RITA Reader Challenge Review

Worth the Fall by Caitie Quinn

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by Taffygrrl. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Mid-Length Contemporary category.

The summary:

Kasey Lane is having a bad week.

Understatement.

Her idea of success never involved losing her job, man, and apartment in 24-hours. Now, with nowhere to go and no way to pay for it anyway, Kasey decides it’s time for a fresh start, which means a new apartment, a new career, and…no men.

But as a magnet for ridiculousness and absurd brushes with the law, her start goes from fresh to stale in record time. It doesn’t help that Mr. Wrong keeps showing up during her adventures gone awry and taking over. Now, as Kasey plans her way to independence she has to decide if the only path to success is going it alone…or if maybe a partner in crime can make the journey sweeter.

Here is Taffygrrl's review:

My reading taste sits squarely in the historical capital city of Almackistan. I don’t read contemporaries and I’ve never been interested in buying one. But when I saw Caitie Quinn’s Worth The Fall needed a reviewer, I decided to get a little out of my comfort zone. I figured that, given my distaste for contemporaries, I could give it the sort of distanced, intellectual review that a blog like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books deserves.

Sorry, guys, that’s not going to happen. I loved this book. I loved it with the same kind of love with which I love blanket forts, chocolate chip cookies and fuzzy Muppet-fur slippers. It reads like a Parks and Rec coffeeshop AU fanfic written by Darynda Jones. Translation: totally my kryptonite. I’ve got exactly zero emotional distance. I regret to inform you that this review may contain gushing.

The story begins immediately after Kasey Lane’s boyfriend drops a bomb during what Kasey thought was a romantic dinner – he’s dumping her. He’s dumping her the day after she got laid off from her job and two days before she was supposed to move in with him. In short order, Jason proves himself to be an asshole of the highest order, and Kasey gets vengeance. First she pours a bottle of expensive Bordeaux over his head, to the applause of the dining room, then she walks out of the restaurant and lets the air out of the tires of his BMW. Jason, the ex, may seem cartoonishly dickish to some. In my case, he was a dead ringer for an ex of mine (Josh, couldn’t you have waited a week after I got laid off to dump me?), so watching Kasey get her revenge was fantasy fulfillment.

When Jason sees his flat tires, he calls the cops on Kasey; one arrives, assesses the situation and explains to Jason “You’re an asshole of the highest order,” only with more words and a garnish of “Stop wasting my time or I’ll arrest you.” Kasey immediately likes the cop, the cop seems to take a shine to Kasey, and I’m clearly an idiot because I didn’t figure out yet that the cop was Kasey’s HEA.

That’s just the first 15 pages, kids. This is a book where things HAPPEN.

Kasey didn’t bring enough cab fare to get home and winds up stranded at a coffee shop called the Brew Ha Ha. The coffee shop owner and his girlfriend discover that Kasey is jobless and will be homeless at the end of the month, and like a fairy godmother/godfather couple find her a beautiful sublet in a neighborhood called The Village. Through them, Kasey, whose controlling ex-boyfriend slowly but surely cut her off from all her friends, finds herself with a ready-made friends group. And wouldn’t you know it, one of those friends is Officer Max Darby, the police officer who took her side when she let the air out of Jason’s tires.

This story is single point of view – Kasey’s – and as a result we don’t get to know Max as well as we would if we tapped into his inner monologue. We discover his facets as Kasey does, and he’s constantly full of new surprises. He’s a muscular cop who feels no need to prove his masculinity; he’s as comfortable on the dance floor or in the kitchen as he is in uniform. His is a quieter, more thoughtful masculinity that does not aggressively conform to a stereotypical gender role.

There are two other couples in the book as well as numerous other side characters. I assume that each couple got together in previous stories in the series. I know that in some series jumping in the middle can leave you lost. But Kasey’s as new to all of these people as the reader is. The reader gets the sense that all of these characters are well-rounded and interesting in their own right. In many books the secondary characters exist only to further the story of the main character; in this book the secondary characters really seemed like they were having entire lives outside of the main plot line.

And this brings up one (incredibly minor) complaint about the book; I wanted to see Kasey interact more with all of her new friends, as well as the old friend from her hometown that appears later in the book. The book takes place over what seems to be two weeks at most; I would have enjoyed seeing the story drawn out over months and at least 50 more pages. But I think that’s a sign of how good this was. I liked all the characters and I wanted to hang out with them more.

Some of the things that happen to Kasey are rom-com clichés, but the reason that things become clichés is that they’re effective. None of them felt tired here; all of them felt earned. The author also has a good grasp of the steps it will take for Kasey to launch an independent marketing and web design business. If success comes a little too easily to Kasey I’m willing to handwave that because, hello, romantic fiction and I was really rooting for something to go well for her.

The obstacles that prevent Max and Kasey from initially getting together are completely reasonable within the context of the story. Kasey realizes early on that she’d let Jason control her life and diminish her self-confidence. She’s not even sure who she is or what she likes anymore. She can’t figure out quite how she let it happen, but she’s determined never to let it happen again. Her bad relationship seems to confirm all the warnings her mother, who also had an emotionally destroying relationship, has given her about men. Kasey is convinced that if she is going to have a good relationship it’s not going to happen for a long time and it can’t happen with a strong man. She’s so determined to prove her independence to herself and the world that she keeps pushing everyone to arm’s length, fearing that accepting assistance is a sign that she’s falling back into unhealthy patterns.

Max, meanwhile, is recovering from a terrible breakup. He’s an alpha but not an alp-hole; he’s the guy who will carry both your groceries and you up the stairs when you’re too sore from the gym to make it further than the stoop, and then use those groceries to make you a gourmet dinner. Max is the alpha as nurturer.

But Kasey is so anxious about figuring out who she really is, so desperate to stand on her own two feet, that she perceives any attempt to help or nurture as an effort to command and control. Every time Max tries to do something for her, she’s reminded of how Jason sucked her in and she rebels. It’s an issue that makes perfect sense, but it also frustrates Max. As he says,

Show Spoiler
“Courtesy is not the same thing as controlling.”

Just as the conflict between Max and Kasey does not feel forced, the resolution feels natural. The tension lasts as long as it needs to, and the characters work things out at exactly the right time. I would have liked to get to see more of them after they worked out their conflict, but I guess that’s what the next book is for.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read everything Caitie Quinn’s ever written.

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Worth the Fall by Caitie Quinn

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  1. CC says:

    Fab review, thank you!

  2. This review makes me want to go out and read this right now! Especially that you don’t typically read contemporaries. I also like single POV romance and like to see more of it 🙂

  3. OK, just bought it. The ebook is only $3.99 🙂
    Reviews really work!

  4. Rebecca says:

    Just read the sample on Amazon and am still in the dark about whether “the Village” is supposed to be in New York City or not. There are references to “trains” which is how I’d describe a subway, but five blocks from a metro stop in New York does not equal “the middle of nowhere.” (Nor do restaurants with valet parking exist anywhere in Manhattan due to space restrictions. Nor would a twenty minute walk be considered “long” here, regardless of the weather.) Does this book partake of the TV trope “Canada Does Not Exist”? It read like “generic city” by someone who’s never lived in one.

  5. Wench says:

    WELP adding this to the to-read list! As another denizen of Almackistan (which, LOL FOREVER but so true), I do not read many contemporaries, but I have taken a few enjoyable vacations to their capital of Todayisthedayburg. Sounds like I am about due for another.

  6. WOW! Thanks so much for doing such a well-written, well-thought out review. I’m so glad you enjoyed Kasey and Max’s story. It’s near and dear to my heart because several of my girlfriends have gone through some less than classy breakups. It’s amazing that, when it comes to dating, truth does seem to always end up being stranger than fiction.

    So sorry Josh looked like Jason…maybe we should stay away from J guys.

    As for where it takes place — BOSTON! The Village is a slightly made up neighborhood between two well-known ones. A couple locals have called me on it since I tried to stay just vague enough to protect the innocent locales 😉

    Thanks to everyone taking a chance on my little story. I never expected all the love it’s been getting this year.

    kk,
    Bria, who is also sometimes Caitie.

  7. Ooh, this sounds like fun! As a fellow inhabitant of Almackistan, I am looking forward to taking this little trip to a different holiday destination…

  8. jaymzangel says:

    You had me at ‘Parks and Rec coffeeshop AU fanfic written by Darynda Jones’ annnnnndddddddddd one-clicked.

  9. DianeN says:

    Just gotta say that if the book itself is as well written as this review is, it’s a lock to win the Rita. Best of luck, Caitie, and please, Taffygrrl, can we get another review or two, maybe something from Almackistan??

  10. LauraL says:

    Ahhh, Taffygirl, you must be careful. Worth the Fall could be the gateway to a small town/neighborhood contemporary relocation. As a former full time resident of Almackistan, I now have a second home in Todayisthedayburg. Bought Susan Mallery’s Three Little Words at Target on a whim a few years ago. Today my workday can’t end soon enough so I can start Maria Geraci’s new one, That Man of Mine.

    Thanks for the delightful review!

  11. Cait says:

    LOVED the review and loved the book. Literally laugh out loud snarfing kind of funny at times and it gave me butterflies as well, which I love. I finished it aaaaaaaand then one-clicked and glommed ALL of Bria/Caitie’s books. Sigh, I love them so. Thank you for the introduction I wouldn’t normally have gotten.

  12. Taffygrrl says:

    Thank you all for all the kind words! Bria/Catie, you nailed the Boston description in it; I actually commented that it seemed like Boston in an earlier draft of the review. Wench, I’m totally stealing Todayisthedayburg for some future piece of writing.

  13. KB says:

    I am super late on this but great review!! Added that book to my list. The part about Parks and Rec fanfic written by Darynda Jones would have sold me on it if nothing else did! Awesome.

  14. Chris K says:

    I bought this book because of this review and I loved it! I read the first in the series which is just a tiny novella and the third book which is also wonderful. I haven’t read dialogue like that in a long time. I was literally laughing out loud while reading them!!!

  15. […] Read Entire Review at Smart Bitches Trashy Books […]

  16. jw says:

    > one arrives, assesses the situation and explains to Jason “You’re an asshole of the highest order,” only with more words and a garnish of “Stop wasting my time or I’ll arrest you.”

    AUGHHHHH THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS THOUGH.

    Great review, but this would bother me forever because just like it’s not okay to beat someone up if they are a shit SO (or you think they are), this is really, really not okay. Like imagine if she was the asshole breaking up with her boyfriend in this situation and he dumped alcohol on her and then let out the air to her tires, that would be scary as fuck. (I’m sure there would be a cadre of dudes who would be like “yeah show that bitch her place” but they would be considered assholes, no?)

    I don’t want to be the fun police but this is actually really scary and violent behavior and it bothers me that it’s something that’s applauded and normalized.

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