Free Falling by Kirsty Moseley
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***This is a companion novel to Always You by Kirsty Moseley. You don't necessarily have to read that before you read this one, but I would highly recommend it***
Reading Group Rating: I would say High school+ But maybe more like Sophomore Year+
Personal Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Given Summary: They say that your school years are supposed to be the best years of your life, and that you should make the most of them because you’ll miss them when you’re all grown up. Up until Maisie Preston’s senior year, she would have totally agreed with that statement. Life was great, she had everything going for her, excellent grades, great parents, an annoying yet caring twin brother, and an impossibly sweet boyfriend.
Everything was perfect - that is until the arrival of Zach Anderson. A misfit delinquent that seemed to bring with him a lot of bad karma. Is it just a coincidence that his arrival marks a significant change in Maisie’s life? Up until senior year, life was perfect, but things seem to be going downhill fast.
Cover: An envelope and Calla Lily, the things that held the threatening messages towards Maisie, the main plot of the story
Summary: Senior year of highs school and Maisie's life is perfect. However, after attending a party and witnessing her boyfriend, Luke, having sex with her arch nemesis, Sandy, her world flips upside down. She leaves the party in Luke's car intoxicated. She nearly crashes into Zach Anderson, a new boy in town who she's supposed to be tutoring, but he hadn't showed up in school. Zach is into parkour and dreams of being a stunt man for movies, but he has ADHD and hasn't been able to focus in school. Maisie and him become very close and she makes sure that he graduates high school. She told Luke that they can't be together anymore because every time she sees him she thinks about him and Sandy, but she agrees they can be friends. He takes this, but he is still trying to get her back. He loves her and made a mistake (they discover that Sandy put something in Luke's drink, but he does say he didn't feel that she took advantage of him). One day at school a frog escapes from a science room. Maisie is petrified of frogs and jumps into Luke's arms to get away from it. Soon after that she starts getting weird phone calls and threats. Her dog even gets poisoned. She thinks it's Sandy, but when Sandy gets murdered and the calls still come she doesn't know who it could be. She goes to the local fairground with a group of friends to watch Zach's parkour group and that night she get's back together with Luke. The next morning they're driving home from a bakery when Maisie's friend, a computer whizz, texts her the phone number of the caller. She calls the number and realizes it's Luke who has been terrorizing her. After the frog incident he realized that if he could get Maisie to see that she still needs him, she would take him back, but he the whole thing got out of control. Maisie tells him that she doesn't think she can get past this (SINCE HE KILLED SOMEONE), but he has a "if I can't have you no one can" mentality and drives them off a bridge. Luke, who was unbuckled, dies on impact. Maisie can't get the seatbelt off her once they're in the water and drowns, but is saved by someone who say the accident. She wakes up in a hospital a few days later. She decides to not tell anyone about the conversation she had with Luke before he died because she doesn't want his reputation to be ruined. She goes off to college and the next year runs into Zach, who's the main stunt guy in the movie that's being filmed on Maisie's campus. The book ends hinting that Zach and Maisie will soon be dating.
My Review: Can I just start by saying that I love/think it's funny that Kirsty Moseley is from the UK, but her characters are in the United States. She never says what town or even what state this book takes place, but she'll give you a distance (it takes 9 hours for Maisie to drive to Oregon State College) so you're sitting here reading and trying to figure out where the characters are. She also writes in UK English obviously so there are a lot of extra "u's" (favourite) and "s's" instead of "z's" (realised). These aren't wrong from her point of view, but the first time I read it (in
Always You) I was a little taken aback. Her characters also so "yeah" a lot (let's do this, yeah?), which I think is a UK thing or at least no one I've met says yeah that much. None of this stuff has anything to do with the plot, nor does it change my opinion of the novel, I just think it's cool.
The only thing that really bothered (that word seems too harsh here) me about the book was that there were some spelling/grammar mistakes. It would say "he" instead of "her," "rough" instead of "through," once it said "a" when I thought it should have said "he." Kirsty Moseley is a self-published author and I have so much respect for that, but I know from myself that when I write I miss things even if I reread it eight times. Even on here I'll look back at old posts and be like, "Oh, that's not right. Should have read that one more time." I feel that Kirsty Moseley just needed someone else to read it one time before she published it (a job I would happily do!). The mistakes weren't ginormous, you could still read the book easily, they just stopped for a moment.
The book itself was so good! I loved it! I got frustrated with Maisie because I wanted her to be with Zach from the beginning and leave Luke completely. He still could have tried to get her to need him, but I wish she called Zach for help a few times instead of Luke. This book also had a very serious message to it that I think we could all benefit from: If your partner (or anyone in your life really) is doing things to get your attention and you find out in a place where you can't easily get away, like alone with him in a car, don't say you're breaking up with him. Say whatever you need to to get home safe and then go to the police. I thought it was cute how protective her brother was when he needed to be. And having already read
Always You it was funny to see how Maisie's dad eluded to stuff that happened in that novel (dealing with police, Maisie's mom being good in hospitals). This book was definitely worth the read!
Smile! I'll talk to you soon!xxx
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