Review: Falling for You by Jill Mansell.

Posted August 26, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments


Main Characters: Maddie Harvey, Kerr McKinnon,
Series: None

It’s a disastrous thing to do… falling for you|Maddy Harvey was a bit of an ugly duckling as a teenager, what with her NHS specs, unfortunate hair and wonky teeth. Thankfully she’s blossomed since then. But when she meets Kerr McKinnon one starry summer’s night and discovers, days later, who he actually is…well, that’s when the problems really start. Because everyone in Ashcombe knows what happened eleven years ago, and as far as her mother’s concerned, Marcella would rather tear that family to pieces with her bare hands than see Maddy associate with a McKinnon. It’s Romeo and Juliet all over again. Quick, hide those sharp knives and that little bottle of poison…|Jill Mansell worked for many years at the Burden Neurological Hospital, Bristol, and now writes full time. She lives with her partner and their children in Bristol. Jill is the author of many bestselling novels with Headline and appears regularly in the Guardian Top One Hundred list.

This is the third book by Jill Mansell that I’ve read and to say that I’m kind of on a roll here is probably putting it mildly. My friend Theresa gave me TWO Jill Mansell books and I was so dang happy that I did a quick happy jig right inside her room and then I couldn’t wait to get home to tell my other friend, Haven all about my new books because both Haven and I love the heck out of Jill Mansell.

Every time I read a Mansell book, I laugh because when someone says, “BLIMEY” or “BLOODY HELL” I can hear in my head, my friend Haven saying it. We’ve sort of adopted the British sayings into our vocabularies and for some reason, it cracks me up every time.

But anyway, on with the review. This is a modern day Romeo and Juliet tale where we have our fair heroine, Maddy Harvey and our swoon worthy hero Kerr, meeting and falling in love without really knowing what’s what. You see, they meet while Maddy only has one contact in her eye and also at night time. Kerr doesn’t recognized because our fair Maddy was quite the ugly duckling when they were younger but she’s grown into a beautiful swan over the years and when they meet again in the day light hours, they realize who they are and that a match between them could never happen because Maddy’s mother HATES Kerr’s family with everything inside her and Kerr knows exactly why.

Over time, Maddy and Kerr try unsuccessfully to stay away from each other but they’re in love and before Maddy knows whats what, they’re trying their hand at a relationship, hoping that it will fizzle out but when that doesn’t happen, they decide to keep their love a secret from everyone in their world.

Only we all know what happens with secrets? They always have a way of coming out and when it does, Maddy does what every daughter does when faced with a loved ones hurt feelings.

She lets Kerr go for good, even though it hurts her.

*sigh*

The thing that bothered me about this book was how fiercely Marcella hated the McKinnon and while she had ample reasons to hate them, I thought it was pretty unfair to both Kerr and to Maddy. Kerr wasn’t responsible for what happened that night so long ago and Maddy was in love. It wasn’t just a passing fancy for her, it was real and it was true and Marcella made her give it up and because Maddy loved her mother and didn’t want any complications at her doorstep, she walked away from the best thing that ever happened to her.

For her love for her family.

That Marcella would let Maddy make that kind of sacrifice and make Maddy feel like she betrayed her family pissed me to high heaven because I would NEVER do that to Brenna. NEVER. You can’t help who you fall in love with Maddy tried to stay away from Kerr but the heart wants what it wants and I cannot believe the sainted Marcella would put the sins of one person onto another person’s back.

Pissed me right off.

I understand completely hating the brother for what he did and for hating the mother for what you thought she said but I don’t understand hating a young boy who had nothing to do with the accident and just had the misfortune of being related to the people at blame. When I was about 11 years old, my brother Seko was shot and I went to school with people who knew the guy who shot my brother. I knew of the shooters family members but never once did I think to hate them for what their brother did to my brother. My brother may not have died but he’ll never walk again because of what the shooter did but I never blamed his family because he was of age where he knew what he was doing and he did it anyway.

The other thing that bothered me was how little page time Maddy and Kerr actually got. There’s a huge chunk in the middle where we get nothing from Maddy and Kerr, well actually from Kerr because all we got from Maddy was how sad she was and how she wasn’t eating anything and we got that much because the secondary stories were from the people in her life.

I hated that Marcella could go on and be happy with her man and Jake could go on and be happy with the woman that he loved but Maddy had to give up her love because she fell in love with a boy from that family.

Even though I had major issues with all of that, I still ended up liking the book. I enjoyed getting to know the other characters in the story from Jake, Sophie and Juliette and her son (I forget his name), I also enjoyed watching Kate thaw into a good person but the whole who’s Juliette’s baby daddy thing was a bit much for me but still, overall this was a good read. The way that Marcella finally comes to accept Kerr in Maddy’s life happened so quickly that it came off feeling a bit forced and rush but alls well that ends well. It’s not my favorite Jill Mansell but it was still enjoyable.

I could have done with more Maddy and Kerr in this book but overall, not bad.

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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4 responses to “Review: Falling for You by Jill Mansell.

  1. *sigh* Dunno if I’ll read this one, I don’t like the Romeo and Juliet plots – the only time I’ve liked it was during the sassy gay friend parody – but Im stil going to check out the other one you reviewed about the couple that reunites after lotsa years-

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