experienced. He has two siblings. A brother and a sister that he loves but feels don't love him back because he is a repressed asshole. But is also secretly a sweetheart with a marshmallow soul. He gives Annie a first edition copy of a book that bears importance both to her personally and in the world because he knows no other way to show his feelings. He "can't love" due to an abuse-filled past that's left him a tortured man. There are tons more of those details. And there are of course also differences. Plus the spin that's put on some of those things is actually very well written. But what bothers me, is that none of those details were necessary at all for the core of the story, except to make an undeniable comparison and then smugly say "hey, this is how it's done".
The final reason that made How Not to Fall a flop for me was:
- I didn't much like the heroine. This one is a totally personal pet-peeve and it probably won't be a problem for the majority of other people who read the book. The woman fucking cries at least once a chapter for the first 40% of the book. UGH. And then, she is a bit too bubbly- at times she sounded almost childlike. I could have bought the act had she been playing it as a means to flirt (maybe) but in some scenes she was basically being either purposefully obtuse or just plain stupid and naive. And I can't with that either. For someone who's supposed to be super smart she acted and sounded like a 13 year old for half of the story.
I felt on the fence about the book while I was reading it, but I was also sufficiently intrigued for me to buy the second one, especially after the cliffhanger. (If you've read FSoG, you know what cliffhanger I'm talking about). It's basically the same (with a slight twist if you will, but the same nonetheless). I also have to say that there were some parts of the book that I loved:
- Some of the dialogue is highly comical.
- There's no abandoning of outside responsibilities.
- No sexual encounter in their place of work (thank you all of the gods!!!!!!). They were both actually very professional when they had to be and neither of them neglected their research or work goals.
- The secondary characters were well portrayed without ever taking away protagonism from the story.
- The book is very relationship- centred. Which is something I now pretty much demand from contemporary romances. I fucking loathe reading a romance where the main story turns out to be "coming-of-age", or a mystery or anything other than the actual romance. There's on page interaction between the MCs constantly. The MC that doesn't get a POV is not shrouded in mystery and we do get to know him. Major kudos for that.
December 15, 2018
So here I am at the end of a book filled with explicit sexual content and I’m tasked with writing a review while not sounding like a prude. In my defence, I am a fan of the genre. I have on occasion acquired a recorded performance or two from various sources. But I tend to like the short story format of the genre as opposed to the full-length novel. As such, I found How Not to Fall to be too much of a good thing.
Form a critical point-of-view, How Not to Fall is an imbalanced book. It’s impossible to believe that Emily Foster’s intent was to write anything other than a story focused on the intricate details of sex. While there are occasional dry witty lines of humor, situational comedic scenes, and brief attempts at seriousness, these elements of the plot tend to serve as the fade-in-fade-out scenes between the sexual encounters. They never amount to anything that could compete with the extended chapters of sexual activity.
Also in support of the predominantly sexual theme, the characters are virtually perfect people. They are both medical students, geniuses, and beautiful examples of the human form. She is confident in her sexuality, rational about rejection, and relatively free of self-doubt and insecurities. He is the perfect gentleman who deems friendship more important than sexual conquests. They have no immediate flaws that would inhibit the reader from enjoying their enthusiastic and repeated encounters. I mean, who's not perfect?
The end of the novel does introduce some content of a broader scope and strikes at the perfection of its two consenting characters. By then, however, the book’s purpose has been established and it’s hard to be persuaded that this deeper insight is anything other than a manufactured way of ending the novel.
Form a critical point-of-view, How Not to Fall is an imbalanced book. It’s impossible to believe that Emily Foster’s intent was to write anything other than a story focused on the intricate details of sex. While there are occasional dry witty lines of humor, situational comedic scenes, and brief attempts at seriousness, these elements of the plot tend to serve as the fade-in-fade-out scenes between the sexual encounters. They never amount to anything that could compete with the extended chapters of sexual activity.
Also in support of the predominantly sexual theme, the characters are virtually perfect people. They are both medical students, geniuses, and beautiful examples of the human form. She is confident in her sexuality, rational about rejection, and relatively free of self-doubt and insecurities. He is the perfect gentleman who deems friendship more important than sexual conquests. They have no immediate flaws that would inhibit the reader from enjoying their enthusiastic and repeated encounters. I mean, who's not perfect?
The end of the novel does introduce some content of a broader scope and strikes at the perfection of its two consenting characters. By then, however, the book’s purpose has been established and it’s hard to be persuaded that this deeper insight is anything other than a manufactured way of ending the novel.
May 21, 2022
Fuck yes.
My first five star rating in a looooooong time.
Hot and sweet and tragic. Read it in a binge and immediately bought the second book.
My first five star rating in a looooooong time.
Hot and sweet and tragic. Read it in a binge and immediately bought the second book.
June 23, 2016
When I first read the blurb for this book, I was pretty intrigued. I liked the idea of a "brainy romance" ... pun not intended (the characters study brainy stuff). I was looking forward to some witty banter, some British slang and one imagined (very sexy) accent. Things didn't go as planned.
To be completely honest, I was surprised with how juvenile Annie (the main lady character) sounded. I was constantly asking myself if I had read her age correctly because instead of a graduating college student, she sounded like a high school student. She just didn't have the maturity that I was expecting and it put me off of the story a little bit because it was so damn distracting. I'm not sure if the author wanted Annie to seem so very young and immature just because she's a virgin or if this was unintentional but it was a turn off. AND this chick is studying doctor-y brain mumbojumbo and she says the words "A Thing" and "The Thing" at least 37 times when talking about her attraction to Charles. That doesn't sound like a lot because out of a crap-ton of words, it only showed up about three dozen times but I'll tell you this, it felt like it was on every single page. After the first dozen, I would just cringe every time Annie said it.
Since I seem to have an axe to grind with Annie, I might as well continue with the tar and feathering ... Annie has this self doubt that is irritating. She's in a constant stage of need for affirmations about herself and that also was irritating. She's constantly begging for compliments. This happened a lot more than a few dozen times. It literally WAS constantly. She needed to be told that she was attractive and desired and doing the right thing and desired ... it mostly centered around being told that she was worthy of getting laid. Like there is such a thing. I'm telling you, this Charles dude was more patient that he should have been because if I was a dude, I would have kicked her to the curb after the first 59 times of her asking me if I wanted her. I just found it very draining to read because I was irritated about the whole damn thing and then for Charles to NOT be irritated just irritated me even more.
There was one interesting thing was happening with Annie but it's more of a compliment to the author than the character ... Annie's inner monologues were interesting in the beginning of this book because they seemed to speak directly to the reader. I found that whole thing refreshing and I wanted more of it because it read like I was talking to a friend. But it didn't last long and when it was gone, I really missed it.
Since I'm on the subject of characters, Charles needs to be addressed. Ugh. I wanted to love this guy. And I did ... at first. I thought that he was a charming Englishman and I really loved him. But then stuff shifted. He went from this stuffy Englishman to a dirty-mouthed, hormone crazed dude that talked with this American vernacular. That would be all fine and dandy but that is not how he was portrayed at first. It was this massive switch when he started getting some action and it wasn't just in bed ... it was all the time after that first piece of nooky. It didn't help the book flow correctly and it really took something away from the entire novel because it didn't seem authentic. Either he's a stuffy Englishman type character or he's not. Can't go both ways. Some slightly British sayings were thrown in sporadically but it wasn't enough to redeem the Charles character for me.
The rest of the novel was slow. That could be attributed to the abundance of sex scenes, I think. There were SO. MANY. After a while, I just started skimming them just so that I could move on to the rest of the story and there was one scene that was like a damn dissertation ... it was AT LEAST 785 pages long.
By the end of the book, I was just done. I was done with the rock-climbing stuff, I was done with the medical/science stuff and I was more than a little excited for the book to just be over. It became boring from about the middle of the book and then when it ended in this horrible cliff-hanger, I was praising all things holy that I had reached the end.
Not the book for me and not the author for me, it seems. But as I've found myself so frequently lately, I'm once again in the minority. A lot of people have enjoyed this book and I'm one of the few that found issues in it. Maybe I'm too critical or maybe I just need to brush it off and move on to the next book on my list. Either way, good luck and I hope that you enjoy this one more than I did.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *
Check out more of my reviews at Little Miss Bookmark!
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February 19, 2017Good God that was hot. I love brainy heroes and heroines, I love friends-to-lovers, and I love teacher-student romances, and this was ALL OF THEM. And then, like, 85% sex. It does have some of the more overdone stuff in Romance novels, too, and went a little off the rails for me in a way that made me miss Mila Ferrera's skill with interweaving psychology (and felt way too close to 50 Shades territory, but without dipping into abusive domain), but I'm glad I bought the second one with it (both on Bea of The Ripped Bodice's emphatic recommendation) because I am gonna read it so hard.
December 22, 2017
This is far steamier than my usual reading fare, delightfully well-written, with interesting, honest, smart characters.
Not something I might have picked up without the glowing recommendation of a friend, but the characters hooked me.
Not something I might have picked up without the glowing recommendation of a friend, but the characters hooked me.
August 1, 2017
I really, REALLY enjoyed this book. It's for so many reasons, but let's see if I can't to sum it up with this:
How Not To Fall is everything, EVERYTHING that Fifty Shades of Grey & all of the subsequent FSOG knock-offs/Raunchy new adult series it inspired tried and failed to be.
I'm going to write it again, just so I'm being clear: ALL of those OTHER novels—the 3-book fifty shades & the H.A.Ms it inspired—tried it. Those books tried (?) and yet they failed. They failed So Fucking HARD to do what this book did.
Sadly, the line between being an alpha-male in the bedroom and being a rapey asshole doesn't seem to be as clear as it should be in real life or fiction.
Shit, I didn't even roll my eyes at , it was executed so well.
How not to Fall is how you write a sexy dominant character. It's also how you write a funny, thoroughly entertaining romance novel....
This book was so awesome that....
.... I'm sad to say I'm not 100% sure I'll be reading the sequel.
If we're talking Urban Fantasy/Paranormal with a romantic subplot, I'm game for however many books so long as the main plot entertains me. But when it comes to contemporary romance...as in, the romance between the main characters is the plot? Authors really expect me to read through a whole series of one love story?
Ain't nobody got time fo' Dat!
I want my romance in ONE lump sum installment, even if it ends up running long. Yeah, I know...separate books means more money which is why most indie authors do it, and definitely why most publishers encourage it...but I'm not even certain that this is the case with Emily Foster. I think she truly believed this romance was worthy of a multi-book series. And I don't question it all.
I just didn't go into this expecting to be reading a continuing story with the same characters. I figured it was the usual, where it's the same town/campus/circle of friends what have you, and in the next book it's a new couple. I had no idea this was a serialized love story or I wouldn't have bothered with it...
...But I'm also happy I didn't know because this first book itself was SO MUCH FUN.
And here's another thing that's weird....I read the preview for book two at the back of book 1 and it looks like the next story will be told either in dual POV with the two MC's or from the male (Charles) POV....and I'm torn about that, too...
Yep. This is super weird for me, Guys. Because normally, I love the male MC's POV most and the female lead (and her POV) irks the shit out of me. In this book however,
It was hilarious being inside Annabelle Coffey's head.
THIS Ana certainly had a Hell of a lot more to say than "Oh crap. Double crap. My inner-goddess, blah, blah, *bites lip*". I'm not sure I'd enjoy reading from Charles' POV. I feel like he'll be the one who gets on my nerves....I dunno....
UGH.
Look, just read this if you want a funny, raunchy, steamy (did I mention funny?) romance novel. One that's complete with a damaged Alpha-hero who needs fixing...and by fixing I mean he has the potential to be a worthy alpha hero....not the fixing all of these "Christian Grey" types need. (Hint: Google Lorena Bobbitt)
I'm only rating this FOUR stars....it would have been FIVE if it had been a complete stand alone, but since it ends on a cliffhanger...
4.0
How Not To Fall is everything, EVERYTHING that Fifty Shades of Grey & all of the subsequent FSOG knock-offs/Raunchy new adult series it inspired tried and failed to be.
I'm going to write it again, just so I'm being clear: ALL of those OTHER novels—the 3-book fifty shades & the H.A.Ms it inspired—tried it. Those books tried (?) and yet they failed. They failed So Fucking HARD to do what this book did.
Sadly, the line between being an alpha-male in the bedroom and being a rapey asshole doesn't seem to be as clear as it should be in real life or fiction.
Shit, I didn't even roll my eyes at , it was executed so well.
How not to Fall is how you write a sexy dominant character. It's also how you write a funny, thoroughly entertaining romance novel....
This book was so awesome that....
.... I'm sad to say I'm not 100% sure I'll be reading the sequel.
If we're talking Urban Fantasy/Paranormal with a romantic subplot, I'm game for however many books so long as the main plot entertains me. But when it comes to contemporary romance...as in, the romance between the main characters is the plot? Authors really expect me to read through a whole series of one love story?
Ain't nobody got time fo' Dat!
I want my romance in ONE lump sum installment, even if it ends up running long. Yeah, I know...separate books means more money which is why most indie authors do it, and definitely why most publishers encourage it...but I'm not even certain that this is the case with Emily Foster. I think she truly believed this romance was worthy of a multi-book series. And I don't question it all.
I just didn't go into this expecting to be reading a continuing story with the same characters. I figured it was the usual, where it's the same town/campus/circle of friends what have you, and in the next book it's a new couple. I had no idea this was a serialized love story or I wouldn't have bothered with it...
...But I'm also happy I didn't know because this first book itself was SO MUCH FUN.
And here's another thing that's weird....I read the preview for book two at the back of book 1 and it looks like the next story will be told either in dual POV with the two MC's or from the male (Charles) POV....and I'm torn about that, too...
Yep. This is super weird for me, Guys. Because normally, I love the male MC's POV most and the female lead (and her POV) irks the shit out of me. In this book however,
It was hilarious being inside Annabelle Coffey's head.
THIS Ana certainly had a Hell of a lot more to say than "Oh crap. Double crap. My inner-goddess, blah, blah, *bites lip*". I'm not sure I'd enjoy reading from Charles' POV. I feel like he'll be the one who gets on my nerves....I dunno....
UGH.
Look, just read this if you want a funny, raunchy, steamy (did I mention funny?) romance novel. One that's complete with a damaged Alpha-hero who needs fixing...and by fixing I mean he has the potential to be a worthy alpha hero....not the fixing all of these "Christian Grey" types need. (Hint: Google Lorena Bobbitt)
I'm only rating this FOUR stars....it would have been FIVE if it had been a complete stand alone, but since it ends on a cliffhanger...
4.0
October 6, 2016
Annabelle "Annie" Coffey is writing her final thesis and with only a few weeks left of term, she propositions her adviser, the postdoctoral fellow at her lab, Dr. Charles Douglas, because she believes they have "A Thing". In a truly embarrassing and painfully awkward scene, handsome British guy Charles gently turns her down, because he is her boss and it would be massively inappropriate for him to sleep with her. Annie is convinced she's not wrong about the chemistry between them, and that she's not misreading the signals between them. She's hoping that were she no longer Charles' student, the situation would be different. So she refuses to give up hope entirely. She will have a month after she graduates, before she goes off to New York to go to medical school and she's determined to spend them with Charles.
Charles agrees, so long as Annie is well and truly no longer his student, they can explore their "Thing". He's initially a bit daunted by the prospect that Annie's a virgin, and a very inexperienced one (in practise, not in theory) at that. With the understanding that their affair is only to last a month and with the goal that when they go their separate ways, they will remain friends, Charles and Annie begin to explore their attraction to one another. Because Annie has never had any sort of sexual encounter with another person before, Charles insists on them spending a whole day on each of the four "bases", before they do the deed, so to speak. He takes his responsibilities as Annie's first lover very seriously, making sure to teach her everything she wants to know about sex, while still being careful to respect her boundaries, even when she's sometimes eager to push them further than before.
Their affair becomes more than a meeting of bodies, it also becomes a meeting of minds, with the two of them being entirely honest about their interests, hopes and fears. That is, Annie is completely truthful and open as a book. As the weeks pass, and Annie grows more attached with every hour spent in Charles' company, it becomes clear that he has not revealed everything about himself and that there is darkness in his past that looks likely to create major hurdles for their joint future.
Before you read any further, it is important that I mention that this book ends on a cliffhanger! There is NO Happily Ever After at the closing of this book. There is a second part, How Not to Let Go coming out in December, and on her blog as Emily Foster, the author suggests that if waiting is a problem, you wait to read the duology until both parts are out. Ms Foster, who also writes non-fiction scientific books under the name Emily Nagoski. She explains on her science blog that she wrote these novels as a response to reading (and being deeply disappointed) by Fifty Shades of Grey. She loves romance because it's pro-woman, pro-sex, pro-pleasure and full of happy endings. Ms Foster/Nagoski felt that E.L. James' book failed at all of those things and really felt betrayed by it.
As a result, Ms. Nagoski set out to write a romance with a virgin college senior (she's 22) experiencing her sexual awakening with an older (he's 26), more experienced, powerful man who treats her with dignity, respect and affection. She calls it a feminist, sex-positive, science-driven erotic romance. Because she normally writes science non-fiction, she was unsure whether she needed a different agent to represent her, but she got the books sold under the name Emily Foster and How Not To Fall is the first part.
There is really a lot of sex in this book. This is very much on the erotica scale of romance, where there are a lot of smexy times, described in a LOT of detail. There are BDSM elements, but I think, as far as these things go, they are fairly light (I have not read a lot of that sub-genre of romance). I still felt that there was a good portion of the book with the characters getting to know each other, and where the reader got to know each of the protagonists, seeing how they could work as a couple.
Both Annie and Charles are huge nerds and there is a fair amount of the book devoted to science and the pursuit thereof. As opposed to a lot of romance, where the prose is very purple, all the body parts are referred to in very scientific names, which I thought made a nice change. I know very little about the field that Annie and Charles are working in, but didn't feel that the scientific parts detracted from the steamy smexy times. Annie is a wonderful narrator, and frequently says and does embarrassing things. To me, she seems extremely open-minded and adventurous in the bedroom, considering she's a virgin, Charles is always the one putting on the breaks. Of course, I have no idea what college era women get up to these days, based on a lot of New Adult, they are certainly getting a lot more action than I ever did.
About two thirds of the way through, the book changes in tone, and becomes a lot darker and more serious, as the secrets of Charles' past are uncovered and it becomes clear that the couple are in for a hard time before they (hopefully, I'll be cranky otherwise) reach their HEA at the end of the next book. Again, because the author seems to have a scientific basis behind the angsty reasons that Charles and Annie will not just have sunshine, puppies and rainbows in their lives, it felt a lot less bothersome to me than in a lot of these novels. There was a very believable theoretical explanation for his behaviour, and I'm looking forward to how the author is going to solve the problems she has thrown in the couple's way.
I liked this a lot, and as it's already October, I'm not too annoyed about the wait for the next book. If cliffhanger endings are a problem for you - wait another few months and read both books at the same time. I will be eagerly awaiting the second instalment.
Judging a book by its cover:A couple kissing passionately in the rain. A perfectly good cover for a romance - except for that pesky (but oh so common) fact that at no point does this scene feature in the novel. I know I'm picky and that it's a silly thing to get annoyed about, but I still am. Annoyed, that it. There are lots of delightful scenes to choose from. Quite a few that don't even involve smexy times. Why not pick one of those?
Charles agrees, so long as Annie is well and truly no longer his student, they can explore their "Thing". He's initially a bit daunted by the prospect that Annie's a virgin, and a very inexperienced one (in practise, not in theory) at that. With the understanding that their affair is only to last a month and with the goal that when they go their separate ways, they will remain friends, Charles and Annie begin to explore their attraction to one another. Because Annie has never had any sort of sexual encounter with another person before, Charles insists on them spending a whole day on each of the four "bases", before they do the deed, so to speak. He takes his responsibilities as Annie's first lover very seriously, making sure to teach her everything she wants to know about sex, while still being careful to respect her boundaries, even when she's sometimes eager to push them further than before.
Their affair becomes more than a meeting of bodies, it also becomes a meeting of minds, with the two of them being entirely honest about their interests, hopes and fears. That is, Annie is completely truthful and open as a book. As the weeks pass, and Annie grows more attached with every hour spent in Charles' company, it becomes clear that he has not revealed everything about himself and that there is darkness in his past that looks likely to create major hurdles for their joint future.
Before you read any further, it is important that I mention that this book ends on a cliffhanger! There is NO Happily Ever After at the closing of this book. There is a second part, How Not to Let Go coming out in December, and on her blog as Emily Foster, the author suggests that if waiting is a problem, you wait to read the duology until both parts are out. Ms Foster, who also writes non-fiction scientific books under the name Emily Nagoski. She explains on her science blog that she wrote these novels as a response to reading (and being deeply disappointed) by Fifty Shades of Grey. She loves romance because it's pro-woman, pro-sex, pro-pleasure and full of happy endings. Ms Foster/Nagoski felt that E.L. James' book failed at all of those things and really felt betrayed by it.
As a result, Ms. Nagoski set out to write a romance with a virgin college senior (she's 22) experiencing her sexual awakening with an older (he's 26), more experienced, powerful man who treats her with dignity, respect and affection. She calls it a feminist, sex-positive, science-driven erotic romance. Because she normally writes science non-fiction, she was unsure whether she needed a different agent to represent her, but she got the books sold under the name Emily Foster and How Not To Fall is the first part.
There is really a lot of sex in this book. This is very much on the erotica scale of romance, where there are a lot of smexy times, described in a LOT of detail. There are BDSM elements, but I think, as far as these things go, they are fairly light (I have not read a lot of that sub-genre of romance). I still felt that there was a good portion of the book with the characters getting to know each other, and where the reader got to know each of the protagonists, seeing how they could work as a couple.
Both Annie and Charles are huge nerds and there is a fair amount of the book devoted to science and the pursuit thereof. As opposed to a lot of romance, where the prose is very purple, all the body parts are referred to in very scientific names, which I thought made a nice change. I know very little about the field that Annie and Charles are working in, but didn't feel that the scientific parts detracted from the steamy smexy times. Annie is a wonderful narrator, and frequently says and does embarrassing things. To me, she seems extremely open-minded and adventurous in the bedroom, considering she's a virgin, Charles is always the one putting on the breaks. Of course, I have no idea what college era women get up to these days, based on a lot of New Adult, they are certainly getting a lot more action than I ever did.
About two thirds of the way through, the book changes in tone, and becomes a lot darker and more serious, as the secrets of Charles' past are uncovered and it becomes clear that the couple are in for a hard time before they (hopefully, I'll be cranky otherwise) reach their HEA at the end of the next book. Again, because the author seems to have a scientific basis behind the angsty reasons that Charles and Annie will not just have sunshine, puppies and rainbows in their lives, it felt a lot less bothersome to me than in a lot of these novels. There was a very believable theoretical explanation for his behaviour, and I'm looking forward to how the author is going to solve the problems she has thrown in the couple's way.
I liked this a lot, and as it's already October, I'm not too annoyed about the wait for the next book. If cliffhanger endings are a problem for you - wait another few months and read both books at the same time. I will be eagerly awaiting the second instalment.
Judging a book by its cover:A couple kissing passionately in the rain. A perfectly good cover for a romance - except for that pesky (but oh so common) fact that at no point does this scene feature in the novel. I know I'm picky and that it's a silly thing to get annoyed about, but I still am. Annoyed, that it. There are lots of delightful scenes to choose from. Quite a few that don't even involve smexy times. Why not pick one of those?
June 9, 2018
I don't even know what to say. I loved this book and I can't believe I missed it when it first came out. I'm going to start reading How Not to Let Go as soon as I get off here. I need more Annie and Charles! And for anyone who said nerds/geeks/brainiacs couldn't be hot or erotic, then you need to pick up this book!
December 24, 2017
The most insidious way to control someone else is to give them everything they want, anything they want, until they can’t stop you from taking what you want.
That is what this book is truly about.
DNF! I just could not finish this book. I started reading it on September 6, 2017 and it is now December 24, 2017 and I have read 14 other books in that time, instead of finishing this one.
If I had known that this book would be nothing but a retelling of 5SoG I never would have picked it up since I hated that book. I have learned my lesson and I will read a lot more reviews with spoilers in them so I don’t end up in this situation again. For those of you who loved FSoG, (seriously, no judgement) you might really like this one too, and should give it a go.
The main character is Annie (short for Annabelle), the male lead Charles. This is very similar to Ana (Anastasia) and Christian), and the fact that Charles calls Annie Miss Coffey, much like Christian calls Ana Miss Steele.
Annie is touted as educated and brainy as hell and has been accepted into doctoral programs at both Harvard and MIT, and the male lead is a post-doctoral fellow who assists the professor in the MC's senior psycho physiology lab.
That may be why I found it especially annoying that this very educated and brainy young woman found it hard to express herself in normal conversation without liberal use of the word “DUDE”.
To illustrate my point these are quotes are just a few of what you will be treated to throughout the book.
“Dude, I have no fucking clue”
“Dude, you were, like, twelve when you were writing your senior thesis”
“Dude, just kiss me”
“Dude, he likes you”
“Because the clock is seriously ticking, dude”
“Dude, I don’t know what that means”
“Dude, you’re a fucking doctor”
“Dude, that is…dude”
Beyond that I found the book very disturbing and abusive. The power dynamic in this relationship is very unbalanced.
Charles is damaged mentally and he has no interest in healing and becoming the best version of himself possible. This makes any relationship with him toxic.
Of course Annie wants to accept him as he is because she likes the monster. I believe that this is in no small part due to the fact that this monster took her virginity and she is completely naïve because she doesn’t have experience with adult relationships.
We all have our own personal comfort level when it comes to romance/erotica and what is acceptable before it crosses a line. Personally I like my romance/erotica to be consensual and about two individuals who engage in an act where both are actively participating, and both are giving and receiving.
The sex scenes were hard to become immersed in because Charles would turn them into classroom time and make Annie answer questions in order to receive sexual pleasure.
For example as Charles is tying Annie to his bed with stockings he says to her, “Please, Miss Coffrey, recite for the class the common types of receptors”. If Annie starts focusing on the pleasure and stops answering his test questions he stops pleasuring her.
It was very distracting for me as the reader and showcased Charles domineering and controlling behavior on this young naïve and inexperienced woman.
For me this book crossed a line. One minute I was reading something that was supposed to be sexy and the next minute all of my warning bells were going off in my head and I felt as though I was reading a crime instead of a love scene.
*You may not want to read farther than this*
This came during the following situation.
Annie was tied up so she could not move, blindfolded so she could not see and had earbuds put in her ears with music playing so she could not hear what was happening in the room. She was completely isolated from Charles and could no longer participate in what happened to her. She was completely at the mercy of Charles.
Over the next several pages, while she is completely naked and prone, while he is fully clothed, he gives her orgasm after orgasm, even when she sobs and even when she is so sensitive she is numb. Charles does not relent and keeps this going over and over for hours. This is supposed to be sexy but in reality being forced to orgasm over and over, even when you are uncomfortable and tired is torture.
In this scene he waits until she is so exhausted and spent that even when he unties her and takes off the blindfold and removes the earbuds she can’t open her eyes because it takes too much effort.
It is at this point when Annie is nothing more than a ragdoll and cannot move her own body that he decides he finally wants to have sex with her. He finally removes his clothes, makes skin on skin contact and has sex with her.
It was very disturbing. Annie is a non-participant. Charles may as well be having sex with Japanese sex doll or a corpse!
Charles is even shocked and says, “Oh my god I can’t believe you let me do that”
The most insidious way to control someone else is to give them everything they want, anything they want, until they can’t stop you from taking what you want.
That is what this book is truly about.
DNF! I just could not finish this book. I started reading it on September 6, 2017 and it is now December 24, 2017 and I have read 14 other books in that time, instead of finishing this one.
If I had known that this book would be nothing but a retelling of 5SoG I never would have picked it up since I hated that book. I have learned my lesson and I will read a lot more reviews with spoilers in them so I don’t end up in this situation again. For those of you who loved FSoG, (seriously, no judgement) you might really like this one too, and should give it a go.
The main character is Annie (short for Annabelle), the male lead Charles. This is very similar to Ana (Anastasia) and Christian), and the fact that Charles calls Annie Miss Coffey, much like Christian calls Ana Miss Steele.
Annie is touted as educated and brainy as hell and has been accepted into doctoral programs at both Harvard and MIT, and the male lead is a post-doctoral fellow who assists the professor in the MC's senior psycho physiology lab.
That may be why I found it especially annoying that this very educated and brainy young woman found it hard to express herself in normal conversation without liberal use of the word “DUDE”.
To illustrate my point these are quotes are just a few of what you will be treated to throughout the book.
“Dude, I have no fucking clue”
“Dude, you were, like, twelve when you were writing your senior thesis”
“Dude, just kiss me”
“Dude, he likes you”
“Because the clock is seriously ticking, dude”
“Dude, I don’t know what that means”
“Dude, you’re a fucking doctor”
“Dude, that is…dude”
Beyond that I found the book very disturbing and abusive. The power dynamic in this relationship is very unbalanced.
Charles is damaged mentally and he has no interest in healing and becoming the best version of himself possible. This makes any relationship with him toxic.
Of course Annie wants to accept him as he is because she likes the monster. I believe that this is in no small part due to the fact that this monster took her virginity and she is completely naïve because she doesn’t have experience with adult relationships.
We all have our own personal comfort level when it comes to romance/erotica and what is acceptable before it crosses a line. Personally I like my romance/erotica to be consensual and about two individuals who engage in an act where both are actively participating, and both are giving and receiving.
The sex scenes were hard to become immersed in because Charles would turn them into classroom time and make Annie answer questions in order to receive sexual pleasure.
For example as Charles is tying Annie to his bed with stockings he says to her, “Please, Miss Coffrey, recite for the class the common types of receptors”. If Annie starts focusing on the pleasure and stops answering his test questions he stops pleasuring her.
It was very distracting for me as the reader and showcased Charles domineering and controlling behavior on this young naïve and inexperienced woman.
For me this book crossed a line. One minute I was reading something that was supposed to be sexy and the next minute all of my warning bells were going off in my head and I felt as though I was reading a crime instead of a love scene.
*You may not want to read farther than this*
This came during the following situation.
Annie was tied up so she could not move, blindfolded so she could not see and had earbuds put in her ears with music playing so she could not hear what was happening in the room. She was completely isolated from Charles and could no longer participate in what happened to her. She was completely at the mercy of Charles.
Over the next several pages, while she is completely naked and prone, while he is fully clothed, he gives her orgasm after orgasm, even when she sobs and even when she is so sensitive she is numb. Charles does not relent and keeps this going over and over for hours. This is supposed to be sexy but in reality being forced to orgasm over and over, even when you are uncomfortable and tired is torture.
In this scene he waits until she is so exhausted and spent that even when he unties her and takes off the blindfold and removes the earbuds she can’t open her eyes because it takes too much effort.
It is at this point when Annie is nothing more than a ragdoll and cannot move her own body that he decides he finally wants to have sex with her. He finally removes his clothes, makes skin on skin contact and has sex with her.
It was very disturbing. Annie is a non-participant. Charles may as well be having sex with Japanese sex doll or a corpse!
Charles is even shocked and says, “Oh my god I can’t believe you let me do that”
The most insidious way to control someone else is to give them everything they want, anything they want, until they can’t stop you from taking what you want.
July 12, 2021
Great guy-who-lost-their-shirt book, especially given that there's no problematic behaviour or anything in here. I like that it's set in academia and that the male protagonist makes ethically sound choices. My only criticism is about the cliche plot towards the end, which got old pretty fast. I'm curious about book 2!
July 31, 2017
This first book in the series is in many ways a quick, sexy, erotica leaning romp with bright scientists dealing with a power and age dynamic. Sexily. At about the two-thirds mark though, the emotional undertone of the story breaks wide open and our main characters, Annie and Charles, are forced to reckon with his demons and her naiveté. They also have to deal with love, and what happens when it cannot be returned even where it exists.
Full Review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/...
Full Review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/...
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February 3, 2016Full disclosure: I was a pre-pub "beta" reader for this novel, so I haven't actually read the final-final version yet. I adore what Emily is seeking to do here with a young adult (college senior) heroine enthusiastically throwing herself into learning her sexual wants and discovering the pleasures and perils of being in an actual real-world relationship where the sex may be fantastic but the emotional shit is a wee bit complicated (or a lot complicated). This book is the first half of the story and ends with a separation, not a happily-ever-after, just to warn y'all. I've read the companion novel and can assure you it all works out. They have a lot of sex about it. And then they stop having sex. And then they start up again. And dig in to make the relationship actually function. They end up in good places.
On a final note, I think it says something about Emily's skill as a writer that I actually don't identify very strongly with either protagonist here. The heroine frustrates me and her lover is way more into being the dude equivalent of a stone butch than works for me. AND YET I STILL CARE. I still want it to work for them. So pleased this is finally going "live" in the world of romance fiction. \o/
On a final note, I think it says something about Emily's skill as a writer that I actually don't identify very strongly with either protagonist here. The heroine frustrates me and her lover is way more into being the dude equivalent of a stone butch than works for me. AND YET I STILL CARE. I still want it to work for them. So pleased this is finally going "live" in the world of romance fiction. \o/
December 29, 2021
This was recommended to me as a readalike for The Love Hypothesis, and it does have a lot in common with it - scientific/academic setting, relationship between a student and someone with a more senior role (both books careful to point out how the relationship is not an abuse of power), virginal heroines, men with difficult family lives. So yes, but also no for two big reasons: 1) this doesn’t have a traditional HEA, although the sequel might and 2) this has a LOT of sex. So much, so varied, so graphically described. I think probably counts as erotica romance - there’s plenty of character and plot stuff going on as well, but as the kids would says, this is 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
October 18, 2022
Oh-ho, yes. Sexy, sexy science. Gimme gimme.
I’m indebted to Ashley (still no Goodreads tagging?) for commenting on a review so this appeared in my feed. More like this, please. And yay for the sequel being here soon.
I’m indebted to Ashley (still no Goodreads tagging?) for commenting on a review so this appeared in my feed. More like this, please. And yay for the sequel being here soon.
September 16, 2018
I stand corrected.... The characters are very well developed and the inspiration in "50 shades of grey" is obvious. Seeing from this perspective one can perceive the imbecility and carelessness of some parts of the "50 shades" plot.
Very gratifying to read.
Very gratifying to read.
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