Book Review: Can’t Help Falling In Love by Sophie Sullivan

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. Your purchases help fund my content and come at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

I have a bit of a soft spot for clumsy protagonists in books, but there’s a line for me when it feels too deliberate. 

It’s clear the author’s trying to make clumsiness a major part of the character, and it becomes too obvious, especially when it’s repeated throughout the story.

Lexi, our female lead is introduced at her job at a restaurant, where she’s making a total mess of things. Even though she’s been working there for a while, she still hasn’t mastered waitressing. 

On the flip side, Will, our male lead, is a super rich CFO of his family’s company, which seems to be in the diaper business (correct me if I’m wrong). When he sees her fumbling around at the restaurant, he’s surprised but also intrigued.

Somehow, they end up having to pretend to be in a relationship, and, of course, it spirals out of control when their families get involved. But by this point, they’ve both developed real feelings for each other, so they decide to keep up the ruse.

What’s different about this fake relationship book is that the fake relationship isn’t really the central dilemma. 

Usually, with these types of stories, the tension comes from whether or not the fake relationship will be exposed, but that’s not the case here. 

Instead, the story is more focused on whether or not the characters will end up together. While that’s sweet, it felt kind of tame for a book this long.

To be honest, the characters felt painfully cliché. The metaphors were awkward, the dialogue felt unnatural at times, and the whole progression of the story felt a little lukewarm. Without any major conflicts, it just felt like we were slowly watching them fall for each other, but without any real drama to keep things interesting.

Sure, there’s some family drama and a bit of tension with Lexi’s mom, but everything gets resolved pretty quickly – sometimes right as the issues pop up. I couldn’t quite figure out why the author chose this approach, because while it wasn’t the worst, it did feel like the majority of the smaller conflicts got glossed over.

If you’ve watched any rom-com TV shows or sitcoms with a central romantic plot, this book might remind you of those episodes where the couple falls in love. That’s kind of the vibe of the whole book. Again, it’s not a bad thing, but it didn’t give me enough to actually love the book.

If the romance is the only thing that a book has going for it, that’s not always a great sign – especially when the book is over 200 pages long. For a book of that length, I expect a fully developed plot, and this just didn’t have that.

On the bright side, I really enjoyed how Lexi and Will met each other where they were and made space for each other in their lives. That, to me, is one of the most important elements of any romantic story. I especially loved how they both gave each other what they were looking for – there’s something really precious about that.

Lexi has this past she’s running from, and she struggles to move on from it. By the end, she learns that it’s okay to accept her flaws and be compassionate with herself. She realizes that she’s worthy of love, and that’s a beautiful part of the story.

Ultimately, I think the book is about what happens when we refuse to look at the past because we’re afraid of it. Even though the leads didn’t have a big dilemma to work through, that theme added some depth to the story.

I’d recommend this to anyone who’s looking for a low-angst romance that’s easy to read and fluffy from start to finish. It’s a quick, sweet read, but don’t expect much in terms of drama or a deeply developed plot.