Julie Olivia

I am currently in love with, have always been in love with, and will continue to be in love with, my best friend, Bennett Walker Shaw.
In five minutes, my best friend’s bride will greet him in a gorgeous white gown with forever on her lips. Except that bride won’t be me.
Moments like these force you to look at your life a little closer.
At twelve-years-old, he and I promised to always be there for each other. But in our childlike optimism we didn’t understand the frail, tattered string of time. How people change. How families fall apart. 
How sometimes we fall apart too.
I could try to pinpoint where our mess started, but I’m not sure where I’d land in our patchwork timeline.
Maybe it’s best to go back to the beginning. Back to when the meaning of love was simply defined by a small town theme park and that beautiful, messy-haired boy.

Their Freefall At Last is a slow burn romance spanning two decades, featuring two childhood best friends and their many years of pining. Enjoy the comforts of a small town theme park, filled with lots of love and steamy tension.

Honeywood Fun Park Series, Book #4

Their Freefall At Last

Ruby and Bennett are twenty-seven years old.

Christina Farkona

“Why does it feel like I’ve been saving myself for you all this time?” she whispers against my skin.

I chuckle. “I think I’ve been doing the same.”

And I wonder if I have, if I just knew this was my future.

I’ve worked for so many things, but this? True love and companionship —a type of commitment that my mom never knew— is the final puzzle piece to make me feel whole. And to think I found it at seven years old and kept it.

I pull the covers over us and hold her against my chest. She runs a palm over my cheek. I peek at the string adorning her wrist. The promise of our future wedding. But I’m not waiting any longer.

I plan to wife up my best friend as soon as possible.

It’s heaven. And the angel beneath me, with her soft skin and parted pink lips, looks like a gift from above.

My best friend under my palm, the pink string of our promised forever adorning my wrist, and the tattoos trailing up my arm, all dedicated to her.

There are so many things unsaid, but I don’t need to say them.

I’ve had partners through the years. I like everything about the female body—too much to not explore. But sex? No. I’ve never had sex. And the way my chest hurts when I look at Ruby tells me why I could never go that extra mile. I was waiting for this—for her.

I’ve never really asked. Why do you get tattoos?” I ask. “What’s the appeal?”

“Yeah, okay …” I say with a laugh. “But all your tattoos are basically things from our childhood.”

My heart slams on the brakes, and for a moment, I can’t breathe. His barrelling laugh breaks the tension.

“You’re my best friend, Rubes. Of course I have great memories with you.”

“Well, and you’re mine too,” I admit. “My best friend.”

“He’s just always had a weird thing for you.”

Ruby finally meets my gaze, her brow furrowing inward. “So?”

I let out a breathy laugh. “It just matters.”

“Don’t you have someone waiting for you?” she murmurs.

“The woman. At the bar. The redhead.”

Sure, she was pretty. Except her hands weren’t soft, like Ruby’s. Her face wasn’t filled with freckles. Her laugh wasn’t as light. And when I saw three of my best friends hugging my greatest friend of all, I knew there wasn’t going to be another person on my mind tonight anyway.

It’s impossible not to notice Ruby in this crowd. Not when she’s as beautiful as she is with her exposed shoulders, dotted with pretty freckles. Not when that outfit of hers gives her a winning smile, like she knows the effect it’s having on the men around her—no, on 

I reach out, taking Ruby’s chin between my thumb and forefinger. I’m being bold. But I’ve got a little rum in me and a whole lot of nerve, so I do it anyway.

“You’re the only redhead for me,” I whisper. “You’re my anchor, Rubes.”

Ruby and Bennett are twenty-six years old.

Her hand reaches out to take mine. Our fingers entwine, our pink strings kissing at the seams.

“Well then, you know I’ve got you,” she replies.

I shake my head. “What did I do to deserve you?”

Her face flushes red. The freckles on her nose practically disappear.

“We just happened to have birthdays close together.”

“So, you’re telling me it’s fate then?”

That has her blushing more. I like it too much.

“All I can think to say is, “Lucky me.”

The stars must have aligned when they made her my best friend.

But friends don’t make other friends blush and love it as much as I do.

I trace my thumb over her shoulder. A rush of relief falls over me, like stepping into old shoes. Or like smelling the familiar scent of your home when you come back from vacation. Mine smells like sugar and sweetness. Like Ruby.

Do I not want kids because I don’t have the urge, or do I not have the urge because my own dad was a piece of crap? Is it genetic? Or is it learned?

All I know is, the selfish part of me would prefer to spend all my time and money on someone else instead. And I’m looking right at her.

“Think you’d ever want kids?” I ask out loud.

Ruby laughs. “Oh God, no. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

She laughs. “Well, there’s my answer.”

“No, I just … well, I like this more.”

“Just hanging out with you,” I answer.

Ruby and Bennett are twenty-four years old.

But his eyes are still the same—those gorgeous dark brown pools that say everything without having to. 

 [link to an article announcing a new roller coaster build]

 Hell yeah. My best friend is killing it in the industry.

 Your best friend who misses you terribly.

I rest my head on Bennett’s shoulder. Bennett’s hand slides around my waist and down to the side of my hip. He strokes the tip of his index finger right over my panty line, where the crinkle of thin plastic covers my new tattoo. I was proud of what I came up with. It’s a tiny outline of a strawberry. My rebellious ode to my best friend.

“Does your strawberry hurt?” he whispers.

His laugh is strained as he asks, “Do you want it to be?”

I do want it to. But I don’t know what that would mean, so I change the subject.

“She’s fine. I’ll miss her next year.”

I snort. “All right, let’s not get mushy.”

He chuckles. “No, let’s. I’m in a mushy mood.” His fingers poke into my side, and it tickles. I grin at him […]

“You’re really getting a parrot?” I breathe.

I can’t help the stuttering blinks. “But why?”

“Because I wouldn’t want my first tattoo to be of anyone else.”

For the next two hours, I watch my best friend get inked with the very animal he’s called me since we were seven years old. My best friend’s first tattoo is of me.

Bennett’s free hand reaches out to me halfway through, and I take it without question, rolling our fingers together, entwining and releasing and joining together again. Strokes and rolls of thumbs over palms and something that is wholly different from our usual touches.

“What are you gonna tell people it means?” I ask.

“That I’m a pirate,” he says casually.

“And that pirates keep their parrots forever. Even if in spirit.”

My chest tugs, and without hesitation, I walk into Bennett’s arms. He wraps me up in them, placing a hand behind my head and tucking me into his chest.

Forever. I’m inked on my best friend forever.

The smell of his silly little strawberry shampoo hits me hard, and I think my eyes sting a little at the thought of him, but instead of letting myself cry, I look at the tattoo artist and declare, “You know what? I’ve changed my mind.”

Then, Bennett does something he hasn’t done since we were kids. He takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger and says, “Very.”

My heart skyrockets. Eighteen-year-old chin-lifting Bennett is very different from twelve-year-old Bennett. We’ve been like this all night. Little touches. Hands ghosting over each other’s skin. I wish I could say it’s just Bennett, but I’m not innocent either.

We rode his motorcycle to the tattoo parlor, and my arms were tied tight around his waist—tighter than I normally would, splaying my hand over his hard stomach with my cheek pressed to his back. The only things separating our skin were his tuxedo and the helmet he’d bought just for me with a little cursive R vinyl decal.

We stand next to my bike for a solid minute before Ruby reads my mind, like she always does.

“Does this feel like the end of an era?” she asks.

I heave out a breath. “I was weirdly thinking the same thing.”

“Not that weird,” she replies with a smile. “We think a lot of the same things.”

I wonder if she’s thinking what I’m thinking right now.

“Bennett, I don’t want to go.” The words come out with a weak laugh.

I walk closer, moving my palms around her waist and tucking her into my chest.

“Hey, me neither,” I say, placing the smallest of kisses on the top of her head. I glance down at my wrist—the pink string we both still share.

“If you could do anything tonight, what would you do?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “Something daring.”

She smiles, the pull of her beautiful pink lips so slow and devious.

I savor how my hand rests on Ruby’s lower back, where her dress dips down. The way she smells especially sweet in some new perfume. Her sunbeam smile and smattering of freckles.

We dance for one song, then two, then ten. Even when the slow dances start, I pull my best friend into my arms.

“Bennett,” she says with a laugh, but I rock back and forth with her, burying myself into the crook of her neck, “don’t you want to dance with one of the S’s?”

And somewhere between the dancing and the dessert, it hits me that this will be one of our last nights together before she goes off to college. Ruby is going to leave, and I’ll be in my apprenticeship program through Honeywood. I’ll have to learn to be okay with my best friend’s absence for the first time in my life.

But I don’t want to give her up just yet. Not yet.

Ruby and Bennett are seventeen years old.

I feel myself smile, especially when I see her own smile returning. It’s so pretty. Everything about her is. Her freckles. Her ginger hair that she politely tucks behind her ears. 

 The face that I have, admittedly, thought about in the privacy of my bedroom without her here.

And for a second, I think she has that hazy look in her eyes —the kind she gets whenever she looks at Michael. Except it’s directed toward me. 

She looks at my lips, and I look at hers. They’re so perfect and so pink, and I just want to turn them red again.

“You’ll keep me,” I say. “I’m yours.” I lift my wrist, tilting it side to side, putting the pink bracelet on display. “See?”

“I just don’t like how he looks at you.”

 blood pumps at the thought of seeing his dumb face looking at her. If it were anyone—literally anyone else—I wouldn’t care. But it’s him.

“He looks at you with … greed. Or something like that.”

“Greed?” Her hands stop mid-twist, and she laughs out loud.

“What, is he gonna steal me, like Bowser?”

“Maybe, Princess Peach,” I tease back. “From me.”

“He won’t though. You’re my only best friend.”

. My best friend who I think about kissing a lot.

[…] Because, if I don’t, I’ll picture myself kissing him instead, and then he’d probably get freaked out, and I’d lose him.

And that’s the worst-case scenario—losing Bennett.

After my mom left and since my dad has been head-over-business-shoes obsessed with Miranda … Bennett is all I have. I cannot lose my best friend over something as simple as wanting to kiss him again.

Bennett’s asked me before why I haven’t tried dating anyone, but the truth is, aside from stealing kisses, I’m too busy. It’s either study and date someone, or study and hang out with Bennett. I’ll choose Bennett every time.

I raise my hand to my forehead to block it out, but my mind is still buzzing.

“Cool,” she says, then adds, “Y’know, I think I like kissing.”

But all I notice are Ruby’s lips, which are no longer pink, but red—from kissing me.

We both laugh, and the mood almost returns to our usual light banter. So, why does my chest still feel tight?

“So … you’re seriously thinking about kissing Michael?”

“Maybe,” she says tentatively. “If he’d kiss me back.”

I hate this. This boat ride is supposed to be our ride, and here we are, talking about my best friend kissing potato-faced Michael of all people.

That—that right there—breaks my brain.

No, I’m only thinking that because she’s my best friend and it feels wrong for anyone else to take her first kiss or make her feel self-conscious about her chest or whatever else matters to her.

I’m protective of her. I always have been. But I’m just doing my best-friend duty, which is why the next words barrel out of me before I realize what’s happening.

She bursts into a fit of giggles again. And I laugh, too, but it’s forced because I’m freaking serious. And I feel like I’m grasping at straws because the only thought in my head is, 

. But the ride is coming to an end, so if we don’t do it now, we won’t do it at all, and I can’t—I cannot—have her kissing Michael before me.

“I … I don’t know. His lips are nice, I guess.”

My stomach twists. “His lips are gross. 

There’s a small silence when I realize what I just said.

“You think my lips are nice?” Ruby whispers, the words almost echoing off the tunnel walls.

I clear my throat. This is too weird. And I don’t like when my stomach twists around her.

, like, you think his lips are nice?” I ask.

I hear her swallow. “Sure. I don’t think kissing him would be so bad.”

I don’t like the idea of her kissing Michael. Not one bit. I don’t want him to do anything with her.

 series and it was such an anticipated book for me. 

before saying anything about this particular book i feel the need to write my overall conclusion of the series, since this is the book that wraps it up. 

it’s just SO WELL WRITTEN. Honeywood has a character on each own and it sort of gives me a vibe similar to Harry Potter. meaning that Harry Potter is just another world. a world that many of us have accepted as if it exists somewhere far away. but exists. it’s such a statement. i don’t know if i explain myself well with this, but Honeywood Fun Park seems indeed like an alternative reality somewhere far away that it actually exists. and i believe that this feeling i got was the result of some books so well thought and written that could actually touch hearts. 

all the books, with their epilogues and bonus content, were intertwined together in such a clever way, especially with their mixed timeline, the hints and their parallel scenes and dialogues in multiple books. i found this fascinating!

based on author’s sayings about the angst in this one, i have to say that i got way more emotional with the 3rd book 

 and i expected to be devastated with this one. thank God it didn’t happen. i’m just so sad that this series is over. like i finished the book and went to bed immediately so i didn’t have to process the feeling of loss that started to creep up. (and i’m definitely rereading this again starting today lol).

all the characters were developed in a lovely way, and the way we got glimpses of them on the other books that wasn’t dedicated to them was so beautiful! it’s like, you already like them before you even get to their story. the whole vibe with their friend group is something i so wish i had it in my life 🥹. 

 ____________________________________________

Bennett was a little gentleman right from the age of seven with a mother who taught and raised him so well. i loved how we got to meet such a soft heart and how we saw him growing up and exploring his feelings.

same with Ruby, we all are literally the result of how they treat us as kids and some events are playing a principal role for what we are about to become and what our views will be in certain topics in the future.

it was so sweet to see them grow up together and later to feel confused about the development of their feelings. it’s a period of time in our lives that was described especially accurately by the author. 

i loved how cute and pure this time frame was for them and how much their bond meant to them throughout their lives in the future.

all i can say is that i couldn’t get enough. i wish i could get more and more and more about them, i wish i could see more!

in general, as always, the friend-group dynamic was lovely, and the book was an ideal ending for the series.

Julie Olivia’s writing is one of my favourite styles and i honestly believe that she nailed it! cute, with humour and lovely! so 

best friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes (maybe after being in a 7 year relationship with my best friend 🥲) and she just made me so happy with this read and this series in general. 

i super duper highly recommend this and all the Honeywood novels and i’m more than sure that you’ll enjoy them as much as i did!

__________________________________________

i’m kind of answering on other reviews maybe but no, i didn’t like Jolene. and i didn’t like her before this book as well. i feel that we got the chance to see much more of the change on Bennett’s behaviour from his friends’ perspective on the previous books than in this one, but she was just a manipulative person who doesn’t really leave you room to develop the way you want. what she did in the end was just because she was smart enough to understand that indeed she got in the middle of the wrong love story. and because she could only settle for her particular standards. 

i wish we could see the scenes where Bennett and Jolene have been invited in Orson and Theo’s house and it seemed that they had a fight before that. or to see what happened before and they’ve been like that. and i’ve also liked to see the scenes where Lorelei and Quinn caught Ruby and Bennett’s touches from their POV. and finally, i’d like to see Ruby explain to Bennett what she was about to tell him the day he introduced her to Jolene and how Ruby was indecisive with 

 all the days before that, with ordering his shampoo etc.

_____________________________________________

Their Freefall At Last is the last book of the Honeywood Fun Park series and it was such an anticipated book for me. 

before saying anything about this particular book i feel the need to write my overall conclusion of the series, since this is the book that wraps it up. 

it’s just SO WELL WRITTEN. Honeywood has a character on each own and it sort of gives me a vibe similar to Harry Potter. meaning that Harry Potter is just another world. a world that many of us have accepted as if it exists somewhere far away. but exists. it’s such a statement. i don’t know if i explain myself well with this, but Honeywood Fun Park seems indeed like an alternative reality somewhere far away that it actually exists. and i believe that this feeling i got was the result of some books so well thought and written that could actually touch hearts. 

all the books, with their epilogues and bonus content, were intertwined together in such a clever way, especially with their mixed timeline, the hints and their parallel scenes and dialogues in multiple books. i found this fascinating!

based on author’s sayings about the angst in this one, i have to say that i got way more emotional with the 3rd book (Our Ride To Forever) and i expected to be devastated with this one. thank God it didn’t happen. i’m just so sad that this series is over. like i finished the book and went to bed immediately so i didn’t have to process the feeling of loss that started to creep up. (and i’m definitely rereading this again starting today lol).

all the characters were developed in a lovely way, and the way we got glimpses of them on the other books that wasn’t dedicated to them was so beautiful! it’s like, you already like them before you even get to their story. the whole vibe with their friend group is something i so wish i had it in my life 🥹. 

coming to this book now.

 ____________________________________________

no spoiler zone.

Bennett was a little gentleman right from the age of seven with a mother who taught and raised him so well. i loved how we got to meet such a soft heart and how we saw him growing up and exploring his feelings.

same with Ruby, we all are literally the result of how they treat us as kids and some events are playing a principal role for what we are about to become and what our views will be in certain topics in the future.

it was so sweet to see them grow up together and later to feel confused about the development of their feelings. it’s a period of time in our lives that was described especially accurately by the author. 

i loved how cute and pure this time frame was for them and how much their bond meant to them throughout their lives in the future.

all i can say is that i couldn’t get enough. i wish i could get more and more and more about them, i wish i could see more!

in general, as always, the friend-group dynamic was lovely, and the book was an ideal ending for the series.

Julie Olivia’s writing is one of my favourite styles and i honestly believe that she nailed it! cute, with humour and lovely! so so lovely! (and a bit of a spice!)

best friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes (maybe after being in a 7 year relationship with my best friend 🥲) and she just made me so happy with this read and this series in general. 

i super duper highly recommend this and all the Honeywood novels and i’m more than sure that you’ll enjoy them as much as i did!

__________________________________________

spoiler zone. 

i’m kind of answering on other reviews maybe but no, i didn’t like Jolene. and i didn’t like her before this book as well. i feel that we got the chance to see much more of the change on Bennett’s behaviour from his friends’ perspective on the previous books than in this one, but she was just a manipulative person who doesn’t really leave you room to develop the way you want. what she did in the end was just because she was smart enough to understand that indeed she got in the middle of the wrong love story. and because she could only settle for her particular standards. 

i wish we could see the scenes where Bennett and Jolene have been invited in Orson and Theo’s house and it seemed that they had a fight before that. or to see what happened before and they’ve been like that. and i’ve also liked to see the scenes where Lorelei and Quinn caught Ruby and Bennett’s touches from their POV. and finally, i’d like to see Ruby explain to Bennett what she was about to tell him the day he introduced her to Jolene and how Ruby was indecisive with good days and bad days all the days before that, with ordering his shampoo etc.

_____________________________________________

thank you julie olivia for the ARC of your newest book! i went into this blind to the series and even though i didn’t know the characters, having the story start from their childhood really helped give the background needed and i didn’t feel lost without having read the other ones. i thought this was a very clever love story and i love a good small town romance but it being centered around a theme park really was so sweet. i loved bennett a lot. i loved ruby, too, but i was sad it took her so long to finally get to the place where she could accept love. i also really loved how the story handled jolene and think the epilogue of this book was just a perfect little bow. i need to go back and read the others as well!

Their Freefall At Last Honeywood Fun Park Series, Book #4

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