“I was in free fall the moment we met, and I just keep falling.” Small town police officer Silas Sloane knows every resident of O’Leary, New York. He’s earned the love and respect of its citizens, though living under the small-town microscope grates on him. But though he’s good at his job, there’s one thing he’s not good at: commitments… Until Everett. Widower Everett Maior, O’Leary’s newest … O’Leary’s newest citizen, came to the small town kicking and screaming. He never wanted to become primary caretaker for his grandfather and has no interest in living the provincial life. Snarky and superstitious, he’s proficient at keeping people at a distance… Until he lays eyes on Silas.
Strange disappearances are plaguing O’Leary, though, even as Silas and Everett find their growing attraction undeniable. Can they find their way to a future together, even as ghosts from the past threaten to tear them apart?
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I have fallen in love with O’Leary. I just hate that it took me so long to start this series. I loved the town and characters in this book. Just be warned: if you start reading, you’re going to want to read the entire series!
Its okay to move on…
by and1515
If there was one thing Everett couldn’t stand was the sounds his own mom was making and the other was how easily it was for her to pull all the right strings to get what she wanted.
He’d caved in real quick; almost to quick which also meant he now had to rearrange his own life for the next three hundred and something days.
To stay in some backwards hick-town that never changes and probably never would nor would the old man he’d be living with his grandfather.
Silas had had really high hopes for later tonight the lucky kind if he played his cards right but for some reason those went out the window in a hand basket.
Who knew living in such a rinky dink little piece of Americana could be such a hot-spot for dumb criminals.
To bad my date didn’t understand when everything nice and quiet you get to enjoy your time off but when the calls start coming in that’s when they end.
Unfortunately his trip wasn’t as uneventful as he’d hoped; and now he was in the middle of nowhere trying to see the darn road.
First he noticed was a small vehicle making nice with the local scenery then he found its driver just up the road.
Tired and on the verge of being downright grumpy I’d explained that I’d been heading to my granddad’s when the some animal came out of nowhere and was gone just as quickly as it appeared.
Honestly Silas had thought he was a teen who’d been driving under the influence;
but yeah it was good to hear he was neither.
Everett and his dear old granddad didn’t have the best relationship and they probably never would; they got along as well as chalk and cheese.
Silas wasn’t a prudish kind of person nor was he hiding his preferences; but he did like his privacy and of course that’s not always easy living where he did.
But when his best bud starts talking about the last guy he met up with a few weeks back and how he was yapping to his colleagues all about him.
Everett wasn’t quite sure how he got roped into helping out; but nevertheless here he was with the last person he really needed to be around and that was Silas.
There was just something about him that made him think things that he hadn’t felt or thought for along time.
Then Silas shifted them off the beaten path because he wanted to show him a secret spot that was truly breathtaking.
Everett was the one to make the first move totally surprising Silas when he thoroughly kissed; and nope he couldn’t even deny his simple request and he kissed him back.
Unfortunately I got a little head of myself so caught up in those magic feelings that I nearly lost my senses and I felt even worse.
And yeah Silas totally got him.
Small towns are great for being tight knit communities where everyone knows everything so it should have been obvious that people were watching them.
But then Silas admitted what he’d been truly thinking and even more importantly where his feelings really laid.
One of the hardest things for Everett was being the one left behind trying to pick up the pieces he could and move forward felt so wrong but now he meet someone who made him feel something once again.
He was an idiot and Silas knew it; he’d been wrong and he was willing to admit he was but all he got was silence.
So he decided to man up and do it in person only it never happened that way because his granddad did have a clue where he was.
Everett wasn’t sure at first what woke him up but now he was at a loss as to how he ended up in the middle of some crime drama.
With very few options left he knew deep down he’d have to do something because doing nothing wasn’t an option.
I did not expect this to turn out how it turned out.. but I liked it.
This was my first read by the Author that was her own book and not a cowrite. And it was sweet. It was a strange mix of romance, small town comedy and suspense.
The main characters, Si and Ev, were both complex and their acts and feelings sometimes did not make sense to me. The fights always ended both of them realising they were unfair and neither of them were to blame which is kind of weird. However the two kinds of grief described made the whole thing pretty emotional.
But if we look at the setting and the small town charm… it was cute and funny as hell! Gossip, speculation and an incredible amount of festivals. The other couples in the story and all the villagers provided a great and extensive backstory.. but I sometimes found it hard to place characters.
My other favourite was Grandpa Hen who was a grumpy, grumpy man… but the fact they were the same with Ev was funny and emotional. I liked his no-nonsense character
All in all, it was an enjoyable book though nothing extraordinary. It was a pretty great comfort read for me.
Good writing, but for me an quick ending. Story could have been a bit longer (2 or 3 more chapters)
I was delighted with the whole series! Such lovely characters, and pretty low-level angst. The interactions between the books were also fun, and all the supporting characters added so much to the story.
Really enjoyed the romance part, but found the mystery part clunky and had figured out the “who” very early on.
I liked it but didn’t really love it. This is a new to me author and I’m probably going to check out the next books.
There is so much going on and mystery plot was resolved a bit too quickly for my taste. Ev and Silas are pretty good together but I just felt something was missing. I love the small town setting and everyone being super nosy.
Grandpa Hen is my favourite character. Especially when caffeine depraved. Looking forward to the next one, will hopefully like it better.
This was surprisingly more wholesome than I expected. It’s nice to find a book that has more storyline than sex scenes.
That said, I enjoy Ev and Si. They seemed to mesh well together once they both got their heads out of their asses. Seriously, there were several moments throughout the story that made me want to slap the shit out of both of them for being so ridiculous. Other than the moments of annoyance when both characters seemed to move forward, only to find some excuse to pull back, I enjoyed this story. I loved the overly cheesy town of O’Leary and most of the supporting characters. Except Karen…seriously, she needs to go!
Everett lost his husband to cancer over a year ago. Now he has to move and help his grandfather, who broke his leg.
Things do not go as they should, on his way to O’Leary, he have an accident, Silas find him and help him.
I love this story. I laugh a lot and the twist in the story, that I wasn’t expecting.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Start to finish.
The main characters are well rounded, and their romance is lovely and satisfying. The spicy scenes are well done, and the secondary characters are supportive of the storyline.
The second book in the series and I enjoyed it as much as the first book. Julien and Daniel make a great couple and I loved how both of them has their problems, scars and fears, but in the end they made it work. May Archer put a lot of thought and effort into their mind and emotion
The minute I started this book I knew I was gonna love it. This series is based in the town of O’Leary, New York, where everyone knows everyone and once you’ve arrived there’s no way you’re leaving. The townsfolk are funny and snarky and never short on telling one other how they “really feel.”
The Fall concentrates on the relationship between Everett and Silas.
Everett is new in town, coerced by his mom into staying with his ornery grandfather, Hen, who’d injured his leg. Hen is one helluva firecracker who Ev has never really gotten along with. On the way into town, Ev has a car accident, which is how he meets Silas Stone, police officer.
The two each have suffered through their own life-changing tragedy, which makes it difficult for them to figure out how to move on even though they’re highly attracted to one another.
As Everett gets comfortable with life in this quirky town, he realizes that maybe he was never meant to leave. If Silas has his way, he’d make sure of that.
This is one of those series where every single colorful character is equally as important as the next, adding so much to the storyline. The writing is top-notch and the author easily engages her readers with her organic, off-the-cuff, sarcastic, funny, and heartfelt dialogue. There are twists and turns as well with a murderer on the loose.
The Fall has everything. It’ll suck you in and have you reading it in one sitting. I’m looking forward to start the next in the series. I highly recommend this book.
“Grief is not linear.” It’s been a long year for Everett. He’s locked his heart away so far behind a wall of misplaced loyalty that he finds himself traveling a dark, twisting road on the way to care for his stubborn, homophobic grandfather in a town he never wanted to see again. A little accident however, derails that trip and introduces him to the local law…a seriously hot specimen who makes Ev feel things he swore he was done feeling forever. Silas is intrigued by the reluctant man he finds limping on the side of a dangerous road. Turned on too. As they grow closer it’s clear that there are some serious emotional hurdles they’ll each have to clear to find their HEA…but only if the person behind the disappearances from the town can be stopped because it’s more than just their relationship in danger.
I’m pretty sure I loved almost everything about Everett. There were many times that I was completely frustrated with his determination to push Silas away but I felt so much sympathy for his struggle. Dealing with your own grief is never easy. And for him to take the advice of so many professionals and still feel totally lost? How is that easy or healthy? So when he meets the man who could possibly give him everything his heart yearns for, everything he was hoping for but lost, his response is absolutely understandable and equally exasperating.
Silas, on the other hand, kept me interested mostly by being vexing. The constant denials, the total dick move at the bar, his pushing based on his own hurt feelings…so many things frustrated me. But I totally loved him. He was such a perfect match for Everett and the honesty of his heart as well as his personal hangups made him so very human.
Whenever their relationship hit an obstacle I was so bothered by their reactions but by the time they got their resolution I honestly can’t see it going any other way. Everett’s moment of realization is in a pretty dramatic situation but I loved his reflection on it…recognizing that hearing his own thoughts voiced by a crazy person is, well, crazy went a long way to making me find humor rather than disappointment in his weakness.
Speaking of the crazy, the “villain” is pretty obvious once they’re introduced. We knew a big moment was coming but while who ended up being involved turned out to be predictable, it was the lead-up to it that was interesting. And the surprise confession was exactly that; a surprise that brought everything full-circle and answered the grief of so many people gave closure in a way that just accepting grief hadn’t been able to do up to this point.
With a story filled with so much grief we could have had a melodramatic set of events and emotionally unstable characters that didn’t achieve necessary growth or evolution. Instead, our first look into the love lives of O’Learians gives us humor, passion, softness, healing, acceptance, growth, intrigue, uniqueness, and love. I kind of want to live there…between a town that sees a rainbow flag as a field of phallic objects, nosy neighbors who want everyone to find their love match, and the bakery with treats I seriously drool over, who wouldn’t want to be a part of their world?