Fall Line by Tudor Robins

Publishing date: 11 June 2015

Publisher: Tudor Robins

Number of pages: 204

My rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed Tudor Robins’ books about horses so when she contacted me about reviewing her latest book about skiing, I just had to say yes! Even though I don’t ski I really enjoyed reading about skiing and Chris and Tilly’s lives. So much training! Sigh, I wish I could ride/skate as much as they ski. Chris and Tilly have an incredible friendship in the book, and the skiing elements seem very authentic. However, the main disappointment of the novel was Jenna, who distracts Chris from his training, causing him to fall back.

The skiing season is approaching for Chris Myers and his best friend Tilly. They’re both competition skiers and Chris has a chance to make the district ski team. All is going well until Jenna comes along. Jenna is a major distraction to Chris and he begins to fall behind his teammates. He makes a lot of bad decisions and begins to lose Tilly in the process.

Chris and Tilly were incredible! Their passion for skiing was incredible as well as their relationship with each other. There’s a lot of good banter and friendly stuff between them. It felt totally authentic and was great fun to read about.

Tilly was a very lovely character but knew when to get upset as well, which I liked. Far too many authors try to create the perfect good girl character, only to have the character themselves to turn out meek and uninteresting. It was great to see that Tilly knew how to stand up for herself.

Unlike Tilly, Chris was a little more frustrating. His constant bad decisions in the middle of the novel got a little annoying. I have to admit that I really hoping that Chris would get a grip, especially after others had already had a good talk to him about it. He definitely went on a bit of a downward spiral where he acted out of spite and ignored those around him. While his bad decisions seemed a little excessive at times, I think this is relatively realistic for a 15 year old. What 15 year old hasn’t ignored their parents/coach and done something bad?

My biggest problem with this book was Jenna. I couldn’t stand her. She was so fake and clingy. I totally understand that she’s the antagonist, and I’m not really supposed to like her, but I felt that she was rather one dimensional. She was the typical trashy girl with revealing clothes, annoying friends, and way into partying. Meh. Very uninteresting, really. She seemed completely evil and bitchy. There was never really a reprieve from this, even at the end of the novel. She seemed like an empty shell placed in the book only to act as a distraction for Chris.

I really wish that Jenna was fleshed out a little more. She doesn’t really have to change and become like Tilly or anything, but I would have liked to learn a little bit more about her and her intentions. I have trouble believing that she is a truly malicious person for no reason. Jenna had a lot of potential as a character, because even though she’s a party girl (the most evil character of all in YA books!) it doesn’t make her a horrible or boring person.

I liked the skiing plot as well, and reading about their training and competitions was great fun. There is some light skiing jargon used in this book, but it is not difficult to understand. The coaches and the program itself seemed realistic and I especially liked the way the coaches dealt with Chris and his training.

The content in this book is probably suitable for readers 14 years and over. There’s nothing too explicit, but there’s some swearing and some other themes that would be unsuitable for very young readers. The themes in the book are definitely suitable for the young adult genre and I believe that they are commonly dealt with by teenagers in real life.

All in all, I did really enjoy Fall Line. Tilly and Chris’ relationship is the cutest thing ever and the pressures that Chris faces are realistic and well written. You definitely don’t need to be a skier to read this, because the book is very light on jargon. I’d recommend it to people who enjoy reading about sport. 

A copy was provided by the author free of charge in exchange for an honest review.