Publication Date: September 17, 2024
A struggling waitress and the heir to a major Seattle company stumble into a high-profile fake engagement while simultaneously trying to keep up with their own love lives in this flirty fall rom-com!
Lexi Danby is looking for some no-strings, fall fun. Once a college track star, she was forced to drop out when her father passed away. Now she’s trying to make ends meet while putting herself through school and caring for her grieving mother. When her comically bad waitressing lands her directly in the path of a handsome, charming stranger named Will, Lexi may just have found the distraction she’s been looking for. Their first date looks promising until a misunderstanding at a party thrusts Lexi and Will into a fake engagement they can’t talk themselves out of. And Will turns out to be a member of Seattle royalty.
Will Grand is heir to a major company, and Seattle’s most eligible bachelor. But he’s been placed in charge of an important merger with a company that values family above all else, and needs to show them that he’s settled down. While a fake engagement is advantageous from a business standpoint, it’s not so great for a budding relationship with a woman who’s wary of commitment. With a woman who Will is beginning to care about much more than he could have anticipated.
As Lexi gets a taste of Will’s glamorous world and the pair keeps up the pretense of their fake engagement for the press, they decide to see where a more casual relationship takes them out of the spotlight. And amid apple picking in comfy flannels, outdoor breweries in the crisp air, and fun Halloween preparations, Lexi starts to realize the scariest part of the season might just be taking a chance on love.
“Sophie Sullivan consistently crafts romances to root for.” –Courtney Kae, author of In the Event of Love and In the Case of Heartbreak
Can’t Help Falling In Love by Sophie Sullivan was a fun read with many stories twined together. At the base of it all is a fake engagement that takes on a life of its own!
Sparks fly when Lexi and Will first meet, but what happens next is a one step forward and two or more back approach that drew me into the story full tilt!
Lexi’s life hasn’t gone as planned since her dad died several years ago and left her and her mom drowning in debt. Her mom is still grief-stricken, and Lexi feels it’s her job to draw her back into living her life. The decisions Lexi had to make were not how she planned her life. She has two jobs, neither of which is a career, and is also attending college online to finish her degree. All while caring for her mom, their house, and all it entails. When Lexi and Will get caught up in their fake engagement and start dating, things seem to be on the right path, but are they?
Will works in the family business with his dad, sister, one of whom is still in college, mom, and grandfather, who built the company. He comes from money, Lexi does not. When he springs his engagement on his parents, things don’t go as planned, especially since his mom keeps setting him up with women in their social circle whom she considers acceptable.
The story has twists and turns as Lexi tries to figure out who she is and what she wants out of life. She’s always afraid of letting others down and never puts herself first. Her lack of self-confidence is woven throughout, and it takes others, including Will, to show her a different side of herself.
There are laugh-out-loud, heartwarming, and heartbreaking moments. The epilogue provides some closure, but I wish the story had gone on a little longer since there were some loose ends. Of course, if there’s a book in the future for Lexi’s best friend, Maisie, then we’d have the best of both worlds.
Can’t Help Falling In Love is a sweet, opposites-attract romance set in Seattle, with several interesting storylines. Sit back and get to know Lexi and Will as they navigate their fake engagement.
SOPHIE SULLIVAN is a Canadian author as well as a cookie-eating, Diet Pepsi-drinking, Disney enthusiast who loves reading and writing romance in almost equal measure. She writes around her day job as a teacher and spends her spare time with her sweet family watching reruns of Friends. TEN RULES FOR FAKING IT, her debut romcom, won the Canadian Book Club Award for best romance. She has plenty of practice writing happily ever after as her alter ego, Jody Holford.
