Falling From The Sky ( Gravity, #2) by Sarina Bowen

A Review by Wendy

4.5 Willing To Take The Risk Stars 

* * * 1/2

I appreciate the skill and depth of Sarina Bowen's writing. She never does anything halfway. I discovered last year when we talked about books on Hockey. I read The Year We Fell Down and have been a huge fan since. She tackles serious life changing events and brings them to us clearly with heart, care and reality. This book was no different.

This time the setting and sport is Elite Snowboarding, Olympic level. We are on the slopes getting ready to watch Bad boy Hank “Hazardous” Lazarus do a run on his board. He is a past Silver medalist and an Olympic Gold contender for the upcoming Games.  His friends are there to root him on. He is talking trash and arranging the meet up after his run when he is introduced briefly with Callie Anders. He takes her in at glance while shaking her hand and continues his conversation with his friends. Just an everyday occurrence...nothing to dwell on. He takes the lip of the  pipe and as these things happen...an Ariel he had done hundreds of times perfectly without any hitches goes wrong.... very wrong.

As Callie watched this tragedy take place, her training kicked in and alerted the hospital where she practiced to get ready in the ER for Hank. She knew this fall was bad and timing was critical. This was her expertise... this was where she lived... making sure those in need were cared for properly. Here she was the expert.

Hank is brought in and it takes days for him to come to a place of reality. As he wakes, he sees Callie... but doesn't know why he is familiar with her face. He floats in and out but finally starts to get a clear idea of what exactly happened. He is just trying to come to terms with it all and it is a lot. To add additional pressure, his well meaning parents are using every means possible to have the top experts in spinal cord injuries involved. Because the Lazarus family isn't just concerned parents; they are the major donors of the hospital and town. They have the wealth to move mountains and they are determined to find out how to use it to make Hank's legs move again.

Callie is in Hank's room talking with him and overseeing his chart when the parents start up again with the specialists. They are not pleased with the non answer answers. Callie sees the discomfort it is causing Hank and steps in... she explains how nothing can be answered as to what will happen with Hank's legs for sometime due to swelling, etc. She politely reads them the riot act and is saying back off. Her treatment of the situation cause Hank to have one moment of normalcy in a really messed up time.

Hank goes through rehab and is in PT but his head is in a very dark place; he is drinking way too much...cannot see any use in who he is now and ends up having alcohol poisoning. He lands back in the hospital and Callie is called in to sign off and release him. Callie sees the damage his behavior has done and she is very straight forward with him....she doesn't talk down to him or make him feel less than. She makes sure she stands back so he doesn't have to look up to her, putting Hank in an uncomfortable neck position. She treats him as a normal man and Hank so appreciates it. It jogs his memory of her being in his hospital room setting his parents straight. He shares with her the frustration he is having with them... as they want him to try some untested therapy and he doesn't want to. They talk a bit more and she finally releases him.
What doesn't happen is the thoughts in each of these people's minds... both are attracted to each other...both have felt the buzz... yet both leave it alone.

Callie leaves things alone a lot lately. She has to leave alone her hurt inflicted by one of the doctors were she works....They were a couple and she thought things were fine...only to discover him banging some nursing student in Exam room A. Now she leaves them alone as they flaunt their relationship all over the hospital. She leaves alone the dread of her student loans and how she needs to pay for them. She leaves alone her feelings of missing her friends... who have moved away. So with all she is leaving alone...she is alone and thinking of moving to some other place...maybe California to start over.

What happens next is the game changer. Callie is called into the Director's office and offered... sort of told for the good of the Hospital... she has been appointed the head of a grant for physical therapy using electrodes for spinal chord candidates. This grant money is coming form Hank's parents and it will boost the profile of the Hospital. The positives is Callie will not have to interact with the douchey ex and many veterans in the area would be able to be part of this program. Callie knows this must be due to Hank and she is right; he asked specifically for her to head up the program. She can't turn it down...she doesn't want to...she will just have to be careful around Hank.

We go on a journey with these two characters. Both have insecurities justified or not. Both have to handle the emotional pitfalls of laying it all out there in order to be open for love. Their past histories of being burned must be put aside and they both need to take the jump without a safety net.

The relationship between Callie and Hank felt real; ups and downs, insecurities and concern about why ... why did she love him...why would he care for her...all of these thing regular people worry about...and that was the key...after it was all said and done, Hank was a person not a chair...and needed others and himself to see it that way.


What I like the most about Ms. Bowen's writing is she doesn't sugarcoat anything... she just tells it like it is and by doing so, the reader can relate as if it is happening to a friend or even themselves. Life is hard; there are no guarantees. Accidents happen every single day causing damage to limbs and minds. It is the way the person handles what comes next. With the right information, guidance and willingness to seek it... good things can come out of bad. Sometime is ti hard to hold onto those concepts....Ms. Bowen shows us the way.

A gifted copy was provided by author/publisher for an honest review.

About Sarina Bowen

Sarina Bowen writes steamy, angsty Contemporary Romance and New Adult fiction from the wilds of Vermont.
She is the author of The Ivy Years, an award-winning series set amid the hockey team at an elite Connecticut college.
Waiting for more Ivy Years? You can read more about upcoming volumes in the four book series at http://www.sarinabowen.com/theivyyears
Also, the Gravity series.
Sarina enjoys skiing, espresso drinks and the occasional margarita. She lives with her family, eight chickens and more ski gear and hockey equipment than seems necessary.
To be kept abreast of new releases, please feel free to sign up for the mailing list at http://www.sarinabowen.com/contact. Or visit the her Facebook page, or tweet her @sarinabowen.