Review: Falling into You & Falling into Forever by Lauren Abrams

Falling into You & Falling into Forever

Author: Lauren Abrams

Publication Date: January 10, 2013

When Hallie Caldwell, normal girl extraordinaire, perpetual wingwoman, and queen of the friend zone, accepts her college roommate's invitation to spend winter break in New York, she figures it’s a chance to live out her childhood fantasies of a life in the big city. Instead, thrust into a world of glittering parties and oversized bank accounts, she immediately feels like an outsider. Chris Jensen’s Hollywood agent keeps telling him that he’ll be the next big star, just as long as he gets the lead role in the reboot of a classic action franchise. When he returns to New York after a two-year absence, he has other things on his mind—his dying father, an irate sister, and the beautiful, seductive, infuriating, and ruthless Sophia Pearce. He's not exactly thrilled when she asks him to be her roommate's tour guide, but he reluctantly agrees. When Hallie and Chris meet, they're irresistibly drawn to each other. However, Chris’s meteoric rise to stardom and long-suppressed secrets from Hallie’s past threaten to destroy their tenuous connection, and each is forced to examine whether happy endings are nothing but a Hollywood fantasy.

Publication Date: April 18, 2013

Seven years after losing her heart to the devastatingly handsome Chris Jensen during a chance meeting on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Hallie Caldwell once again finds herself in New York. Haunted by personal tragedy, she’s trying to pick up the pieces of her once-idyllic life. 

Chris has become a bona fide movie star who’s managed to find satisfaction in his glamorous lifestyle. However, when he and Hallie meet again, he’s determined to atone for the past and to carve out a new future.

In this sequel to Falling into You, both Chris and Hallie are forced to examine what happens when life intrudes on fairy tale endings and whether love really can conquer all.

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Falling into You and Falling into Forever was a really heart-warming and heart-wrenching love story. Hallie and Chris had a relationship full of ups and downs and I couldn't help but repeatedly root for them to be together no matter how many times one of them screws up.

I really liked Hallie a lot. She was very down to earth and not afraid to speak her mind. She knew who she was and who she wanted to be and she never tried to change herself for anyone, even Chris. The only thing that bothered me about her was how she ran when things got tough instead of fighting. In Falling into You, she ran from Chris when things got real and left him confused and broken. In Falling into Forever, she did the same thing, running instead of fighting for love. I really liked Chris too, though he pissed me off each time he broke Hallie's heart. He was arrogant and cocky but in an entertaining way and he really did love Hallie. He made questionable decisions, acted without thinking, but I never questioned his love for Hallie, even when he was being a jack ass. 

I loved their whirlwind romance in Falling into You and the amazing connection that they found in each other. They were from two different worlds but they had this immediate spark that ignited this powerful love affair. I think they were both afraid of falling for each other so quickly and they both made mistakes and hurt each other but in the end, their feelings for each other were more powerful than anything. 

Falling into Forever was heart-wrenching for me because so many unknown things had happened with Chris and Hallie between the end of Falling into You and Falling into Forever. With 7 years past, it is clear that they have been apart for a while but the reasons for their separation are unknown. As they reconnect, the plot temporarily jumps to the past every once and a while to give us a little taste of what happened between them. I could not put this book down, if only for those little snippets because I HAD to know what went wrong with them. The downfall between Chris and Hallie had me heartbroken and I didn't know if they would be able to recover from what had happened when they reconnected. So many things had changed putting unbelievable obstacles in their way.

I really enjoyed the plot of each book and the overall story line of the books. I found Falling into You to be a little predictable, but not in a bad way. However, Falling into Forever left me on the edge of my seat with anticipation. I had to know what had happened, if they could find their way back to each other and how it would all end. I felt like the ending was rushed a little. There was so much depth in the beginning and middle of the plot but then the end was rushed. Even so, I was satisfied with the overall conclusion. I really enjoyed the author's writing and the development of the characters. I could really feel their emotions and connect with them well. Definitely an excellent debut for Lauren Abrams.

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Favorite Quotes:

"I don't know if it's possible to ever be who you really are. It seems to me that the characters you play are just as much a part of you as anything else." ~Hallie (Falling into You by Lauren Abrams)

"I wouldn't exactly call myself a girl anymore, Chris." "Fine. Shriveled-up hag then?" ~Hallie & Chris (Falling into Forever by Lauren Abrams)

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Sources

Synopsis: Goodreads

Cover Photo: Goodreads