Review: How Not to Fall in Love (Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told #2) by Deirdre Riordan Hall

How Not to Fall in Love
(Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told #2)
by Deirdre Riordan Hall

February 14, 2017

110 pages

Goodreads     Indigo

Goodreads Summary:
Katya's middle name may be Aphrodite, but she has no interest in relationships. In fact, she has three rules she lives by:

1. Never spend the night.

2. Never sleep with the same guy twice.

3. Never fall in love.

Oh, and number 3.1 is never order the same coffee two days in a row.

That's a lot of nevers, but when she repeatedly breaks every single one of them (her undoing was a vanilla latte with a heart in the foam, BTW), she begins to wonder…

Actually, it was a batch of chocolate chip cookies that started her downward spiral. Never mind, scratch that, it was Spencer—her neighbor. He's also a banker, a player, and seems to know just what Kat wants, which isn't love.

Until they start to spend a lot of time together…

Until she finds one of his socks at her place...

Until they go to a ski resort for a long weekend…

Until he has a snowboarding injury…

As Kat struggles with the part of her that wants to be strong, single, and on the scene and the mushy, melty, romantic within, she tries desperately not to fall in love. But what's wrong with falling if you have someone with dark tousled hair, refined yet ruggedly handsome features, and chiseled abs to catch you?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

How Not to Fall in Love is the companion novella to Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told, but can be read as a standalone romantic comedy.
 

Review

 

I read Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told last year and enjoyed the book a lot. The side characters especially caught my eyes so I was excited to learn they were getting their own novella. How Not to Fall in Love is a short and sweet story.

 

I loved Katya from the moment we met her in the first book. She was confident and a kick ass best friend. In How Not to Fall in Love we see a different side of her. We see her vulnerabilities and the reasoning behind her 'hookups only' lifestyle.

Normally I don't associate words like sweet and honest with guys like Spencer but he surprised me. The guy was attentive, understanding and smart. He just knew all the right things to say. I guess that's a player trait but I'd happily melt for him! "Katya, I want to be your Sunday morning, not just your Saturday night." (Loc 1321).

Another thing that I liked about the story was how Navy brings up whether Katya cares she's slept with Spencer too. For something that could potentially cause a lot of grief, it was drama-free and nicely addressed. The maturity level was definitely there.

Overall, How Not to Fall in Love was a fun novella giving the side characters in the first book a chance to shine. This friend group holds possibilities; I wonder if the author will give them a chance like she did with Katya and Spencer.

 

*I was gifted an ecopy of this book from the author. All opinions are my own and not affected in any way. All quotes were taken from the ecopy I received.