The Girl Who Fell by S.M.Parker - Review + Interview + Giveaway

Title: The Girl Who Fell
Author: Shannon Parker
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 1st 2016
Part of A Series?: Standalone!
I Got A Copy Through: Simon Pulse via Netgalley (Thank you!)
Blurb Description: His obsession.
Her fall.

Zephyr is focused. Focused on leading her team to the field hockey state championship and leaving her small town for her dream school, Boston College.

But love has a way of changing things.

Enter the new boy in school: the hockey team’s starting goaltender, Alec. He’s cute, charming, and most important, Alec doesn’t judge Zephyr. He understands her fears and insecurities—he even shares them. Soon, their relationship becomes something bigger than Zephyr, something she can’t control, something she doesn’t want to control.

Zephyr swears it must be love. Because love is powerful, and overwhelming, and … terrifying?

But love shouldn’t make you abandon your dreams, or push your friends away. And love shouldn’t make you feel guilty—or worse, ashamed.

So when Zephyr finally begins to see Alec for who he really is, she knows it’s time to take back control of her life.

If she waits any longer, it may be too late.

**GIVEAWAY**

Giveaway prizes courtesy of the author

Null where prohibited by the law

Open to residents of the United States only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**INTERVIEW**

Hi Shannon! Thanks SO much for agreeing to do this! It means so much to me - I really

loved The Girl Who Fell (as I've mentioned like twenty times by now).

Shannon: Thanks so much for having me on your blog! And I am beyond thrilled that you connected with The Girl Who Fell. I love when a book finds its readers!!

1. The Funniest Thing you've ever done: Channeled Sandy from Grease and sang “You’re The One That I Want”—ooh, ooh, ooh… at the top of my tone deaf lungs to my (horrified) hubs at our wedding.

2. Top Five Female Characters:

Lily Owens: The Secret Life of Bees

Lennie: The Sky is Everywhere

Mma Precious Ramotswe: The #1 Ladies Detective Agency

Sissy Hankshaw: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

All women: Women Who Run With The Wolves

3. Give us an #AuthorConfession #IAmCrippledWithSelfDoubt

And now, moving on to your masterpiece:

4. What inspired you to write about a relationship that isn't all that healthy?

First love is intoxicating. It is tempting and luscious and beautiful. But it is also so dangerous. You ask yourself: Can I trust this person with my heart? My body? My dreams? And there are plenty of books that scream YES to these questions. They are the books of Happily Ever After.

I wanted to write a story that explored the dangers of first love. What happens when you can’t trust the person you love? What happens when love turns toxic? And how does a strong and determined girl fall for a charming boy who is—at his core—awful and damaged (and damaging)?

I wanted to write this story because I think it is a reality for countless teens and I don’t think it is talked about enough.

I wanted readers to fall for Alec’s manipulation alongside Zephyr and maybe begin to understand how this type of “fall” can happen, even to the smartest, most driven teenage girl. How falling doesn’t mean you are weak. And that you shouldn’t feel shame. 

I wanted to write a book that tells girls that they always, ALWAYS have the right to regain their voice.

5. I think Gregg is the cutest new book boy I've read about for a while! *FANGIRLS* So, I'd love to hear Gregg's backstory - how he became a character in your mind (if that makes sense;P)

I’m a huge Gregg fan. He’s such a fierce and loyal friend to Zephyr. Plus, he’s a total wise-ass and I love that about him. His personality was created to offset the toxicity of Alec’s character. And he needed to be The Best because Gregg is something Zephyr is asked to give up once Alec becomes increasingly possessive. That had to feel like high stakes for Zephyr.

So I knew I needed Gregg for the story and I set about building his character by drawing on the very best traits of my male friends. The loyal ones. The fierce ones. The funny ones. The gentle ones. 

6. What advice would you give anyone in a relationship like Alec and Zephyr's?

Love should never hurt. 

**MY REVIEW**

”This is the part of limbo we don’t talk about, how our individual futures don’t include each other.”

From the very first sentence, or maybe even before that, when I read the blurb and saw that gorgeous cover, I knew that not only what The Girl Who Fell something I HAD to get my hands on, but also that I’d love it! And in all honesty, it was SO much better than anything I had dared to expect!

“Crushing is safe,” she said. “It only involves one person… you. And you can be in control.”

Reading the entire book in one sitting, in the wee hours of the night, I can only say WOW! Just WOW! As a third person not in a dysfunctional relationship, I could see where everything was going wrong; how it was all a little too much and a little bit out of the bounds of normal or healthy. I could see it, and yet what I felt was so different.

Because Shannon Parker has created this set of circumstances where you believe everything that is

happening – no, I’m explaining this all wrong – where you see what it’s like to be in THAT relationship from the outside, and at the same time, you can COMPLETELY understand why everything that happens in that relationship is happening. From the “I need you and only you” to “I’ve only ever felt this way when I’m with you” and “You affect me more that I could say. I don’t deserve you,” you see it all slowly unfold before your eyes. How everything seems so reasonable, and then you look up and realise that her boyfriend just asked her to never talk to her best friend again, and Shannon Parker had YOU believing it!

And I swear, being someone that has always believed that friends are more important than boys, the fact that I could understood scared me. And that is just a testament to how GREAT this book is.

But then, all of that I expected, on some level. What I didn’t expect the book to give me, however was the good AND the bad of the relationship. How everything was perfect, how Alec was the sweetest guy in the world that any girl would be lucky to have, how he made her meals and gave her these tiny gifts oh- so- often. It was perfect, and it wasn’t. And for the first time ever, I feel like I can understand a bit of what really goes on in the relationship you’re always warning your best friend against. The world isn’t a black and white place, but shades of grey, and The Girl Who Fell only reaffirmed that!

I SALUTE YOU, SHANNON PARKER!

And I’ve gone rambling almost five hundred words without once mentioning my two new FAVOURITE secondary characters – Gregg and Lizzie! That chemistry was brilliant, that friendship perfect – just like everything about this book!

POINTS FOR: Gregg, Lizzie, Zephyr (the character and the name!), Alec, Finn (the CUTEST dog in the world), ice hockey, family, weddings, parks, picnics, accurate descriptions of what it’s like to be a high school senior and DID I SAY GREGG?!

POINTS AGAINST: NOTHING! Nothing at all. Seriously.

Now go. Go READ THE BOOK. GO.