Blog Post and Review: Falling (Fall or Break Book 1) by Barbara Elsborg

Harper is no longer behind bars, but it doesn’t feel like
it. Ten years serving time for a crime he didn’t commit have left him shut
down, numb, and a frozen wreck over the simplest of choices.

He’s acutely aware of the dark-haired young man checking him
out in the supermarket, but he’s too deep in panic mode to even meet the guy’s
gaze. Afraid the slightest move will trigger a fall that will never stop.

Fresh off a long-term relationship with a controlling man,
Malachi is stuck living with relatives who think he’s a waste of oxygen. The
tall guy in the long, gray coat is the first bright spot he’s glimpsed in a
long time…though the man’s unblinking stare at a bottle of shower gel is a
touch alarming.

Hard experience tells both of them to turn away before lust
turns to hopeless attraction, and inevitably to disaster. But once their sparks
connect, the arc of electricity is too strong to deny. Even if the cost is too
much to bear.

 Author Blog Post:

When I come to think about where to set my stories, I
usually go for somewhere I know quite well. In contrast to the very first
novels I wrote that I set in New York (I’d never even been to America) and
Bogota (I’d never been there either) There was no Internet in those days to
research what places were like. 

Nowadays it’s possible to find details of just
about anywhere on Earth. But Falling is the first book I’ve actually set in the
town where I live. Guiseley in West Yorkshire. I had to invent the street for
the house my heroes live in but the swimming pool is there, the retail park is
there and so is the supermarket where the pair first meet. 

Did it make it any easier using a place I knew well? No, not
really because I had to make sure I had all the details right. You can’t get
caught out if you make a place up but if I’d said there was a TK Maxx in the
retail park and there wasn’t, you can bet I’d have had people telling me I was
wrong. 

Though setting the book in Guiseley did have one impact on
an early reader because she lives just down the road from me and found it a bit
freaky to read a book set in the town where she lives. I’ve tended ot stick to
Yorkshire, Derbyshire or London for my settings. Places I do know well. But the
book I’m working on now is set in Dorset. I know nothing about Dorset. Thank
goodness for Google!

Denise’s Review:

Do you know what I like most about reading romance novels? That I KNOW for sure, I will be getting an HEA, or at the very least a HFN. That knowledge served me well while reading this book!!!

There were times where I questioned it…where I wondered, would these men be able to find a happy ending. Thank goodness, Ms. Elsborg did not disappoint me.

Harper, a man just leaving prison after 10 years for a crime that he was framed for, has to learn how to get by in a world that is different than when he went in, and doesn’t want him back in it. It was truly tragic to see the way he was treated.

Meanwhile Malachi, who himself was being treated by his brother in law like a piece of trash, had just left a controlling relationship, finally trying to stand on his own two feet, despite being unable to find a new job.

These two had so much to work through on their own: hatred, bigotry, violence. Then they had to find a way to work through things together, in order to be with each other on solid and common ground.

My heart broke for Harper each time he was met with hatred and anger for something that he didn’t do. My heart broke for Malachi who was subjected again and again to such cruelty at the hands of his family, both past and present.

In the end, Malachi, who know matter what he faced, always was thinking of others, always had a smile on his face, and a pleasant word, would go to the depths of his pain in order to save Harper from a life of continued pain. Malachi showed his love by putting Harper’s life ahead of his own.

This story was tragic, and yet, so full of love, it was hard not to root for these two lovely men right from the beginning. It was a book I found myself checking often to see how close to the end it was, not because I wanted it to be over, but because I wanted to get to the HFN part. It did eventually come, and I was so happy for them, in a way I haven’t been for a long time in a book. That much tragedy deserves a truly happy ending.

My final determination for this book is 4.5 pieces of eye candy. And if there is another book ahead in this series, I will be at the head of the line to read it. Fantastic job, Ms. Elsborg.

Author Bio:

Barbara Elsborg lives in West Yorkshire in the north of
England. She always wanted to be a spy, but having confessed to everyone
without them even resorting to torture, she decided it was not for her.
Vulcanology scorched her feet. A morbid fear of sharks put paid to marine
biology. So instead, she spent several years successfully selling cyanide. (Try
saying that fast)

After dragging up two rotten, ungrateful children and frustrating her sexy,
devoted, wonderful husband (who can now stop twisting her arm) she finally has
time to conduct an affair with an electrifying plugged-in male, her laptop. Her
books feature quirky heroines and bad boys, sometimes two bad boys for each
quirky heroine, and more recently two bad boys all on their own. She hopes her
stories are as much fun to read as they are to write.

You can find out more about Barbara and her books at www.barbaraelsborg.com,
catch more of her scintillating wit at her blog on the same site, and if you
want to tell her how much you love her books, please, email her!
bjel@btinternet.com

https://www.barbaraelsborg.com

I’d like to offer one commentator an ecopy of any book from
my backlist. And if you’d follow me on Facebook, I’d appreciate it. Thanks!

Where to find Falling:

http://amzn.to/18uG8Nt

https://www.samhainpublishing.com/book/5374/falling

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23521523-falling