Crashing Down - A Review

Kathryn is a straight-and-narrow business student getting ready to start an internship she's not sure she even wants, and Noah is a dropout looking for a good time to help him forget his pain. A bet forces the two to meet, but things don't go according to plan, and certain demons refuse to stay in the dark. My honest opinion of Crashing Down by Cathryn Fox is a bit conflicted. I enjoyed it, and I'd recommend it, but I have some issues. I don't expect New Adult novels to be literary rock stars, but I do expect them to hold some kind of weight.

The novel is told from dual perspectives, which I felt was pointless. It's all about Noah, and Kathryn is almost secondary. She doesn't go as deep as she could with this character. We know what Kathryn struggles are, but she never hits a brick wall. It's almost too easy for her. It was as if the author felt Kathryn had to have issues, so she gave her a few. On the other hand, Noah is great. He's a layered, three-dimensional character, but he's almost unbelievable. The story is centered around his pain and him being forced to deal with things he's been using sex and violence to ignore. He's one of those people who can't help himself, so he helps everyone else. His friend needs money and Kathryn needs to be who she is, and he finds a way.

The beginning and the end are the "to each his own" kind of deals. I felt they were cheesy. I don't like the author telling me everything I need to know about a character in the first two pages. After his mini psychological biography, she jumps into a sex scene and a fight with Noah which told me everything I need to know, so everything she wrote about him before that was just words. The ending was rushed. Things explode, but there's no clean up. Everything goes wrong and everything is fixed in a day. The "I want to root for this couple" that's classic in New Adult isn't there, and that was such a letdown.

Overall I thought it was too short, but it's a juicy little novel and a really fun read. Would I read other works by Cathryn Fox? More than likely.