Feels Like Falling

Kristy Woodson Harvey

Apr 2020 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

From “the next major voice in Southern fiction” (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author) and the bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series comes the instant USA TODAY bestseller that explores just how much our past choices define our happiness.

It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast and the livin’ is easy.

Unless, that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her extremist husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger, Diana Harrington, fired from her job at the local pharmacy.

Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a worn-out Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience.

With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn. But when her first love returns, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once. And, as Gray begins to blaze a new trail, she discovers, with Diana’s help, that what she envisioned as her perfect life may not be what she wants at all.

In her warmest, wisest novel yet, Kristy Woodson Harvey delivers a discerning portrait of modern womanhood through two vastly different lenses. Feels Like Falling is a beach bag essential for longtime Harvey fans and for a new generation.

Ratings and reviews

Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey is an entertaining novel of friendship and new beginnings. Thirty-four year old Gray Howard is a successful businesswoman who is hoping to finalize her divorce soon. She positively adores her eight year old son Wagner and she is struggling with the thought of him only living her with her part-time. Gray hopes spending the summer along the North Carolina coast will prove to be a time of healing. At the urging of her longtime friend Marcy, she also begins dating again. Gray also becomes close friends with Diana Harrington who finds herself unexpectedly at a crossroads after leaving her boyfriend. Gray is a workaholic who is taking stock of her life. She is fighting to keep Greg from taking more than his fair share in their divorce proceedings. She is trying to not to become bitter over Greg’s infidelity as she contemplates dating again. With Marcy’s encouragement, Gray agrees to one date with a man she is attracted to and genuinely likes but cannot imagine being with long term. As she makes peace with these unexpected changes, will Gray give love another chance? Forty year old Diana has a long string of broken relationships behind her. Finally fed up with her deadbeat boyfriend, she impetuously leaves him. Broke, suddenly unemployed and homeless, she is grateful for Gray’s job offer. Having grown up in the foster care system, Diana has difficulty trusting and she is reluctant to rely on anyone for help. She is surprised by her friendship with Gray but she knows her job is only temporary. With her dream of owning her own business finally within reach, Diana is stunned when someone from her distant past re-enters her life. But can Diana risk having her heart shattered by him again? Alternating between Gray and Diana’s points of view, Feels Like Falling is a touching novel that is light-hearted yet has plenty of depth. The characters are beautifully developed and quite appealing. The coastal setting leaps vibrantly to life and serves as the perfect backdrop for Gray and Diana to find happiness. With a storyline perfectly balanced between humor and true to life issues, Kristy Woodson Harvey brings this heartfelt novel to an uplifting conclusion. I truly enjoyed and I highly recommend this delightful story to fans of the genre. I received a complimentary copy for review.

Two women, merely five years apart yet separated by circumstances, money and history are brought together with a bit of serendipity and good intentions and soon find that everything that was off in their lives can now be adjusted, examined and even explored as options open up for them both. The North Carolina coast is readied for summer, and both Gray and Diana find themselves in proximity that is strangely positive for them both. Gray is still reeling from her divorce and struggling with her son’s imminent departure with his father and new girlfriend for the next three weeks. Diana is simply trying to make new choices when she moves out from the ‘latest boyfriend’s’ place with little but the clothes she owns, an on its last legs car and a job at the local pharmacy running the photo developer. These two are so very similar and dissimilar, but each has something that the other needs. Gray has a house, a need for a cleaner since she’s a snob, and an ear to listen to her worries. Diana needs work and a home – and Gray can provide both. Funnily enough, both characters are instantly engaging and sympathetic – Gray with her worries about her son, her grief about her mother’s loss and anger with her ex. Diana’s that M&M shell – hard outer crust, melty center, with no expectations that things will ever change, or that a relationship is in her interests as she is rotating a series of ‘ugly’ t-shirts that remind her of every failed relationship. There are moments here to laugh and to cry: plenty of examples of friendship and its power to heal and help as people move through the challenges that life can toss in their path. With plenty of humor, great friends and some food examples that will have you wanting to raid the refrigerator, the message here is open. Be open to friendship, open to options, open to possibilities and open to taking changes, even second and third chances because one could come up trumps. A perfect escape read with a little bit of everything – including romance and that happy ending. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

ARC for honest review with no compensation received from NetGalley Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey and a new to me author. Gray Howard, CEO, recently left her cheating husband and decides to spend some time at her summer home in North Carolina to regroup...loosing her mother to cancer and her sister to marriage. Then she accidentally gets Diane Harrington accidentally fired from her job. What happens next is a blossoming friendship between them, challenges, building a new life and hoping to find their way forward to whatever life holds.

About the author

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including The Wedding Veil, Under the Southern Sky, and The Peachtree Bluff series, which is in development for television with NBC. A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, her writing has appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Southern Living, Traditional Home, USA TODAY, Domino, and O. Henry. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. Her books have received numerous accolades, including Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Beach Reads, Parade’s Big Fiction Reads, and Entertainment Weekly’s Spring Reading Picks. Kristy is the cocreator and cohost of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction. She blogs with her mom, Beth Woodson, on Design Chic, and loves connecting with fans on KristyWoodsonHarvey.com. She lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband and son where she is (always!) working on her next novel.