Series: Sweet Home #2 (full reading order below)
Audiobook Publication Date: October 4th 2016
Length: 10 hours and 40 minutes
Narrated by: Stephanie Bentley
Links: Audible • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
Source: I received an audiobook in exchange for an honest review
From the USA Today best-selling Sweet Home series, comes Sweet Fall; a tale of heartache, beating the odds, and finding strength in the most unlikeliest of places.
We all have secrets.
Secrets well buried.
Until we find the one soul who makes the burden of such secrets just that little bit easier to bear.
Lexington “Lexi” Hart is a senior at the University of Alabama. Surrounded by her best friends, her loving family, and having fulfilled her life-long dream of making the Crimson Tide cheer squad, everything is going exactly as she always dreamed it would. But beneath her happy exterior, demons lurk, threatening to jeopardize everything Lexi has worked to achieve.
When events in her life become too much to cope with, Lexi finds herself spiraling down into the realm of her biggest fear. Lexi falls hard, victim once again to the only thing that can destroy her and, on the way, finds herself falling straight into the dangerous tattooed arms of a guy from the wrong side of the tracks.
Austin Carillo, starting Wide Receiver for the Alabama Crimson Tide, must get picked in this year’s NFL draft. He needs it. His brothers need it. Most importantly, his mother desperately needs it. Brought up in a world where the poor are forgotten, the sick are left to fend for themselves, and no hero miraculously appears to pull you out of hell, Austin had no other choice but to make a living on the wrong side of the law – until football offered Austin the break to get his life back on track.
But when a family tragedy drags him back into the clutches of the gang he believed he had left far behind, Austin finds himself falling. Falling back into criminal ways and falling deep into a suffocating darkness. Until a troubled yet kindred spirit stumbles across his path, where Austin quickly finds he is falling for a young woman – a young woman who might just have the power to save him from his worst enemy: himself.
Can two troubled souls find a lasting peace together? Or will they finally succumb to the demons threatening to destroy them?
Tillie Cole knows how to write intense, emotional romances with broken characters. While I didn’t love Sweet Fall, it was an experience listening to this audiobook. If you were a fan of the previous books in the Sweet Home series, you’ll definitely want to pick up Sweet Fall. The story has a similar vibe to Molly and Rome’s, if a little darker, and it’s got that unique NA college feel that Tillie Cole writes. Plus, the narrator, Stephanie Bentley, is my favorite so far of the series!
Lexi Hart and Austin Carillo appear to have the perfect college lives, but beneath the surface is something much more dark and painful. Lexi has been battling her eating disorder, which nearly cost her her life, for years, and just when she thought she’d made it, the voice in her head telling her she’s pathetic and worthless rises up again. Austin is the wide receiver for the Crimson Tide, but he’s mainly doing football for his family. His mother is on her deathbed and his brothers have been picked up by a dangerous gang, and he needs to be picked up by the NFL to save them. Lexi and Austin are hanging on by a thread, but by some miracle, they manage to find and lean on each other. They find solace in each other but can they have a lasting relationship when both are fighting demons in their heads?
This was not the easiest book to listen to, but I was definitely hooked onto Austin and Lexi’s story. I felt for their pain and the struggles that they go through. While I couldn’t connect that well, my heart went out to these characters. It gets a little depressing at times, which is not my thing, and Austin’s story involving the gang got frustrating at times, which is why I can’t give this a higher rating. I will say that the narration was perfect – it was my first time listening to Stephanie Bentley but it definitely won’t be my last! She did a fantastic job at narrating and I had no problems with her Southern accent.
Angsty, romantic, and intense, Sweet Fall isn’t for the light-hearted listeners, but if you’ve enjoyed Tillie Cole’s other books, then you’ll probably enjoy Sweet Fall too.
SWEET FALL is now available on Audible: http://amzn.to/2eAHrhe
Reading Order: Sweet Home series
#1 ~ Sweet Home: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#1.5 ~ Sweet Rome: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ Sweet Fall: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ Sweet Hope: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#4 ~ Sweet Soul: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Here’s an audio excerpt from Sweet Fall!
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I have this book to read! I haven’t read Tillie Cole before, so I hope I enjoy this book as much or more than you did. 🙂 Nice review!