The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

This was such a cute and adorable sapphic romance about two girls falling in love while recreating classic romcom movie moments, but it was also devastating as well with a mother suffering from early-onset dementia and a lot of family relationship issues. Basically, it had all the feels and everything a great YA book should have, like teenage angst, broken hearts, friendship, love, awkwardness, self-doubt and character growths, as well as a wonderful queer representation.

Saoirse doesn’t in love after a difficult break-up and after her father divorcing her mother, who is suffering from severe dementia and has had to be put into a nursing home. So when meeting Ruby at a party, Saoirse only agrees to date her if they both agree that it’s only a fun summer fling and that it’s not permitted to fall in love. Ruby, who is hopelessly romantic and a sucker for romcom movies therefore comes up with the idea that they should recreate classic movie moments, the falling-in-love-montage, but stop before actually falling in love.

I really liked this sweet idea of recreating classis movie moments (and it made me want to do a romcom-marathon to watch all the movies mentioned in the book…) and how it was executed in a witty and sarcastic way. The chemistry between Saoirse and Ruby was absolutely sizzling. I really adored Saoirse as a main character, and the solid f/f representation. I especially appreciated the way Saoirse was labelled by herself and others as lesbian and how different kinds of sapphic relationships were portraited.

I also really appreciated that there was so much depth, rawness and problematic issues in addition to the sweet and fun parts. It was so real and relatable how Saoirse worried about inheriting her mother’s dementia, her feeling of meaninglessness to plan for a future she might soon forget and her struggle to accept that her father has decided to find happiness elsewhere.

I have some minor objections to the way Saoirse treated her dad though. He wasn’t in an easy position, and Saoirse acted very childish by not accepting that at all. One of my favorite secondary characters was, strangely enough, Saoirse’s new step mom. She was so fun, strong and stood up for Saoirse, even though Saoirse mostly was nothing but bratty in return. I also think Saoirse was unnecessarily mean to Oliver a lot of times. He really grew on my and turned out to be such a sweetheart. I loved his and Saoirse’s witty text-bantering and had hoped for Saoirse to acknowledge (both to Oliver and herself) that Oliver was in fact one of her best friends.

But all in all, this was an absolutely sweet and charming story, with great representation and character growth. Highly recommended!

Rating:
​4.5 stars rounding up to 5

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​Author info:
Ciara Smyth