Dare to Fall - Estelle Maskame

Author: Estelle Maskame
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary, Romance,
Release Date: 27 July 2017
Publisher: Black & White Publishing

MacKenzie Rivers seems like she has it all figured out. She has great friends, she s doing well in school and her handsome ex-boyfriend is desperate to win her back. But something is missing from her life in Windsor, Colorado. And as much as she hates to admit it, that something might be Jaden Hunter. Tall, blond and athletic, a year ago Kenzie was falling fast for him and his crooked smile.

Twelve months later, everything has changed. A tragic accident has destroyed Jaden's family and, despite the way she feels, Kenzie has no idea how to talk to him anymore. She is all too familiar with the impact family tragedy can have on the people she loves, and she can’t bear to go through it again with Jaden. She does the only thing she knows how to do: walk away.

When the pair meet again by chance one night, Kenzie realizes that she can’t ignore her feelings for him any longer. But as she is drawn back into Jaden's life, she finds herself caught between her increasingly volatile best friend, her interfering ex-boyfriend and her own fears about opening up to Jaden.
​
Will Kenzie dare to fall for the one person she’s so afraid of growing close to?

Do you know that age old saying ‘never judge a book by its cover?’

I’m afraid to say, that’s exactly what I did. I was at the airport, waiting for my flight to be called and as tradition, I bought a book to take with me on the flight. This book caught my eye from across the room because the cover is just so beautiful and I hoped I felt for the story, what I did for the cover.

A year ago, Mackenzie had it all. She was doing well at school, had amazing friends and was slowly starting to build something with the tall, blonde, athletic Jaden Hunter. Then tragedy hit’s Jaden’s family and Kenzie pushes him away.

Now, realising she can’t deny her feelings for him any longer, she attempts to reconnect, not just with him, but with all the people she pushed away. However, not everyone is willing to make amends.

So I really, really wanted to love this book and I was heartbroken when I got to the end and just felt nothing.

I couldn’t relate to any of the characters and spent the majority of it not liking Kenzie. How could she abandon Jaden at a time when he needed her the most? I just don’t understand the logic behind that. Even when her reasons where explained, I really did try to see it from her point of view, but just didn’t feel her reasons were valid enough. I also wasn’t overly impressed with how quickly everyone seemed to forgive Kenzie and forget her leaving. I’m not saying they were wrong to forgive her, it just felt rushed.

I also felt there were too many storylines taking place all at once and at times it was a little confusing trying to remember everything that had happened. You have Kenzie’s relationship with her mother, Jaden, her ex-best friend, her two current best friends and her ex-boyfriend all rolled into one story. It was a lot to take in. Everyone’s problems all seemed to get resolved about five pages after they happened which was completely unrealistic.

The one thing that saved this book for me, even though I guessed it half way through, was the twist at the end.

I felt like this book had the potential to be truly amazing but sort of fell short. I’d still like to give this book 3/5 stars because although I haven’t read them, I know the DIMILY series has a really strong following and I feel they would appreciate this book more than I did.