Fall Guy by Liz Reinhardt

Title: Fall Guy
Author: Liz Reinhardt
Blurb:
Evan Lennox is going nowhere fast. She's living with her grandparents after her parents bailed on her, she got kicked out of her posh private school, her ex-boyfriend proved to be the biggest sleaze imaginable, her former best friend is a back-stabber, and her current best friend is stuck in backwoods NJ. To top it all off, one teeny, tiny fire she lit to burn some memories of her ex goes a little out of control and winds up igniting a good piece of a very powerful family's pecan orchard.

Evan lands her pampered behind in court and gets sentenced to community service. Which she knows she deserves. But the hard labor and humiliation may be her undoing.

Until she meets Winchester Youngblood on the site.

Everything about him is tricky, confusing, not at all what it seems, and so sexy, Evan can't resist pulling closer. But every step she takes to get to know him gives her more of a reason to back up and put him as far out of life as she possibly can. Because Winch is one hundred percent complicated, and Evan isn't looking for that. At all. She needs to meet a nice, responsible guy, not share searing kisses with the charming hustler she met after they both got sentenced in court.

But Winch is so much more than what he seems, and Evan finds out that she's falling hard for the guy everyone underestimates and writes off. And Winch realizes that Evan is the one person who's ever challenged him to ask for more out of his life, and her courage inspires him to try to be the person she sees when she looks at him. With every single odd stacked against them, Evan and Winch need to find out whether they have what it takes to fall for each other.

Links:
Fall Guy on Goodreads

Fall Guy on Amazon

Liz Reinhardt's Website

 Kala's Review:

I found this author recently, when I bought Lengths (which she co-wrote) and really enjoyed it. I decided to pick this book up and I wasn't disappointed. Fall Guy is a quick read that introduces you to some really interesting and flawed characters. When I finished it, I went looking to see when the sequel would come out.

Evan Lennox is the female lead and she was different from most we read about in YA/New Adult lately. She's not a shy, bookish girl who is beautiful but thinks she is plain. Evan knows she's gorgeous. She also has a bad history of making huge mistakes and she ends up in court after accidentally on purpose setting fire to an orchard at her ex-boyfriend's house.

At court she runs in to Winchester Youngblood (I'm not usually a fan of off-the-wall names, but this one really grew on me). Winch is also in court and both he and Evan end up getting stuck in community service together. While in community service, they start up a relationship which doesn't go how either of them planned.

I love how kick-ass Evan is. She knows what she wants and goes after it. When Winch starts acting like a jerk, she calls him on it and doesn't take his bullshit (which I appreciate, considering how common it is these days for authors to romanticize controlling stalkerish asshole behavior).

Winch is a complicated guy with an even more complicated family. I found that whole dynamic fascinating and I'm very much looking forward to learning more about this family in future books. I don't want to say too much about his family because it will give away a lot of the plot, so I'll just leave it at that.

The writing was a little stilted in places, but overall it was decent. I flew through this book while on vacation last weekend and I carried my Kindle around with me everywhere until I finished it. Though it wasn't perfect, it was compelling and it's hard for me to badly rate a book that I got so immersed in.

4 of 5 stars.


Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/420620346