Fall
By Karina Bliss
Publisher: Karina Bliss
Release Date: November 15, 2016
Release Date: December 6, 2016
Dimity Graham has been personal assistant to rock legend
Zander Freedman for three years, throughout the period of during which he
reinvented Rage and introduced the new band to the world. Not only is Dimity
totally immersed in her job, but she has also found in Zander and the band a
version of family that works for her. She is fiercely devoted to this small
group which has broadened to include Zander’s love, Elizabeth Winston, and
Jared Walker’s wife Kayla. She refuses to even consider that Zander may not
recover his voice after vocal surgery or that Rage may not be able to overcome
the damaging publicity that resulted from Zander’s lip syncing the national
anthem at a charity performance (Rise).
Dimity is working to see that everything is in place for Rage to resume their
tour once Zander is back and all the fires have been doused. She doesn’t have
much of a personal life, but one night she is looking to celebrate the freedom
that is hers now that her emotionally and financially demanding mother is
remarried. Dimity’s idea of celebrating involves champagne and hot, hook-up
sex. It does not involve Rage drummer, Seth Curran.
Seth is going through a rough time emotionally. His
long-time girlfriend who broke up with him several months earlier has just told
him that she is engaged to someone else. He is heartbroken and depressed.
Nice-guy Seth and tiger-tamer Dimity have unexpectedly become friends and when
Seth learns Dimity’s plans for the evening, he insists on going with her to
help her with the hook-up search. Instead of finding a hook-up, Dimity and Seth
get drunk together, she convinces him to let his ex think that Dimity is his
new girlfriend, and the two, after a flirtation gains steam, have sex. Their
night together proves more intense than either of them expected, and they are
both worried about how it will affect their friendship. They try to act as if
nothing happened, but their knowledge of each other has acquired an intimacy
beyond the merely physical, and neither one of them can forget it.
When they arrive in New Zealand, Dimity is still acting as
Seth’s girlfriend, so they spend even more time together. Although the plan is
that Mel (Seth’s ex) will realize what she has thrown away and dump her new
love to return to Seth, the chemistry between Dimity and Seth grows steadily
more explosive. Dimity who has never known ordinary family life falls hard for
Seth’s mom, who is everything her own mother is not, and for his sister and
infant niece. She has no patience with his father who is still giving Seth
grief for leaving the family firm to take a chance with his music. Dimity is
angry that Seth is being hurt, and she doesn’t hesitate to let Papa Curran know
what she thinks. But not even she can fix everything for Seth who ends up
feeling as if his entire family has betrayed him. Dimity has her own
earth-shattering news to deal with, and her reaction to it reveals a part of
herself that she despises even as she embraces it.
Seth accepts that he has fallen in love with Dimity without
a struggle, and he has no illusions about how difficult it is going to be. He
understands how frightened Dimity is of loving and being loved, of knowing and
being known. He is not surprised when her fear prompts her to run, but with a
little help from their friends, his love may win his lady after all.
I surprise myself with how invested I have become in the
characters from Bliss’s Rock Solid series. If my love for Fall is somewhat less than for the two earlier stories, Rise and Play, I nevertheless give it top marks. For me, Dimity is proof
that I don’t have to identify with a heroine to love her story. She is an alpha
heroine accustomed to being in charge. She tells Seth “I machinate” and
continues to describe her favorite activities: “Scheme, plot, intrigue, devise,
strategize, maneuver, conspire. Win. It’s my thing.” Of course, there is more
to Dimity than she admits, more than she even realizes, but even so it is not
always easy to like her, particularly when she is her worst self.
Seth, on the other hand, is immensely likeable. I’m a beta
lover, and he is one of my favorite beta heroes ever. A nice guy who cares
about people, he also demonstrates why it is wrong to conclude that betas lack
complexity and an untamed core. He is such a nice guy that Dimity initially
thinks he is too soft for the rock world. One revealing conversation shows that
even after they become friends, Dimity doesn’t always understand him.
“After your breakup, I couldn’t work out
whether I admired or despised your willingness to suffer when you had so many
women wanting to help you feel better.”
He was
silent a few seconds, then pushed his plate aside. “I’d gotten used to having
sex with someone I loved. It was a tough habit to break.”
His
expression was so bleak that she had to look away. This was why she kept
relationships transient. Love hurt.
He, however, understands Dimity. At the moment, he admits to
himself that he loves her, he acknowledges the risk he is taking.
Dimity would never love him back, never let him close probably. She was
a complex, contradictory woman, casually cruel, implacably kind, blisteringly
honest, and the queen of denial. She’d put up a wall a mile high between them tomorrow.
She might even be ashamed of what they’d shared tonight. It was dangerous and
foolhardy to fall in love with a woman who knew a thousand ways to leave a man.
And he did it anyway. Knowingly, instinctively, deliberately. With no
regrets.
All that—and he is a rare red-haired hero and a bit of a
beast behind the drums and in the bedroom. (Big sigh!)
If you are a fan of the current trend for romances with a
rock music connection, you will find that Fall
and the connected books are among the best in the subgenre. If you are a
contemporary romance reader who thinks rock star romance is not for you, you
must not have read Karina Bliss’s Rock Solid books. I think Fall can be read as a standalone, but my
recommendation is to start with What the
Librarian Did (strictly speaking not part of this series) and move on to Rise, Play and Fall, in that
order. Whatever the order, I highly recommend you read them all.
I plan to reread all four while I am waiting for the next
book. I hope Luther’s novella will be next, but I am even more intrigued with
Moss after Fall, and a second novel
for Zander and Elizabeth sounds perfect. Whatever is next, count me among the
readers.
~Janga
Q&A with Karina Bliss
Janga: Was Dimity a difficult character to write?
Karina: Surprisingly, no. I find that if I introduce characters as
sidekicks in earlier books, they actually end up more complex and human. Go
figure! I think it's because they're not carrying the mantle of 'heroine' or 'hero' on their shoulders. A lot
of writer and reader expectations come with that label and that can weigh down
the writing if I try and write them too soon. Instead, I write them outrageous
in earlier books and spend their book finding out what made them so
awful. It's not a method I'd recommend but it works for me because real people
are complex and multi-dimensional and awful and kind and difficult and generous
and I want that for my characters. And I want them to find love anyway, because
at heart they're good people. My only concern with writing Dimity was not
trying to soften her edges through the story to make her a more traditional
heroine.
Janga: I confess that I was as surprised as Dimity by
Zander’s decision. Without moving into spoiler territory, can you tell us
whether this was something that you planned all along or something that
evolved?
Karina: I was halfway through writing Rise when I knew Zander had
to give up everything to deserve his HEA with Elizabeth. He was never going to
be a quick fix, he'd been too selfish for too long. It was a sign of his
growing maturity that he recognized Elizabeth alone was not enough to 'fix'
him. And that he shouldn't expect her to.
And Zander's personality is not about half-measures. I
couldn't imagine him saying, “Oh, I'll just work on changing one bad habit a
week.” He throws himself into new adventures, boots and all. So personal growth
is also on a massive scale (he's the bean in Jack & The Beanstalk). He's a character
that needs to set big challenges for himself, so I gave him one. (We're both hoping it works out).
Janga: Was Mel’s character inspired by someone? I must
say I loved that she was a Paralympic athlete and it was no big deal.
Karina: I so admire Paralympians. Every interview I see with one
motivates an attitude re-adjustment in my own life. I particularly admire Kiwi
Paralympian champion, Sophie Pascoe's approach to life. My brother-in-law
became paraplegic in his late twenties and had me researching diving and skiing
opportunities for him while he was still in hospital. The human spirit
recognizes no limitations. At the same time, you're still 'just you' to friends
and family.
Janga: I expected Luther’s story and Moss’s story to
follow, but the promise of a second book for Zander and Elizabeth seems like a
splendid gift. Can you tell us anything about the story?
Karina: No! Right now, I have a lot of vague ideas that need to
link magically together. I really wish I was a plotter but my natural
inclination is to write and see what happens, (and then rewrite what happens a
thousand times). I always appreciate reader feedback. Zander got his own book
through reader requests. If you're reading this, and have ideas on what you'd
love to see happen next for Zander and Elizabeth, email me! Seriously. My
address is: karina@karinabliss.com
Janga: What was the hardest scene to write so far in
the Rock Solid series?
Karina: Let me change that question to 'What was the hardest scene
to delete? I wrote five scenes in Zander's point of view for Fall and then
deleted/rewrote them on the advice on my editor. She made the excellent point
that Zander had such a big story in Rise that giving him small relationship
challenges in Fall read a little flat. Better to filter Zander and Elizabeth
through Dimity and Seth in Fall and build to bigger challenges for
Zander/Elizabeth in another book.
Janga: Do you have playlists for your novels and
novellas?
Karina: Oddly no, considering this is a rock series! I've had
'theme songs' for two of my books. I played Evanescence's My Immortal constantly
to channel the emotional angst for Mr Imperfect. In Bring Him Home,
I used Pearl Jam's The End to evoke my heroine's conflicted feelings for
her late husband, and Strobe (Adagio in D Minor) from the first Kickass
movie to help me pace my battle scene prologue. It would be good to have theme
songs for the Rock Solid Romance series though. Thanks for the tip!
PJ: Thank you for visiting with us today, Karina.
Would you like to ask our readers a question?
Do you think romance readers are more forgiving of
difficult heroes than difficult heroines? If yes, why do you think that is?
Thanks for inviting me to the Dish, PJ.
One randomly chosen person who leaves a comment before 11:00 PM (EST), December 10, 2016 will receive an e-book copy of FALL.
