Reviewed by Susan65
Title: Falling Down
Author: Eli Easton
Narrator: Michael Stellman
Series: N/A
Heroes: Josh/Mark
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 7 Hours, 33 Minutes
Publisher: Pinkerton Road
Release Date: April 17, 2019
Available at: Amazon and Audible
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Josh finds himself homeless at eighteen, but he has a plan. He’ll head north on the bus to New England and spend October there for his mother’s sake. She always talked about going to see the fall leaves someday. And when the leaves are done and the harsh winter comes, Josh plans to find a place to curl up and let go. It will be a relief to finally stop fighting.
Mark spent his life trying to live up to the tough swagger of his older brothers until he pushed himself so far against his nature that he cracked. Now a former Marine, he rents a little cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire where he can lick his wounds and figure out what to do with the rest of his life. One thing was clear: Mark was nobody’s hero.
Fate intervenes when Josh sets up camp under a covered bridge near Mark’s cabin. Mark recognizes the dead look in the young stranger’s eyes, and he feels compelled to do something about it. When Mark offers Josh a job, he never expects that he’ll be the one to fall.
The snow is coming soon. Can Mark convince Josh that the two of them can build a life together before the flurries begin?
Review:
Wow, this was a really amazing story, but super emotional and kind of depressing, too. The topics are heavy and the characters are literally the walking wounded and on the verge of giving up on everything. This is a new author and narrator for me, but they both wowed me. Simply put, a well written book was brought to life by stellar narration. You cannot go wrong with this audio, as long as the content is not on your trigger list.
Josh just broke my heart, and he broke Mark’s heart, too. Josh is very young, just 18 years old when he loses his only family, his mother, and finds himself alone and homeless. With the urn holding his mother’s ashes, he decides that he was not destined to have a happily ever, and heads to New England where he can spread her ashes and find a quiet place to die. Seriously, Josh is not whining or complaining, he’s just given up and is totally set on finding the right place and right time to do what needs to be done. What he has not planned on is finding Mark.
Mark is suffering from PTSD from his time in war zones. He lives in a small cabin and gets by doing handyman jobs. He isn’t suicidal, but he isn’t in a good place either. He really has nothing to live for until he sees a very young man sleeping under a bridge and can’t get him out of his mind. The lost look in his eyes was something Mark saw before and he knows what it means. These two saved each other, but trust me when I say it takes nearly the entire book to get there. Michael Spellman does a spectacular job bringing both Josh and Mark to life. You can feel their pain and sorrow and fears. You understand their confusion. And you so much want something to finally go right in their worlds. And it does, and it ends so beautifully that I will probably pick this audio up again. Highly recommended.
Overall Impression: I loved it!
*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*
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