Reviewed by Valerie 

TITLE:  Make Me Fall

SERIES:  Water, Air, Earth, Fire #2    

AUTHOR:  Riley Nash

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  299 pages

RELEASE DATE:  July 27, 2022

BLURB:   

You can’t fly without falling, so close your eyes and let go.

People ask me if I’m human. If I have feelings. If I’ve ever loved anyone. I’m the lawyer who has never lost a case because I have nothing else to live for. Until Jonah.

He’s my complete opposite: a reckless boy twelve years younger than me, made of sunshine and wicked smiles, pure and breathtaking. It all starts with a secret. He wants to find out if he’s bi, and he begs me to teach him because we’ll never see each other again.

Until he shows up on my doorstep with nowhere else to go. I can’t draw lines faster than we blur them. He’s the unstoppable force; I’m the immovable object. When we collide, things get filthy. Complicated. More beautiful than I ever could have imagined.

He’s the only person ever to learn the truth: I’ve always been human. I’ve always had feelings. I’ve been so, so afraid to lose. Because the moment we find enough trust to jump is the moment we realize our wings might be too broken to fly.

A heartfelt, emotional story of two lonely souls searching for meaning, featuring a bi awakening, grumpy/sunshine opposites attract, an age gap, and a main character with a disability.

REVIEW:   

The two halves of a whole don’t have to look anything alike; they just have to fit together into something better than the sum of its parts.”

Do your ever come across books you’re sure will ruin you for all others? Riley Nash’s novels seem to be doing that to me. Make Me Fall is another achingly beautiful story on the heels of Hold Me Under, one of my favorite books of the year. I would call it heart wrenching, while Make Me Fall is more heartwarming. This second book is less angsty and dramatic but equally as compelling. Gray Freeman is an emotionally wounded man who gives off the appearance of confidence and success, someone who has it all. Underneath the façade, though, is a vulnerable man deeply scarred by his past and now frightened he’ll lose Jonah. And Jonah Scott is the type of character who will grab hold of your heart and not let go. He can’t help bring levity to the story with his special brand of joie de vivre. He made me smile and laugh quite a bit.

Jonah is awkward personified. Heading to law school on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City, he bombards his seat mate, Gray, with too much personal information, including that he’s questioning his sexuality and needs gay sex advice. (Isn’t this what we all discuss with strangers on a plane?) Somehow that leads to a trip to the lavatory at 40,000 feet where Jonah lives out a fantasy while earning his membership into the Mile High Club. Upon landing, they say goodbye and go their own ways.

Gray is relocating from the west coast to New York with all his worldly possessions – a few bags and boxes – to start over after suffering a devastating blow that affected him deeply, both professionally and personally. He blames himself for a tragedy that befell a friend, his client’s son he was supposed to look out for. (This played out in Hold Me Under.) He feels like he failed himself as well as the young man. Gray’s self-value lies strictly in his success as a lawyer. He’s terrified someone else will be hurt if he’s not conscientious enough or doesn’t work hard enough.

It’s six months later when Gray and Jonah serendipitously meet again at an overnight law school retreat. Gray is invited by their professor to speak to the students and choose an intern. Jonah is a force of nature, a brave and beautiful soul. Life circumstances have caused him to feel stupid and worthless, a lost cause. He’s socially inept and believes all he’s ever been is a problem for others. All this twenty-four-year-old man wants is to be normal and prove others wrong. The professor tries to warn Gray away from choosing Jonah as his student intern:

“I can’t figure him out. I think he does try, maybe harder than anyone. He just can’t do anything right, like he’s on a different wavelength from the rest of the world. With all that passion inside him I think he’d be unstoppable if someone could set him on the right path…”

But Gray can’t keep his eyes off Jonah; why is he attracted to this irrepressible young man twelve years his junior? They are absolute opposites: Gray is a wealthy, worldly, big city lawyer while Jonah is a poor farm boy from Iowa. Gray is controlled and thrives on routine; Jonah is exuberant and impulsive. But it seems he provides Gray with a new purpose: save Jonah. They end up saving each other in this gorgeous hurt/comfort narrative that works both ways. Gray needs saving, too. Jonah recognizes the loneliness, sadness, and insecurity Gray tries to hide.

“Just then, his cheek against mine, his breath along my skin, his life in my arms, he makes every feeling simple enough for me to understand. He makes loving easy enough I almost feel like I could try again.”

This story checks the boxes for a number of winning tropes: opposites attract, boss/employee (intern), forced proximity, and grumpy/sunshine among them. It’s a very different book from its predecessor, but they both center on complex, troubled men. Nash is skilled at creating fully fleshed out, multi-layered leading men and putting their broken souls back together again.

I don’t know if my heart can survive the remaining books in the Water, Air, Earth, Fire series, but I do eagerly look forward to them. Make Me Fall can be read as a standalone but I urge you to read Hold Me Under first to best understand Gray’s frame of mind and the past that motivates his actions. And because it’s fabulous!

Obviously, I highly recommend this book. At ninety percent, I still couldn’t figure out a resolution to the conflict. Nash delivers a wonderful ending and a swoon-worthy epilogue showing the couple two years down the road.

Oh, did I mention the dirty talk? Gah!

RATING: 

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