The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams | Book Review

Why I read it: This was the March pick for one of my romance book clubs. I haven’t read any Denise Williams before, but she’s had events at local bookstores in the past (and will have events in April for the release of a new book), so I’ve been curious about her books.

Review #insixwords: Read it for Britta’s fitness journey.

More:

The premise of this book is that Britta is writing a review of a fitness app for her job at a lifestyle magazine, wherein she meets Wes, who is her personal trainer. Except Wes is actually the CEO of the company. They keep their jobs secret from each other as they fall in love, which invariably causes all kinds of chaos and miscommunication.

The characters kept secrets from each other, while also simultaneously lying to themselves about what they were doing and feeling. It made these characters feel very young (they’re in their late 20s) and had me questioning if I’m too old for some romance now.

The answer to that is no. I just dislike the way the secrets led to miscommunication that led to a third-act breakup. And that if you remove the secrets, you remove a lot of the conflict between the characters—and the plot depends on the secrets.

That’s different than, say, Chaos by Constance Fay. In Chaos, main character Caro is consumed by a secret she’s keeping from everyone. Something that she’s been running from for a good portion of her life. This secret is fundamental to her development as a character; something that underpins how she thinks about herself and how she makes decisions about what kind of situations she puts herself in. Revealing the secret (or not) wouldn’t derail the conflict in the same way. The plot does not depend on the secret to push the characters forward. (Comparing a sci-fi romance with a high-stakes rescue to a contemporary set in Chicago might not be fair, but I read these books back to back, so 🤷‍♀️. Also, if you need sci-fi romance, try Constance Fay!)

All that aside, what really shines about The Fastest Way to Fall is Britta’s experience as a fat woman going on a fitness journey that was not about losing weight. It was about learning to love herself for who she is, at whatever size she is, while also feeling empowered to do things for her body that made her feel strong, and proud of what she could accomplish.

It made me missing running??? Which honestly is impressive for something I haven’t done in nearly 15 years. Or maybe it was that it made me miss the accomplishment and the feeling of having run rather than the running itself. Either way.

I also enjoyed that this book was set in Chicago. The Midwest does not feature in many romances. (Which is wrong, it should.)

Recommendation: If you’re not bothered by secrets and miscommunications, this is a great contemporary romance with a fantastic throughline of falling in love with yourself as much as someone else.

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