Falling For Autumn Tour Stop! ~ Crystal's Many Reviewers

Autumn Dorey had no problem leaving her hometown of Newpine and the friends there who’d betrayed her. Everyone thought they knew what happened the spring night Autumn’s world fell apart. Vicious rumors about the incident circulated, and she had to be homeschooled the last year of high school to escape her tormentors. All she wants now is to get away from it all and start over at Cook University. She leaves everything but the memory behind—something she swore she’d never forget—and sets off to rebuild what was broken.

Blake Preston is precisely the type of guy Autumn wants to avoid. He’s gorgeous, arrogant and the college’s beloved football star. As much as she believes he’s someone she should steer clear of, avoiding him proves to be impossible. He shows up everywhere around campus, offering her a no-strings attached friendship.

Autumn can’t deny Blake stirs up emotions she thought fled years ago. But things he’s been hiding begin to emerge and collide with her past, leaving her heart ravaged in their wake.

Ages 17+ Due to Strong Language and Sexual Situations

This book is a typical damaged girl/hot athlete college romance. I was intrigued by the description enough to give it a go, and while I didn’t find the plot particularly original, I did find that it was a well written read with great characters.

Autumn has basically decided to start again at Cook University. Escaping the hometown memories and rumors that plague her of an awful night coupled with the betrayal of those she trusted most, she wants to start fresh. And avoid the star football players at all cost. But when Blake, the all-star running back of the football team, enters her life she has a hard time keeping him away. Friendship leads to more, but secrets threaten to tear them apart. Can their relationship survive Autumn’s past? Can Autumn move on and learn to trust again when she learns Blake has been hiding something too?

I just really loved Autumn and Blake. They were really ying and yang type characters. Autumn because she has something catastrophic happen to her, but had supportive and loving parents to help her through and Blake because he had a horrible mother but is loyal and caring despite his past. It’s like they each possess something that the other needs, and through understanding and patience actually give it to one another. I thought that gave their relationship a really great quality…it was as they were meant to be.

Another thing I liked about this book was the how it dealt with a very real topic of bullying. I thought some of the scenes involving Autumn were tough to read because they were realistic, but done really well. Autumn is a character that shows that you can rise above the efforts of others to keep you down.

Overall, I really liked this book. And it was a fast and satisfying read with no cliffhanger. The plot may not have been original, but I thought that the author more than made up for that with original characters and great dialogue. 4 stars.

It was the second week of my senior year and I was hiding out in the stairwell. I had taken for granted how good it felt to be surrounded by friends, not being on the outside looking in. Maybe I could’ve dealt with the no friends issue, but the hateful whispers and glances as I walked the hallways were more than I could bear. There were also the unseen hands, the quick pinches and grazes that happened while I tried to hold my head up high in the hallway. I never found the culprits, but the touches were unsubtle messages—the boys would do what they wanted to me and I was powerless against them. The summer had been hell, but going back to school was its own unique brand of torture.

It was my lunch hour and the time of day I dreaded the most. Walking into the cafeteria on the first day thinking everything would be fine was a mistake. The hatred for me was far reaching. The pretties, the girls I had considered my best friends, had thrown the first stone and everyone else had fallen in line like the good sheep they were. Hunter’s rejection had only reinforced what my friends were saying. Autumn was a slut and a liar.

Sitting at a lunch table alone for an hour had made time slow down. Everything had seemed amplified—the whispers felt like screams and the sidelong glances were like slaps in the face. No one wanted to sit with me; it would be too much of an open invitation to become a new target of Faye and Hunter. Faye and Hunter had no issue with openly mocking me from across the room. They would point and laugh, cajoling the others at their table. When my eyes clashed with Hunter’s, I was the first to look away and it killed me a little inside. My hatred grew a thousand-fold; I was disgusted he had the ability to make me cower. I had to dig into my reserves and find the strength that had gotten me through the summer.

I was naïve to believe Hunter and Faye could be ignored. The breakup with Hunter was ugly, but Faye was deceptive and made me believe at first she would always be my friend. Later, I would come to find out she was using whatever I said to her as ammunition. To her, unpopularity was contagious and she would do whatever it took to show she was nothing like me. I never found out whether Faye believed what was said or what made her hate me so. Was it because she felt I lied to her? Or was it because I no longer could play the role of her innocent virginal best friend?

Heather Topham Wood’s obsession with novels began in childhood while growing up in a shore town in New Jersey. Writing since her teens, she recently returned to penning novels after a successful career as a freelance writer. She’s the author of the paranormal romance Second Sight series and the New Adult standalone novels The Disappearing Girl and Falling for Autumn.

Heather graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2005 and holds a bachelor's degree in English. Her freelance work has appeared in publications such as USA Today, Livestrong.com, Outlook by the Bay and Step in Style magazine. She resides in Trenton, New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Besides writing, Heather is a pop culture fanatic and has an obsession with supernatural novels and TV shows.