It's All in How You Fall by Sarah Henning

Book Review

Title: It’s All in How You Fall by Sarah Henning

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I will be the first to hold my hands up and say that I am not a fan of contemporary books especially contemporary romance but over the last year that has been slowly changing. The opening to It’s All in How You Fall was interesting as we are introduced to a teenage gymnast, Caroline Kepler who has three competitive beam wins under her belt and chronic back pain to go with it and at only 15 she is seeking medical advice about it. Her doctor’s advice is for her to retire but she isn’t willing to do that because gymnastics is her life but when she falls in practice revealing a potential permanent injury to her spine she is forced to retire bringing her whole life crashing down around her. I get Caroline’s passion for the sport and how much she has devoted to it but the way she was injured was completely her fault since she knew her father and coach were going to get her to retire and she was showing off so it was hard to sympathise towards her and I feeling that she is going to become really snippy with people because she can’t have what she wants and I am wary at the moment but the premise was good.

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As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Caroline isn’t adjusting well to not being able to be a gymnast anymore and she has spent weeks moping around the house and continuing her routine as best she can. Her father and brother, Nat are being to get concerned and want her to do something else even if it is just temporary to get her out of the funk she is in. Caroline fights this as hard as she can since she firmly believes that she is nothing without gymnastics but when she bumps into Nat’s best friend, Alex Zavala things begin to change. Alex initially doesn’t know about what happened to Caroline but when he does find out he makes it his mission to help her any way he can. He proposes that he will coach her in different sports since she doesn’t know how to do anything except gymnastic and he does a bit of everything and surprisingly Caroline agrees to this. The first sport is volleyball and he explains how gymnastic has given her an advantage in the sport despite her being short in height and she seems to enjoy learning about it and developing some skill, although the biggest thing for her is being able to do it without pain. There is some level of attraction between Alex and Caroline but nothing major right now since they are friends and have known each other for years so I think the attraction with feel more organic than it does it in a lot of young adult contemporary novels.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Caroline realises after their volleyball lesson that Alex has a crush on her fellow gymnast and friend, Sunny so as repayment for teaching her different sports she offers to orchestrate interactions between him and Sunny since they don’t go to the same school anymore and he agrees. Despite, this Sunny and Peregrine seem to think that Caroline has a thing for Alex since they didn’t hang out much before but she clears this up really quickly. So far, there aren’t any indications that Alex and Caroline are going to end up together but if they do I don’t want it to be rushed. The second sport Alex introduces Caroline to is tennis which is his personal best and he begins to notice some interesting things about how she easily adapts to different situations and seems to be genuinely suited to playing sports like volleyball and tennis. While Alex isn’t sure what sport he is going to introduce her to next as he needs to think about it we do see a really solid friendship building between the pair and I wouldn’t be upset if it stayed this way as I feel there is distinct lack of young adult and adult contemporary novels that focus on male/female friendship rather than relationships and I honestly want to see more of it.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Caroline decides to enlist Peregrine’s help in setting up Alex and Sunny and they engineer another meeting without telling Sunny or Alex and it doesn’t go as well as planned since Caroline and Alex are running for their third sport. On the way back Alex asks Caroline to warn him the next time she is arranging a meeting with Sunny since he came prepared to hang out with her and was blindsided by the meeting a little and she agrees. At the lake house, Sunny clocks on that something is going on but she believes there is something going on between Alex and Caroline. All three girls talk and Caroline ends up confessing that Alex has a crush on Sunny and she eventually agrees to give her number to Alex which is amazing news for Caroline. However, at the Fourth of July fireworks display Caroline runs into Alex and they end up chatting and we can see the romantic tension between them building and Alex seems less than pleased about receiving Sunny’s number but he doesn’t say anything about it. He also tells Caroline that their fourth sport is golf which is unusual since it’s normally an older man’s game but she is willing to give it a go.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, Caroline and Alex play golf and it is here that she comes to realise that she does have a crush on Alex and this is hard because she has been trying to set him up with Sunny and she can’t hurt her friend like that and she isn’t sure that Alex feels that way about her yet. After golf they play a little tennis before heading out for some food and this only solidifies Caroline’s crush on Alex now she is fully aware of it despite trying to hide it and their interactions from everyone around her. Alex suggests that Caroline try out for the tennis club and some junior tournaments since she seems to like the sport and it doesn’t hurt her back to play and she is strongly considering it despite there still being a few sports for them to try out. After getting home, Nat corners Caroline asking about Alex and what they do together since he as well as others seems to believe there is something going on between them and she explains the situation to him but he seems to be the classic overprotective brother who doesn’t want his best friend and sister getting together even though it is becoming clear that they will eventually it is just a question of how. I was a little disappointed since Alex and Caroline have a really good friendship and it could have been amazing without the romance but I will just have to see how the romance plays out in the final 20% or so of the novel.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Caroline knows she feels something for Alex but doesn’t say anything as he has arranged a date with Sunny and she doesn’t want to hurt her friend. However, while she is over Alex’s house helping him understand gymnastics which is a big part of Sunny’s life she breaks down over her accident and the pair almost kiss before they are interrupted by Nat and Alex’s sister, LJ. Nat ends up talking with Caroline about it when they go home and she admits she has feelings for Alex which Nat is surprisingly ok with but he has a date with Sunny and she doesn’t want to come between them but she continues training with Alex. At their next training session he presents her with an entry form of a tournament which she doesn’t feel ready for yet but Alex is there to help her. We can obviously see there is attraction between them but neither of them is saying anything and Alex does end up going on a date with Sunny but neither Sunny or Alex mention anything about it even when they are asked which makes me think it didn’t go as well as planned or something else happened but I don’t know. Coming into the final part of the book I didn’t know how it was going to end, whether it was going to be happy or bittersweet but I couldn’t wait to find out.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, everything comes together in the best possible way not only in the relationship sense but in a sporting sense as well. I really liked the experience of watching Caroline find a new sport she loves as well as everything that comes along with it as well as developing her relationship with Alex and seeing how they each move forward in their own way. While I didn’t really like Caroline at the beginning of the novel she really grew on me throughout the book and by the end I loved her as much as I loved Alex. Found the relationship to be far more organic than in a lot of young adult novels and the emotional process Caroline goes through after her accident is completely realistic and believable. I don’t normally enjoy young adult contemporary novels especially those that are romance heavy but there were a lot of sporting and competitive elements that really balance that out in this novel. I haven’t yet checked out any of Sarah Henning’s fantasy novels but I am going to after finish this. While it wasn’t out of this world amazing, it was a really solid read with excellent writing and some very well fleshed out characters.

Buy it here:

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com