Badass Bloggettes: Falling by EK Blair ~ Blog Tour & Sarah's Review

Sometimes it takes someone else to show us what we are truly capable of becoming.

Suffering from years of violent abuse, Ryan Campbell has learned how to keep people from getting too close. But when you shut yourself off, people get hurt along the way. Never caring much about others, Ryan creates a world in which he doesn’t have to feel.

When Ryan meets Candace Parker, all of his walls slowly begin to crumble. Not sure of the truth of who she is, he feels his mind is playing tricks on him. Unable to force out the thoughts that consume him, Ryan is haunted by visions that torment him every time he looks at her. He finds himself swallowed by guilt and blame, but he’s unwilling to turn his back on the one person that could possibly save him.

You’ve heard Candace’s story in Fading, now hear Ryan’s.

I can not tell you how many times I have sat down to write this review. This book is just so amazing there are no words to describe it to you. It is everything. You'd think that after reading the same story for the third time it would start to feel old and completely overdone. Absolutely not the case. If I wouldn't have known that it was the third POV of this story I would have never known even having read the other books. It was a completely new story. It was totally Ryan's story and how it interwove with Candace and Jase's not their story from Ryan's POV.

'I'm sure she can hear my heart pounding, but I need her to hear it. I need her to feel it as it thuds in my chest because I need her to hear me falling for her, 'cause that's what's happeneing here - I'm falling. I never wanted to before, but with her, all I want to do is fall. Fall into her. Fall so deep inside of her heart so that I never have to be without her.'

I have so many feelings about this book. I literally could not put it down. When I received my ARC I closed the book I was reading and started it, as I had been anticipating it since I had finished Freeing. Then I could not put it down. This book, the entire series, will stay with me forever. It is one of those series that I foresee myself re-reading until I know the entire thing by heart and then I will reread it just to see if there is anything that I forgot.

'...at least they're my arms that are attempting to comfort her, because even though she doesn't know it, I don't think that anyone could give her what I want to give her. I'd give her the fuckin' world if I could.'

Ryan's own story is completely tragic. The pain that you can feel radiating off of him is so strong. There is no way that most people could have dealt with the things that he did and came out on the other side as well as he did. He is just SO strong. It is this strength that makes him exactly perfect for Candace. He doesn't know that he possesses this strength though. He has relegated himself to never having a relationship because of things in his past.

'These photos are my past, a past where I never considered meeting a girl like Candace. A past full of masks, trying to hide from the person I was scared to be. A person that I am now realizing I might be able to be - because of her. Because she is the one I want to take are of - protect. No girl has ever made me feel that was, but she does, and wanting to love her is so much more powerful than my fear of loving her.'

While we know that Ryan was the one who found Candace after her attack, and the subsequent fallout when he figures it out, I was glad to know how much the knowledge and the consequences destroyed him. It was so sad to watch, as painful as it was for Candace the desolation that he feels was so much harder for me.

"This changes nothing for me. Okay? Nothing. No one will ever love you like I do." I kiss her. I fell it's all I can do right now to show her that I'm here and I'm not leaving her. When I do finally drag my lips away, I give her more of me when I say, "You are the only reason that there's light in my life. Before you there was nothing but darkness."

I am happy that we ended this series with Ryan's POV. I think that getting to know the characters, more personally, in the order we did made each book more powerful. We got to see the path of destruction that one tragedy can reek in so many lives and how the people living those lives have to help one another pick up the pieces to become whole again.

"I love you will never be enough for what I feel for you."

If a gun were to my head and I had to pick a favorite book from this series, I would say that this is it. Each book was better than the last and built more layers on the complexity of the story we already knew. This is, hands down, my favorite series of the year. Which would make Falling my favorite book of the year. If you haven't picked this series up yet, do yourself a favor and do. (Pick up up a case of tissues as well.)

'I never knew that a person could be capable of falling as hard as I have for Candace. I spent so many years fearing the fall, but she made it effortless, taking all my fears away. With her, I know I'll never get enough. I'm always gonna want more, and as I make love to {her}, I know I'm gonna spend the rest of my life falling.'

(I almost made a new graphic with an endless number of stars for this book.)

She sniffs and I know she’s crying. Having her like this, in my arms, is an intimacy that’s completely foreign but comfortable. I’m sure she can hear my heart pounding, but I need her to hear it. I need her to feel it as it thuds in my chest because I need her to hear me falling for her, ‘cause that’s what’s happening here—I’m falling. I never wanted to before, but with her, all I want to do is fall. Fall into her. Fall so deep inside of her heart so that I never have to be without her. That’s what this girl does to me. That’s how powerful she is even when she thinks she’s at her weakest. She’s broken. I see it clearly, but whatever it is that’s haunting her, I wanna make it fade. I wanna make it fade and make her fall too—with me.

When she begins to pull away from me, I selfishly want to tighten my hold on her and keep her like this for a little longer. I worry this was just a random need for comfort from her, that I won’t get this again, that she doesn’t feel what I know I’m starting to. Fuck, this hurts.

FADING
AMAZON US: http://amzn.to/17jyMpF
AMAZON UK: http://amzn.to/HQmkrj
BARNES & NOBLE: http://bit.ly/1808QD1
iBOOKS: http://bit.ly/1eEH6I0

GOODREADS: http://bit.ly/1bFgZy8

FREEING
AMAZON US: http://amzn.to/1hAyB30
AMAZON UK: http://amzn.to/1fwSpzG
BARNES & NOBLE: http://bit.ly/16WsAqp
iBOOKS: http://bit.ly/1akN10O

GOODREADS: http://bit.ly/1bFgOCY

Falling by E.K. Blair book trailer from Novel Idea Inc. on Vimeo.

USA Today bestselling author and International Amazon bestselling author, E.K. Blair takes her readers on an emotional roller coaster with her FADING series. A former first grade teacher with an imagination that runs wild. Daydreaming and zoning out is how she was often found in high school. Blair tends to drift towards everything dark and moody. Give her a character and she will take pleasure in breaking them down, digging into their core to find what lies underneath.

Aside from writing, E.K. Blair finds pleasure in music, drinking her Starbucks in peace, and spending time with her friends. She's a thinker, an artist, a wife, a mom, and everything in between.