Before We Fall by Courtney Cole

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Before We Fall by Courtney Cole

Before We Fall (Beautifully Broken, #3)

by: Courtney Cole
My Rating: five-stars



Published by: Forever on December 3rd 2013
ISBN: 145555085X

Pages: 336



Synopsis

Sometimes, one dark moment is all it takes to turn your world black...


For 24-year old Dominic Kinkaide, that moment took place on the night of his high school graduation. One dark incident changed him forever. He's a hardened actor now, famous in the eyes of the world, but tortured in his own. He doesn't care about much of anything, except for losing himself in the roles that he plays.


23-year old Jacey Vincent doesn't realize how much her father's indifference has affected her. She is proof that sometimes it isn't one specific moment that wrecks a person, but rather it's an absence of moments. She's like a bird with a broken wing-strong yet fragile, as she tries to float through life, finding acceptance in the arms of random guys, one after the other... to fill the void that her father left in her.


Until she meets Dominic.


After jaded Dominic and strong-willed Jacey are thrown together, his secret and her issues create a dark and damaged energy that will soon turn their attraction to each other into an explosive storm.

Even though when the clouds have cleared and the dust has settled, both of them are almost obliterated... they've learned a priceless lesson.


Sometimes, before we fall... we fly.






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Before We Fall is the first of Ms. Cole’s work I’ve read. So, obviously, it’s the first of the “Beautifully Broken Series” I’ve read. Luckily, even though the book is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone. Since I’d never read this author’s work before I wasn’t sure what to expect…and well, I was a little surprised by what I got. To be honest, I’m glad I DIDN’T know about some situations in the book before I read it because I may have passed on it—and that would have been a shame, because it’s a good book.

 

So, let me start my review by saying outright that I LIKED the book. I liked it enough that I will probably read more of Ms. Cole’s writing in the future. So when you read the rest of my review remember: I liked the book. In fact, I “really liked” the book.

 

Dominic. He’s our male lead. Dark, tortured, demon chased and, of course, sex on a stick. He has a little bit of a taboo sex life. In his words, “I like to watch.” And watch he does. On a few occasions. He watches straight sex, lesbian sex and an orgy. Hmm, some of that pushed my boundaries a little. The scenes were written tastefully, but with enough oomph that you had no problem understanding where hands were and what they were doing when they got there…if you know what I mean. Yeah. That goes for other body parts too…just sayin’.

 

Okay, now don’t read that and think, “Um, yeah, that’s not my type of thing.” Maybe not, but remember: I liked the book. So keep reading…

 

Jacey is the girl who rides in on her white horse to fix our tortured Dominic. Now this is where the book lost me just a little (Okay, notice I didn’t say that about the sex part? Not sure what that says about me…moving on). I liked Jacey for the first three-quarters of the book. She’s strong, independent and mouthy. But she’s screwed-up. Not to the degree that Dominic is, but she’s a screw-up and has effed-up her life pretty good. She says she has trouble picking the “right” guy, she’s still trying to get over her last boyfriend (who’s now in jail), and on and on. Okay, I can handle all that. She’s messed up. Aren’t we all? I LIKED that about her. She was relatable. Then toward the end of the book, about the last quarter, she has some type of epiphany and all of a sudden she starts spouting off truisms like she just received her doctorate degree in psychology. Whoa…is this the same screw-up we’ve been reading about? It was a complete 180 and totally unbelievable. If Jacey’s “help” had been toned down a little I think the last part of the book would have worked much better.

 

The writing was done well. I liked Ms. Cole’s style. But, adverbs, let me count thee. Oh, there were so many—from wolfishly, limply, curiously, sheepishly, ETC—I thought many of her sentences would have been stronger without the dreaded “ly” words, but that’s my own preference (I’m not sure what “smiling wolfishly” looks like). But the use of the many adverbs didn’t impact the storyline, which was excellent, although it did sometimes pull me out of the story. Pacing was good and character development, other than mentioned above, was well done. Although I do think Dominic’s character had a monumental change at the end of the book, which was called for to a certain extent, but it was done too quickly, otherwise, I loved the characters. Some of the secondary characters were well developed and added to the storyline in a productive way, which I always like to see.

 

I loved the twist ending. I didn’t see it coming, which I am usually really good at guessing. I had some of the pieces, but the puzzle wasn’t together when the ending was sprung on me. So I was excited to find a book that was able to surprise me with the ending.

 

Bottom line: Even with the darker side of some of the sexual situations (18 years and above only, puhleese) “Before We Fall” was a well-written, well thought-out story, and had a nice surprise ending as the cherry on top. A nice surprise from an author I’d never read before. I will look for more of Courtney Cole’s work in the future.

About Courtney Cole

Courtney Cole is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could.

She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds.

Courtney was born and raised in rural Kansas, but has since migrated south. She now lives in Florida and writes beneath palm trees.

Michelle
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