ARC Provided by PRH International 

Author: Lyla Sage

@prhinternational #PRHInternationalPartner

When I read Soul Searching, our intro to the Cartwright twins who can speak to the dead, I was hooked. Sweetwater Peak was a charming and very strange town. I loved Collins and her free spirit and I was very intrigued by her twin, Clarke. 

Clarke is the more ‘subdued’ of the twins. She’s also never fully embraced ‘the gift’ (I might say she even considers it a curse). We see her now taking care of Toades, the family’s antique emporium. She’s overwhelmed with everything: she has to fix the store, she’s at odds with her mom and her sister is off to with her new beau. Plus her best friend left town. To make things worse, the ghosts don’t care and one in particular wants to make sure she relays a message… to her teenage crush no less. 

Leith Wilkes had no idea that a cryptic “you have to read the fine print in your dad’s will” message from his long time crush Clarke would kickstart a need to find a wife or lose the farm he’s spent his life preparing to take over to his obnoxious uncle. So, the obvious step is to ask Clarke to his fake date/fiancée, right?

If you come to these books from Lyla’s cowboy romances, you’ll be disappointed. They have a completely different ice and I am all for it. What you get: a lonely, vulnerable heroine who just needed to be seen, a hero who’s been pining for her since he pulled her pigtails in kindergarten, mutual pining, meddling ghosts, twin sister bonds, stepping up for a cousin and treating her like your own kid, fake dating that turns real fast, awful relatives who want to harm a whole town for personal gain, finding a way out of a big pickle and figuring out that you loved each other all along. 

I would strongly suggest reading Soul Searching to fully enjoy Free Falling as it will give you the background story of the twin sisters and what’s been going on with the town. 

Though I enjoyed it, I really wanted to see Clarke embracing her gifts more by the end of the book. It felt a little like a loose end. 

Representation: queer secondary character

Content notes (including but not limited to): mentions of loss of parent;  child abandonment; depression