3.5 stars.

A little familial and marital dysfunction, along with a few crises of self-esteem, never hurt anyone!!

Everyone s Davis Winger. He’s funny, good-natured, a devoted husband and father, a loving brother and son. He has a great job designing roller coasters and other rides, which meshes well with his personality.

When a mishap on a ride he designed occurs, his job is threatened. At the same time, the one lapse in judgment he's made in his marriage comes to light, and suddenly he finds himself without work, living in a dismal apartment, as he tries to figure out how to get his wife back, preserve his relationship with his young daughter, and figure out his next step career-wise.

Meanwhile, Davis’ sister Molly, a journalist for a struggling newspaper, has doubts about her relationship with a younger man and is trying to find inspiration for a story that might help the newspaper gain advertisers again. When she finds that idea she realizes it is simply a manifestation of a major issue in her own life, but she's not quite willing to deal with that, and she's not prepared for the response this story idea will be met with. At the same time, she needs to figure out what she wants from life.

As Davis tries to convince his wife to take him back, and he interacts with a few of his fellow residents at the apartment building, he is in need of perhaps a little humility, while Molly could use an injection of self-esteem.

"We're all terribly unsure of ourselves, he'd said, each one of us tunneling toward something strange."

A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall is an engaging, fun, emotional book with characters I really enjoyed. A few years ago I read Andy Abramowitz’s first novel, Thank You, Goodnight , and d that, too, so I do enjoy the way he writes and tells stories of everyday people struggling to find their place.

I felt the book moved a bit too slowly and the characters hemmed and hawed a bit too much before things really got moving. But still, I cared about the characters and wanted to see how everything was resolved. It reminded me a little of a Jonathan Tropper book, although not as uproariously funny.

Amazon First Reads and Lake Union Publishing gave me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

The book will publish January 1, 2020.

See all of my at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.

You can follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.kindle-first53 s Khurram1,903 6,665

Broken parts

I will be the first to admit this is not my usual book, I did enjoy parts of it. I think the main I did not in this book was the main character Davis. I keep being told he was supposed to be charming and charismatic, but I simply did not him I found him more annoyingly smug and condescending in his humour. I think his sister Molly was a better main for the book.

As for Davis' wife being Indian, I did not fully realise this till his daughter said she was half Indian 3/4 of the way through the book. Apart from her median last name mentioned later I don't think anything was done with this in the book.

The story is good a bit slow in places but I think that is more an genre thing then the writing. I that all the characters had their flaws and strengths it made them much more real. I also the way the characters develop during and due to past trauma.

A good book, a bit of a change from my usual reading. I can always rate a writer who can make me find a grudging respect towards a character I really dis d to begin with. So I would be interest to read more from this writer.28 s Theresa AlanAuthor 10 books1,123

I enjoyed this novel because the characters and their relationships are complex. Davis and his sister, Molly, have survived having a mother abandoning them when they were young. This summer marks some changes for both of them. For Davis, who engineers roller coasters all over the world, when an accident occurs on one of the rides he designed, he gets an unwanted sabbatical from the office while it’s investigated. At the same time, a stupid thing he did a while back comes to light, also putting his marriage in extreme peril.

The summer this novel takes place, Davis and journalist Molly have to face things they’d rather not face. I novels with characters that are flawed but still able.
26 s TL 1,990 113

3.5 stars

*My Pick from Amazon first Reads, in December 2019 I think it was*
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Moves a bit slow for I want to saw half or close to it, considered giving up on it a couple times but I had a sense that it wasn't quite time yet and pushed on.
I grew more attached to the characters not long after.. can't pinpoint exactly when it happened, it kind of snuck up on me :).

This is more a character piece with some plot in there. Not to say there isn't a plot, but it is more.. slices of life I guess? Its a snapshot of a stretch of time in a family's life as they each deal with their own issues/problems, with one that affects everyone in a different way.

I think that was clear enough haha.

One thing isn't as it seems and you just want to give everyone involved a big hug then take certain ones aside and try to see why certain things still went on after a certain point even though you can see where they were coming from.

is this review making sense? ;-P

I never stopped rooting for any of them, hoping for things to resolve themselves somehow.. Not quite sure what direction I was crossing my fingers for at times.

The ending leaves hope out there, which had me smiling but a bit frustrated because I wanted to keep following everyone to see what happened.

Would recommend, you may have to be a patient reader with one but it is worth it imho.9 s Barbara1,025 138

This was my December pick from the Amazon Prime First Reads selection.

Davis and Molly were abandoned by their mother when they were children. Each in their own way carries the burden of that abandonment. Davis is a hot-shot engineer who designs roller-coasters whilst Molly plods along as a 'features' writer for a failing local paper. Davis blows everything that matters to him on one night of ill-considered lust with a colleague and Molly plods along with a younger boy-man as if trying to avoid having to take responsibility for a proper grown-up relationship.

A theme park accident and the revelation of his infidelity force Davis to move out and take a step back from life. Sudden unexpected fame and recognition force Molly to be a bigger person than she had been. Each is challenged by their new circumstances.

There are some DEEPLY irritating features of this book that made me want to hate it but in spite of them, the story was strong enough yet gentle enough to keep me hooked. In my own strange way, I felt very attached to Molly and Davis and their orbit of secondary characters especially the girl with the dog and McGuinn the hard man with a poet's heart.

On to those irritations because this book was so nearly worthy of a four-star rating but lost a star for some of these. I offer the feedback in the hope that the author will take them in the spirit of 'this could have been better with just a few changes'.

* I adore Tom Petty but I could seriously have done without all the references to his songs. Don't give a supporting character (the not-quite-step-mother) a name that's chosen only to enable you to shoe-horn in song titles. Not big. Not clever and just the kind of crass stuff that the Zach character and his 'dudes' would have indulged in if they were more than 25 years old and actually knew who Tom Petty was.

* IF you're so determined to Tom Petty your story in such an unsubtle way, WHY miss the obvious change to the title. This had to be 'A Beginners Guide to Free Falling'. Duh!

* Cultural references. I'm a Brit. You're promoting your book on Amazon.co.uk. Please drop some of the references to people that average people outside the USA have heard of or know about. Clever quips :

"If Pavelka was Frances McDormand, IlluMind was Gal Gadot. Not that this bothered Davis. He’d worked hard to become Frances McDormand."

mean nothing if you don't have the slightest idea who Gal Gadot is. Or Lesley Stahl or Christiane Amanpour or Lenny Baum. Who is the 'Wilco guy' that Tweedy is named after? What the heck is 'grape Dimetapp'? What are 'pudding packets'? Sure, you didn't write it for me and the 7 billion people who don't live in the USA but these were rather alienating.

* The whole concept of the magic carpet ride being based around an Indian Sultan is very odd and just didn't sit right for me. It felt large tracts of the Middle East, North Africa and Indian Sub-Continent were all being morphed into some kind of cartoon vision of the past. I could attempt a fumbled history lesson but will just leave it with the thought that India was just not right for the concept which seemed to fit much better with something more Middle Eastern.

Those things aside, I d the characters, enjoyed the way the plot developed and felt things tied up neatly at the end. amazon-prime-first-reads domestic-drama fiction10 s Tracy 886 12

Phenomenal!!! Cannot express how much I enjoyed this book. It gave me lots to ponder and the humor flowed right through the plot seamlessly with remarkable authenticity.

Hopefully more of Mr. Abramowitz's books are planned (in the near future) for release on audible. Enjoyed listening much more and was immediately lured in and transfixed. The plot was amazing!!

Mr. Abramowitz also performed the narration .- Nailed It!! - Flawless. Kept my attention start to finish, and only sorry it wasn't longer. :(

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