Rebecca Raine

My mind is not overflowing with words like it often is after reading a book I have thoroughly enjoyed, but I feel I can't really move on to my next literary adventure until I've said something.

This book was a surprise. I wasn't expecting what I got, but it was unexpected in the best of ways. I'm not a cold person but it generally takes a talented author to bring out the more intense emotions, and it doesn't happen often. I'm glad to say The Harder We Fall was a beautiful exception.

Numerous show more times, as I read, I found myself sniffling and wiping tears from my eyes. During my last 90 minutes or so of reading, I wound up with a pile of tissues next to me. Since that hardly ever happens, it's worth noting when it does, and I simply had to let anyone who reads this review know that while this was my first book by this author, it won't be my last.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, and everything I look for in a story about loss, love, and healing, this is a book that deserves to be read. show less

If I want to be completely honest, I must say that I was bothered by Sean and Dante's relationship timeline. The kiss happened 8 years ago, the failed reunion happened 3 years later and 5 years after that the main story began. I didn't like the first couple of chapters that we like an extended prologue. I am not a huge fan of that kind of storytelling and I can't fault the author for writing that since most of the readers usually appreciate it. Another thing that bothered me is that Sean show more always seemed to be dating someone when he was meeting Dante after their first encounter and I am not a fan of that.

Dante is hiding in his closet for a very long time which is sad. He is in the closet for some part of the book too and that led to the two of them running circles around each other for a while. This is my first M/M book after an eon and I was really looking forward to it, but in the end, I can't say that I was satisfied. I feel like Sean could do better and find someone who would give him everything he deserves. In my opinion, Dante was a little late on starting doing that. I never doubted Sean's feelings and in Dante's case, I found myself asking if Dante knew Grey in a deep level. That's why I am giving 3-stars to the book. On the bright side, I had no trouble finishing the book and I enjoyed some parts of it. I hope that Gabrielle will be the heroine of the 2nd book and she will have the two men mentioned in this book. If that happens I will definitely read book 2. show less

This was alright. I liked the research/experiment aspect but the romance was kind of iffy and it was way too long. Logan was okay but I didn't really have any strong feelings for him. He was pretty self-aware which was kind of ironic since Patrick was kind of dumb. For all Patrick's a PHD psychology student, he has no clue about people and he's not too aware of himself for all his say so. I mean it was pretty obvious he was into guys. The root of the sick feeling he gets was pretty bloody show more obvious as well. For someone who prides himself on knowing himself and being authentic - he failed to see the blatantly obvious - that he had a traumatic experience and all subsequent experiences lacked trust. The romance between him and Logan drags though. It races ahead and the slows down and then just stalls and I didn't care enough about either of them to move past it.

I did like the idea of Patrick's PHD research into the concept of living authentically and owning your truth though. The idea of a framework that individuals could use to explore and use to find answers to those questions was interesting. And I liked the conclusions he came to namely asking himself who he would choose to be if he wasn't afraid? If nothing else, finding that gem made reading this worth it. 2.5 stars. show less

I grabbed an ARC of this, not really sure if I would enjoy and wow it was great!

Patrick is so analytical and his thought processes on life, love and his experiment are wonderfully written!

Logan and his realisation that he wants Patrick and he will be his experiment partner.

I really enjoyed this read, the conclusions the experiment reached and Patrick's understanding of himself!