When Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Peachtree Bluff series ended last year, I was so sad but at the same time looking forward to what she came up with next.
Harvey has such a great writing style that is refreshing, charming, and heartfelt so I knew that whatever she had up her sleeve was going to be outstanding.
When I saw that it was going to once again tap into the importance and power of friendships, I couldn’t have been more thrilled if I tried!
Summary
Parade’s 20 Most Anticipated Books of Early 2020
SheKnows’ 10 of the Most Anticipated Books Coming in 2020
Mary Kay Andrews’ Reading Challenge Women’s Fiction Pick
Working Mother’s 20 Most Anticipated Books of 2020 for Working Moms
From “the next major voice in Southern fiction” (Elin Hilderbrand) and the bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series comes an odd-couple tale of friendship that asks just how much our past choices define our happiness.
It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast and the livin’ is easy.
Unless, that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her extremist husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger, Diana Harrington, fired from her job at the local pharmacy.
Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a worn-out Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience.
With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn. But when her first love returns, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once. And, as Gray begins to blaze a new trail, she discovers, with Diana’s help, that what she envisioned as her perfect life may not be what she wants at all.
In her warmest, wisest novel yet, Kristy Woodson Harvey delivers a discerning portrait of modern womanhood through two vastly different lenses. Feels Like Falling is a beach bag essential for Harvey fans—and for a new generation of readers. (summary from Goodreads)
Review
As many of you know, I have been a big big fan of Harvey’s since I read Lies and Other Acts of Love. Since then I have read the entire Peachtree Bluff series and never been disappointed. However, because I have such high regard for all of her books, I felt like this one had a lot to live up to. When an author has had a series of successful books come out, I always find myself waiting for the book that is just ok or maybe isn’t as good as the others, but with Harvey’s books I have never once been disappointed or found them to be just ‘ok’ and this book is no exception!
I felt like one of the big themes in this book was ‘life simply had other plans’, in fact I believe that was a quote or something similar early on in the book itself. Like everyone, the life we have planned in our heads looks so much better than the life that actually happens to us sometimes so I loved how the author took this concept and brought it to life in this book.
The author also does a great job at picking realistic issues that the main characters are trying to overcome or simply deal with. It makes their struggles our struggles and applicable because they could happen—or perhaps have happened—to any of us. The friendship that develops between Gray and Diana comes out of these life experiences and I found myself wrapped up in their stories and friendship.
Harvey always does such a great job at finding an emotional balance in her books. There was plenty to love in this one and while it packed a lot of emotion into the story, there were so many times that I laughed and said ‘yep girl I hear you’ throughout the story and I couldn’t have been more pleased with how this one turned out. This is the book you want to read this summer!
The Lit Bitch 
Thank you so much for this review!!!!