The Moment We Fell, by Kelli Warner

Publication: Wave Runner Publishing (June 22, 2019)

moment we fell About the book:

Nothing good happens when people keep secrets.

Paige Bryant’s dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer died along with her mother. Drowning in grief and plagued by guilt, Paige is blindsided by a provision in her mother’s will that sends her to live with the father she never knew. Forced to start over in a new town and at a new school where she’s now the principal’s daughter, Paige is convinced that her life can’t possibly get more complicated—until fate throws her into the path of the only boy her guardian tells her is off-limits.

Despite two years on the straight and narrow, Cade Matthews can’t escape his time as a juvenile delinquent. With his dad behind bars, Cade’s feelings of anger and betrayal are as relentless as the rumors he’s trying to outrun. The only person not listening to the gossip is the new girl with her own set of troubles, including a father who will never give Cade a fair shake.

As Paige tries to adjust to her new life and an uncertain future, a set of unopened journals reveals a dark family secret. When tensions rise to a boiling point, can Paige and Cade make peace with the past before it destroys them?

My Review

I’m so happy to bring you my review of The Moment We Fell, by Kelli Warner. Although this was my first time reading this author, it certainly will not be the last time. Described as teen & young adult romance, this novel is about a seventeen-year-old girl, Paige, who after losing her mother suddenly is sent to live with a father that she never knew about and also has decided to give up her passion for dance, that she has been doing since she was four-years-old. New in town and new to her new home with her father, step-mother, and half-siblings, Paige makes friends easily but is drawn to the “bad-boy” Cade. Cade has also suffered incredible loss, as well as, gotten involved in bad crowds leading to trouble. However, he has turned his life around despite still dealing with his emotions about everything that has happened with his parents. Cade and Paige find themselves unlikely friends and sharing things they tell no one else about their losses, hopes, and dreams. But their emotional baggage coupled with Paiges’s Dad’s adamant warnings about her staying away from Cade repeatedly stands in their way.

So, I don’t read a ton of Teen/Young Adult novels, but this one piqued my interest. And, I’m so glad to have read it. The Moment We Fell is very emotional and oftentimes, contains difficult subject matter about death and dying. Think back to when you were seventeen and felt like the world was on your shoulders at times… This was Paige and Cade for the majority of the novel and Warner’s writing and imagery is so real and well-done that there were times while I was reading that I could feel the characters’ tension, sadness, anxiety, and regret right along with them.

Reading this novel will have you praying for people to give Cade the second-chance he deserves, cheering and rooting for Paige to re-discover her passion for dance, and whole-heartedly hoping that these two teenagers can find the peace and happiness that they deserve. The only thing that left me a little unsettled was the ending because I love a clear-cut happy ending in things that I read. The ending to The Moment We Fell is certainly hopeful, but I couldn’t help but long for more about what happens to these amazing characters in the future.

**Thanks to LibraryThing for providing this copy in exchange for my honest review.