This in general just reminded me a little bit of the hating game and the Spanish love deception, which was a little disappointing seeing as I didn't love either of the aforementioned novels. It also reminds me of one other, enemies to lovers, work rivals book that I can't remember at the moment, but I know I liked it. I think it was a lot better than both of them though, and I really enjoyed it.
I think that Genesis was a wonderful character and I think Will is up there with some of my favourite book boys. Also the end of chapter 15 was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. As was the end of chapter 19. And honestly the end of every chapter.
4 stars overall, and go check it out!!!
I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Unexpected Fall by Anna Salcedo through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

4/5-

I really enjoyed this debut novel by Anna Salcedo! A good workplace, enemy-to-lovers with forced proximity, that looks like the first of a character series (I'm speaking this into existence; I loved all the secondary characters!) Maybe the 'stressor' to the enemies portion of their relationship was a bit obvious, but I really loved both of our MC's: Genesis and Will. They both are a first generation American (Genesis Dominican-America, and Will Japanese-American). Will was such an insta-love cinnamon roll, and his spice later in the book fully won me over. They may have been some obvious plot points that could have been more 'creative' but overall, I really enjoyed this book!

Spice: 2/5 - a handful of spicy scenes, mostly detailed 9but nothing kinky), and Will has some dirtier talk later in this book. But the first half of the book had me concerned it was going to be a clean romance, so I was delightfully surprised!

Brief Plot: Genesis has hated Will when they have had to interact together at work for the past two years. When they are assigned as a pair to get a chance to have their music produced/ published, they have to decide if they can work together combatively, or if their enemy ways were all wrong, and the hate is too close to romantic chemistry. I mean can you really write a love song together platonically?

Thank you NetGalley and Anna Salcedo (Sel Published) for the eARC of the Unexpected Fall by Anna Salcedo. This is my honest review!

3.5/5

Buttercup is the new Shortcake and Will Kobayashi, the new Aaron Blackford.

It was strange reading this book because I kept having flashbacks of The Hating Game and The Spanish Love Deception. If you put them both in a blender, I'm pretty sure you would end up with The Unexpected Fall by Anna Salcedo.

The Unexpected Fall is an enemies to somewhat friends to lovers workplace romance. This book is also delightfully diverse (Latinx and Asian rep), and it has the forced proximity trope (which I love).

It follows Genesis Gonzalez who works for a music label (Siren Music Records) and has always dreamed of producing music. However, she's been stuck in the assistant position for years now. When the company announces that there will be a competition where two employees will have the chance to be featured on the company's most expected album and sign a contract with a record label, Genesis decides to take a chance on her dream and enters the competition.
Unfortunately, she's paired with Will Kobayashi, a Finance Analyst for Siren Music Records, and the one person she can't stand.
Both of them have waited their whole life for this opportunity, but can they set their differences aside for the sake of this project? Can they work together as a team?

This story was unbelievably cute but I found the beginning to be very slow: some scenes weren't necessary and Will wasn't very likeable at first, especially when compared to Aaron Blackford (who's amazing).

All in all, this was an entertaining and addictive read and for a debut novel, I think it was pretty good.

✨The Unexpected Fall✨

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sixty-second Read of 2022

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

To be honest, this story started out a little slow for me and a little grating to read, however, once I was about 1/4 of the way in, all of that disappeared as I became enamored with these characters. I am absolutely in love with the family dynamics, friendships, slow burn romances, enemies to lovers, and all the pop culture references a girl could want. I would definitely recommend this story and will be picking up a physical copy when it releases!

#netgalley #theunexpectedfall #romance #romcom #romcomreads #romancereads #arcreads #arcreview #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreview

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I don’t think this is a bad book, it has some problems with writing and pacing the story.
The Unexpected Fall has all the tropes that I love, rivals to lovers, boy falls first, forced proximity, love interest that actually never hated the main character and I was really excited to read it.
The first few chapters were a little slow but when Genesis and Will start working together the pace picks up and it gets a lot better. The problem is that when the book gets to the third act break up, they get back together almost immediately, and then the rest of the book is so so so slow, the happy ending was presented so many times in the last three chapters that I got overwhelmed. I really don’t mind cheesy books but the cheesy things got all over the place with this one.
My problem with the writing was that sometimes Genesis would go on and on for long paragraphs about how every time she looked at Will she saw emotions and his soul and everything, and I truly think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to read the person you love like that, but maybe it didn’t need to be described EVERY time she and Will where in the same room.
Otherwise, I liked the plot, not much the details of the execution, the characters are likeable, Genesis and Will have great chemistry and the banter in the first third is GOLD. I hope Anna Salcedo keeps writing and am looking forward to see what se can do next (maybe a book about Cal and Yadri 😜)

Thank you for the opportunity to read this one.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I got about 20% of the way through and could not get into the story. I'm not sure if it is the writing style or the characters but I put it down and have not gone back to it after multiple attempts.

I could definitely see this being for other people though as the writing itself was done well, just not for me.

Thanks again.

This was great book! It started out so slow, but I kept reading and glad I did! Then I couldn’t put it down. I love a good enemies to lovers trope and this did not disappoint. I enjoyed Genesis growth throughout the book. And her and Will’s relationship was adorable!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc!

Genesis has a nemesis at work, his name is Will. When she first met him she wanted nothing more than to be his friends but their first interaction quickly change her mind. They’ve been enemies ever since.

Genesis is working as an marketing assistant at a music label but wants nothing more than to move on to produce music. When the company announces a competition which will grant the winner the opportunity to be featured on a record she quickly gets on board. There’s only one problem, she’s to be paired with a coworker. That coworker just happens to be her nemesis of two years, Will.

Will they be able to stand each other long enough to write and produce a song together? Or will it end in disaster? Maybe Genesis is getting the last thing she was looking for, love.

This is such a good debute! It kind of gives me The Hating Game and The Spanish Love deception vibes! Its kind of a mix of the two. It’s a must read if you loved those books.

I love how Will obviously has loved Genesis since he first laid eyes on her. I always loved when one character is so obviously in love with the other without them knowing it. But it’s obvious to everyone around which make the main characters friends making comments about how he’s always looking at her and so on.

I would love to read the story of Callum and Yari next! I think Callum fell in love at first sight when he met Yari at the karaoke party.

The Unexpected Fall was a very middle of the road romance novel. I didn’t hate it, but it also didn’t blow me away. The first half of this book was pretty slow for me. There were scenes that I just didn’t understand in terms of the romance or plot. When the romance kicks into full swing it was just too syrupy for me. I felt like one moment Genesis hated romance and will and the next moment she was waxing poetically. It did have some good parts. I liked the music and family aspects. I also liked Will a little more than I liked Genesis. So overall, not my fav but still a decent read.

*A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy for review.

~My Thoughts
This book had all the characteristics of a good enemies to lovers contemporary romance. There was lots of angst and pining from both sides, and you could tell that the hero was absolutely infatuated with our female lead.

The way Will helped Genesis and kept her calma and functioning was very sweet. The parts where Will got to meet Genesis's family and friends was extremely cute and the interacrions between both of the leads were nice.

I really enjoyed the banter between Calling, Will's bestfriend, and Genesis. And the other side characters were very wholesome and supportive.

The only thing that made this book a a little slow amd boring at times was the inner monologue that Genesis kept having whole time while remebring her childhood. There were also a few flashback scenes/thoughts that were repetitive and a little unnecessary in my opinion.

Overall this book was an okay read.

This is a pretty strong debut book. It reminded me so strongly of Elena Armas' The Spanish Love Deception.

I really really loved the POC representation. The characters were interesting and I felt like I got to know them pretty well. I haven't read many books related to the music industry so that was a nice setting.
I also appreciated that the plot wasn't only a love story - it was also to do with their work and family life.

I did think that some of the writing was painfully cliche. It was overly romantic, but it felt like the two characters had a lot in common and that was nice. Sometimes the plot felt a bit choppy and some parts were unnecessary? One example is Will and his sister. The author introduced that as character development but that issue with the dad was never resolved? It was left open and used as a device to make the characters get back together but it felt a little abrupt and unfinished. This book did not have to be so long for this reason.

All in all, this book was a strong debut, easy read, but I wasn't that invested.

It was cute but had a lot of the same pitfalls of the genre. It was well paced though so that's a nice surprise!


I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

💛An Unexpected Fall💛⁣
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This was such a cute romance story! It was a workplace + enemies to lovers romance that had me up all night turning pages. I finished the book in two days because I just couldn’t get enough of Genesis and Wills relationship! I’ve read a lot of books with the enemies to lovers trope and I’ve got to say this one was spot on. The banter between Genesis and Will was both believable and amusing. It was a slow burn which made it even better because the majority of the story was focused on the growth of the relationship. ⁣
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This book is centralized around the concept of dreams and passions. Both Genesis and Will have aspirations to make it in the music industry so the focus is largely on that. ⁣
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I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a light hearted romance story!

I really wanted to enjoy this but I just couldn’t make myself. I’m not gonna lie I only made it through 34% of the book. It was SO slow & I just didn’t feel connected to the characters.
I hate leaving bad reviews but this just wasn’t for me

3 stars!

As a debut novel, this was great. There was great cultural representation and we need more of that in the book world!

Overall, I just felt like I didn’t connect with the story until about half way, and by then I was dragging my feet.

I absolutely loved this book! It was a tad slow in the very beginning, but after it sped up I was totally and completely hooked. What a cute romance!

Great slow burn romance and enemies to friends story! This was such a sweet book to read and I enjoyed reading this book so much and is a great debut book!

When starting the book I was excited to read about a workplace romance but I couldn't get into the flow of the story. The writing style just wasn't for me. A huge bulk of the story is the internal thoughts of Genesis and I found it to be overdone and sometimes it felt over-descriptive on minor things. The way the flashbacks were integrated in the beginning also ruined the flow and overall, it felt like the author was telling us everything rather than integrating past scenes it into the story more seamlessly. There was also a huge disconnect when reading about the characters for me.

I do think however, that many others might like this book and should give it a chance, the writing style just personally wasn't for me.

Hate to love , office romance ;) I enjoyed this book so much ! You have no idea! Definitely slow burn but I love a good slow burn🔥 thanks to NetGalley for this arc ! 5/5

Enemies to lovers + work place romance? Sign me up! Of course this gives off the Hating Game vibes, but I enjoyed this so much more! This book was so much fun, I loved the writing style, I love the banter and sarcasm and I am overall really impressed with this book! Anna did wonderful on building up this relationship. It was a little slow at the beginning but it picked up and I wasn't able to put it down until I was done. Solid 3.5/5 read for me and I'm excited to see what else Anna Salcedo puts out!

Thank you Netgalley for an early read of this! #Netgalley #TheUnexpectedFall