Before We Fall (Beautifully Broken, #3)

by Courtney Cole

[whisperingchapters]

I want to start by saying that Courtney Cole always succeeds in delivering a great story with raw emotions that will leave you going through a whole box of tissues. She has officially become my favorite adult contemporary author (Nora Roberts is my favorite in the paranormal genre). I started reading the Beautifully Broken series when I got an ARC of If You Leave, and I enjoyed reading it. That’s when I purchased ebook copies of the rest of the series.

You know how there is always a book in a series that you enjoy reading more than the rest? For me, it was/is Before We Fall. This story is about a man, Dominic, who went through something devastating in his life and has scarred him so much that he doesn’t get attached to people, especially women. He goes through them like a book lover goes through books (yes, it is a lot, my friends). He doesn’t care if he hurts them or not.

Enter Jacey, a sweet, down-to-earth girl, who gets intrigued by Dominic and wants to find out more about him. They start a type of friends with benefit relation. But Dominic has Demons he has to face and the sexual things that attract Dominic are things that seem weird to Jacey but still, she understands the want and need he has for those acts because she feels it too, even though she doesn’t want to admit that to herself. If you read If You Leave, you know she has a horrible background of boyfriends, so Dominic is someone she doesn’t need, not when he isn’t fixed yet but she wants to help him restore himself.

Not only does Dominic has sexual-related demons. He went through something so traumatic, the reader is TOTALLY blindsided and if you say you saw it coming, you lie. It definitely took me so much by surprise. I thought the attitude he had was a horrible one and his past doesn’t justify what he does to women but you know it is a huge bargain to carry. I was shocked when I read what he went through. Not only was his past a terrible one but then for him to find out that what he had believed in was a lie and something else had happened, that was the peak for me of the story. I was expecting to hear a tun-tun-tun in the background because of how intense and shocking it was. I wasn’t prepared. It. Blows. You. Away. I was sad and devastated but I didn’t cry. Afterwards, everything was okay and Jacey was there to help him through everything.

Then I read the epilogue. I got goosebumps reading it and I started bawling like a little kid. I was lost for a moment because something had happened in the beginning of the book but so much had happened that I had forgotten about it and in the epilogue it is mentioned and once again, Courtney Cole blows your mind away.

The ending was the most perfect ending I have read in a contemporary novel. I love it so much. The feels are hitting me full force right now, remembering everything I read and what I experienced while reading this book.