Fall Risk - A short Story by Abby Jimenez

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
82 Pages

From Goodreads: 

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.

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Aurel's take: 

I told you I read 3 Abby Jimenez books in one week. Did you think I was joking? 

This was sadly just a short story, but I definitely could have done with a couple more hundred pages of this book. (A fellow coworker agrees.) I think the thing I enjoy most about Abby's writing is how the characters play and joke with each other. The witty one liners, comebacks, and callbacks make me smile IRL as I read them. That's what I want in romance books: playfulness, comfort, and wit, which Abby gives us in droves. 

Charlotte's back story is one that sends waves of fear into any woman with a pulse, which makes it both easy to root for her, and easy to understand why she acts the way she does. 
Again: Props to Jimenez for giving us a plot with real adult problems. This really sheds light onto what life would be like if any of us had issues similar to Charlotte's. 

Seth's story is less dramatic, in my opinion, but still valid. I like when writers include characters that are divorced relatively young. Again, its realistic to me, as I have several friends in the same boat. I enjoy the author's ability to give us believable characters with real world hurdles to jump in order to better their lives. (Whether that's with or without a partner by their sides.)