Has anyone told you how dramatic you are?

I requested this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review at the same time that I requested Therese Beharrie’s Island Fling with the Tycoon. I’m so glad I was given both books. I follow Beharrie on Twitter, where she is funny and smart. One Day to Fall is so good. It’s out on August 12.

Sophia is at the hospital with her mother and younger sister while her older sister is in labor. Parker is at the same hospital where his mother has been treated for injuries after being hit by a car. Sophia’s relationships with her mother and sisters have been strained for a while. Parker has just received bad news from his mother’s doctor and his estranged father has arrived acting like he’s got the answers. One of Parker’s jobs is as a driver for hire. Sophia, needing to escape family tensions gets in his car thinking he is available to drive her away. They end up reluctantly and then not so reluctantly spending the day together.

Beharrie takes a rather improbable premise – strangers meet and fall in love in one day – and makes it completely believable, and enjoyable. Parker and Sophia are both under tremendous stress and take a day as each other’s distraction. They have stepped outside their normal and are more open and vulnerable than they would be on a normal day. The sparks they strike start as irritation and annoyance.  Sophia, like Island Fling‘s Piper, is guarded and straight forward. She knows her own worth, she just doesn’t have a lot of experience with other people knowing her worth. Parker has always been a team with his mother but now everything he thought was true about his life is being challenged. Beharrie keeps them grounded and relatable, which keeps the relationship believable.

Having stepped out of their normal lives, Parker and Sophia end up doing the sort of touristy things in Cape Town that residents don’t normally do. looking at their city from different perspectives give them a chance to look at their lives from a different perspective. It also gives Beharrie a chance to show off her city. Therese Beharrie is delightful on Twitter and in her books. I look forward to reading her back catalog.