True love should always win. Always. I will advocate for true love no matter the circumstances. I don't care if one person is married and has children. If the person you're married to is not your true love, leave. Judge me if you will but I do not like anyone being unhappy, especially if your soul mate is out there and you KNOW they're your soul mate. Go be with them. Stop wasting time.
In WHERE WE FALL Ryan and Abby are married. They have a daughter together. Ryan coaches high school football, Abby is a stay-at-home mom and Juliana, their daughter, is dating one of the football players. Life seems idyllic ... but is it?
Lauren has traveled the world photographing waterfalls and writing novels under a pseudonym, becoming more famous than she ever expected. The time has come for her to travel home and photograph her favorite falls to complete the collection for her book. Her photographic talent is amazing considering that Lauren is nearly blind without her glasses and is just able to see with her glasses. Someone with such shortcomings shouldn't be able to photograph such beautiful pictures but life is funny like that.
Years before, Ryan and Lauren were in love. Like, seriously in love. They were soul mates and destined to be together. Abby was always around because Lauren was her best friend and felt protective of Abby. Ryan put up with it because of his love for Lauren. The three of them became inseparable and, as it so often happens, Abby fell in love with Ryan. He was aware of her feelings but never acted on them because he planned on marrying Lauren. So what happened for him to wind up marrying Abby, someone who wasn't his soul mate?
Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to tell you that. You'll have to read it for yourself. What I do want to mention is some of the symbolism I noticed during my reading of WHERE WE FALL.
Lauren's eyesight plays a minor role in the novel but it begs the question: Do you believe we see only what we want to see? Thinking back over the novel I have to wonder if there were clues to Abby's behavior during college that Lauren should've picked up on. What about during Abby's marriage to Ryan? Surely, over the years, there were subtle hints in her behavior towards him during certain holidays, situations or events that he should've noticed along the way. Something not quite right and slightly off kilter. Maybe he saw them and immediately dismissed them thinking his marriage was better than nothing if he couldn't be with the one his soul mate.
Water is a connector of Abby, Ryan and Lauren. They forged their friendship during college by going over waterfalls together. Because of all the time spent in each other's company, waterfalls become Lauren's passion as she travels the world looking for the most beautiful ones to photograph. In another aspect, the author uses a heavy rain to represent the sadness of the trio during a couple of particularly rough times in their lives.
My favorite symbolism, though, has to be the passage written to evoke an emotional response within the reader ... at least I like to think so. It is a sentiment written in Lauren's voice:
"One of the few things I missed ... was this bookstore. The bustling world moves at frantic paces, but we slow down when stepping into the cozy space with pathways to the imagination. They are rooms filled with out closest friends ..."
How beautiful and poetic.
WHERE WE FALL is emotional and a novel I didn't want to put down. From the moment I learned of Ryan and Lauren's love for each other, I rooted for them to reunite. If you're a sucker for true love, with all its ups and downs, then you'll enjoy this novel as well.