Mia Garcia

Even If the Sky Falls

One midsummer night. Two strangers. Three rules: No real names. No baggage. No phones. A whirlwind twenty-four-hour romance about discovering what it means to feel alive in the face of one of life’s greatest dangers: love. Who would you be if you had one night to be anyone you want? Volunteering in New Orleans was supposed to be a change, an escape from the total mess Julie left at home and from her brother’s losing battle with PTSD. But building houses surrounded by her super-clingy team leader and her way-too-chipper companions has Julie feeling more trapped than ever. And she’s had enough. In a moment of daring, Julie runs away, straight into the glitter, costumes, and chaos of the Mid-Summer Mardi Gras parade—and instantly connects with Miles, an utterly irresistible musician with a captivating smile and a complicated story of his own. And for once, Julie isn’t looking back. Together Julie and Miles decide to forget their problems and live this one night in the here and now. Wandering the night, they dance on roofs, indulge in beignets, share secrets and ghost stories under the stars, and fall in love. But when a Category Two hurricane changes course and heads straight for NOLA, their adventure takes an unexpected turn. And, suddenly, pretending everything is fine is no longer an option. Richly evocative to the heart-racing end, Even If the Sky Falls is a swoon-worthy debut to indulge in to the very last note.

Sven Test

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

Even If the Sky Falls is about two teens who meet in New Orleans and for the course of one night, they won't share anything personal about them—no baggage at all—not even their real names.

"No interruptions, just you and me and New Orleans."

I was intrigued by the beginning of the story and how Julie escapes the missionary trip and ends up in Mardi Gras. When she met Miles, I was definitely liking him and his smile. I don't know why but his smile in my head was perfect. From then on, it kind of took a downhill for me in terms of the characters plus the going back-and-forth between chapters.

[...] This guy is pure charm.

I had problems with the characters because even though this story spans over one night, there wasn’t much depth to the characters so I couldn't feel any form of connection towards them. I was actually expecting the connection to happen because my thought was, "It's one night so the character's lives will go into a lot of detail and a lot of depth." Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, which led me to struggle with liking the characters and enjoying the story.

As I said, this story goes back-and-forth between chapters, meaning flashing back to the past and then back to the present but there's no indicator in the chapters title to let you know when it's talking about the present or the past. I had to guess a few times and this also led me to struggle with it.

What I did like was the vivid description the author gave of New Orleans. I could picture myself being there, listening to the noise, enjoying the view of the festivity. At times, it got to be too much and that's why it took me a while to finish this story.

"[...] And New Orleans—she's alive, she's a person. Hard to settle on how to describe her, but once you're in it, once you're here, you get it."

Overall, this one had the potential to be exponentially great, but the lack of depth of the characters and the story took away from my enjoyment. Still, if you're in the mood for a New Orleans story, then I recommend this one for you.

I received this eARC for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

Mandi Jayne

Kate

I absolutely loved this. It was utterly adorable, incredibly easy to read and although the romance was definitely instalove (which I usually don’t warm to) it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed the romance. Both of the main characters were wonderfully cute and both dealing with their own issues and wanted to escape them for one night and I loved it. I absolutely adored the descriptions of Mardi Gras and New Orleans. It was fun, immersive, captivating and made me want to go there even more than I already do. It also had a really diverse cast of characters, with Julie being Puerto Rican and other than maybe two or three characters, the rest of the cast were POC. with two characters in or having been in M/M relationships. Even If The Sky Falls was an utterly cute, quick and easy read, with adorably witty characters, an equally adorable romance and an added depth bought to it through discussion of money and mental illness. This is a thoroughly enjoyable, adorable contemporary and one I’d definitely recommend.