A reality dating show in book form? Okay, you’ve got me intrigued! That was exactly what made me want to read this book. Add in the fact we get an enemies to lovers trope, I’m double excited!

Amity and Cooper are contestants on a wilderness/dating reality tv competition. At first glance they seem like complete opposites, and quite frankly don’t like one another. But as the competition heats up, so does their chemistry!

Okay, so I enjoyed this book, I really liked the competition aspect and thought it was really well done. I couldn’t wait to see how it all unfolded. However, I gave this a 3.75 because it started out a little slow and some of the main characters chemistry seemed to develop with very little interactions.

I loved this! Yes, it’s an insta-love and yes, it’s a tiny bit unlikely. But I’m an outdoorsy kind of girl and a hopeless romantic.
My back story is that I instantly fell in love with my husband over 14 years ago , so I know its possible. We still run together and are section hikers-backpackers. We want to section hike the PCT. So you can understand how excited I was about this story.
My favorite Survivor episode was with Boston and Amber and I thought this was as precious to read as that. I understood all the emotions and competitions. I loved how they fell for each other. I even adored the side characters. If you have a big imagination for a fun, light enjoyable romance then you’ll love this.
I highly recommend it.
Thanks BooksGoSocial via NetGalley.

I loved this title. Stereotypes and assumptions were part of the game they were playing. It reminded me of a mash-up between Survivor and The Amazing Race! I loved the characters and how we learned about more than just Cooper and Amity. It was a wonderful weekend read!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Very nice book, enjoyed reading it

I thought there was a lot to love but I also wasn't fully invested. I found it hard to like the characters. But I also didn't hate it either.

I am huge a fan of reality tv so when i read the description I as in. Enemies to lovers competing on a reality tv show might be a new favorite trope. Easton is everything masculine and Amity is the epitome if girly girl. They sign up for a survivor meets bachelor type reality show. The show was one of the parts that I really liked, the challenges were fun to follow. The problem i had right off the bat is that Easton is super unlikeable. Another trope that grinds my gears is miscommunication but times 10. So many of their fights were avoidable. I wanted to scream sometimes and tell them to just talk it out. Some of the dialogue was also a little cringe describing "his personals".. what? Unfortunately this was a miss for me

A great read - the story of Amity and Eaton. They are in a reality TV outdoors show. They both have their own reason for being there, but will they share their stories? Their first impressions may lead them to judge the other incorrectly, but as they start to get to know and fall for each other. what will happen when they are pitted against each other and then the show ends?
Looking forward to reading the next book.

My stupid little heart loved the idea for this book but I was sort of disappointed in the outcome? If that makes sense? I guess I liked the idea I thought the story would be about instead of what it actually was abot.

The premise of this book is one of the more unique ideas I’ve seen for a meet-cute.

Unfortunately, that’s kind of where the stuff I liked ends.

It sounds like it’d be the perfect setup for either a) badass girl that’s totally underestimated or b) plucky heroine that learns to adapt and kickass. And you’d be… sort of right. Amity is not only annoying as hell, but all of the male characters are misogynistic as hell. Amity is never given a chance to fully explain herself, while Cooper is given ample opportunities to do so AND he takes every one of them.

As a rule, I don’t ever fully support insta-love situations, but I feel like this one crosses the line into unbelievable. Amity and Cooper both change their minds about each other out of the blue with no real reason other than they’re too damn attracted to each other.

This one was a miss for me.

The premise of this book was so promising: an outdoorsy reality show with a multimillion-dollar prize and blooming romances. However, I was a little disappointed.

The writing was okay and kept me engaged, but the characters just kind of fell apart for me. First, the constant misogyny throughout the book became tiring. While this is certainly a real-world thing, it was something that popped up in almost every chapter and made it a constant argument about how a character defies the stereotypes people perceive her as throughout the whole book. It just felt overdone and made the conversations kind of recycle a lot. I thought Amity was pretty cool, but I was disappointed to not see more of her and less of her obsession with Cooper/Easton. While I understand this is a rom-com and that takes up a large part of the plot, I just felt like Amity didn't get enough time to shine on her own that wasn't overshadowed by her crush or misogyny. The two main characters had a fun, if not dramatic, relationship throughout the book, but the characters themselves just felt a little flat to me. I also was a little startled by how quickly their relationship progressed (from hating each other to that epilogue in a matter of weeks was a little unrealistic feeling). Also for any "spicy" rom-com fans, this one is pretty tame with the more intimate scenes almost a little awkward, although they were a little funny sometimes.

I did find the book to be a breeze to read through and liked the spotlight on the outdoors (even if some of the challenges were a little odd for the setting), but it just didn't wow me as I had hoped. I might still pick up the next book since I did like Hannah as a side character and think what I've seen of her few appearances so far provides for a better read with a more developed storyline.

Survivor meets enemies-to-lovers romance. Easton Cooper and Amity Rose are contestants on a reality TV show in a race for riches or romance.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and it definitely kept me on my toes. I loved the premise of the book as it was different than a lot of the books I've read before. It was an interesting take on a romance novel, incorporating an intense wilderness competition. The relationship between Amity and Easton was really cute, but I could not get over what Easton did. I absolutely loved Amity. She was the best character, along with Bria. She showed humility, selflessness, and relatability. I liked that both Amity and Easton were able to develop friendships inside the competition, Amity with Bria and Easton with Justin.

Amity’s first impression is of a girly, rich beauty queen, which leads Easton to automatically assume she wasn’t meant to be there and that she wasn’t a serious contestant. Easton starts and ends the competition with the stereotypical judgment of Amity, even though time and time again she proved that she belonged and that she had the smarts and skills to get the job done. He continuously underestimated her and was surprised when she pulled through. I loved that their relationship developed from enemies to friends to lovers, and I thought that they had gotten to the point where he fully trusted in her and her abilities, but he proved otherwise. I felt the same emotions as Amity at his betrayal, because it was so shocking that after everything they’ve been through he would do that. Especially after he had Amity promise that she would not do what he did. I wanted him to grovel a little bit more than he did at the end because she gave up a lot for him, but I appreciate him trying to make it up to her. Overall, this was a great read. I just felt a little betrayed at the end. I’m excited for the second part of this series.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this book.

What a fun sweet contemporary romance involving a game show with the forced proximity. Was not a big fan of the MMC. His actions in the first half of the book are like an emotionally unintelligent fool that doesn't know how to speak to someone he is attracted to.

This book wasn't for me. I found it difficult to follow. Didn't like the gameshow story line and couldn't take to the main characters.

When I first read what the story was about I was completely interested. I'm a survivor and amazing race junky and reality TV is fun.
I think the author had a great idea and story line but I could not get into it. I felt at times it was a little dry and i caught myself becoming bored with it. I think Cooper and Amity are great characters and the ending was to be expected.

Just because I did not 100% enjoy it does not mean that someone else won't. It was a good quick read.

Again this was great idea for a book but I don't think it was well executed. I would be willing to read the next in the series because maybe it's a little different.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for my copy of this book!

This is an enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity romance. It's also a reality TV show romance, in case that too piques your interest. Now this was a fairly fun read, however, it wasn't my favorite romance I've read. I found it a little painful at times to read (I really wasn't a fan of Easton from the beginning). The first impression I got from Easton judging the women of the competition based on appearance, was a bit off-putting and clung to me throughout the book. There were some times that I wanted to DNF this, but I persevered until the end.

Overall, I gave this 3 stars.

I enjoyed the idea of the book of having a fun reality tv show spin - it was different and a lot of fun (and it's a refreshing change in style)! Unfortunately, despite the banter and obvious chemistry between our leads, I couldn't really connect with the characters and I defnitely had issues with Easton's subtle misogyny!

This book is such a cute strangers to lovers romance, although the miscommunication trope was slightly annoying all of the different challenges the characters had to work through and banter between all the contestant made up for it.

This book is a common with an enemies/strangers to lovers, forced proximity, with lots of tension and banter the Main characters

Crush in the cascades by Lisa S. Gayle had me hooked from the summary. I loved the idea of a couple falling in love while competing in a reality TV show. I really only have one complaint about this book, I didn’t like Eastons character very much. I found him to be very rude, sexist, and undeserving of everything Amity did for him. On that note I rate this book as a 4 out of 5 stars. It made me want to continue reading to see what the outcome would be!

A cute and light novel, maybe a little too light for me, too superficial in some aspects. With an involving and fluid writing, with well-done descriptions and a well-structured plot and chapters with balanced length, breaks and change of point of view.
Because the story revolves around a reality show, we have a good variety of characters, but they fall a bit short in terms of development, in my opinion. Even the two main characters, Easton and Amity, although interesting characters, I felt their personalities lacked more depth. The unfolding of the relationship of these two was strange to say the least, lacking a certain naturalness in the development of their feelings and attraction to each other. The plot is quite original, I, who am not the biggest fan of reality shows, was surrendered, it provides a great time, but its pace is not consistent, we have moments that are too slow that become even slightly boring and others that are too rushed. Some events and dialogues are a bit strange too, but not necessarily in a negative way, it really reminds me of a true reality show.
Overall, a good read and a book that I don't regret at all having started with an original plot and a touch of enemies-to-lovers that is worth giving a chance despite everything!

Plot | ⭐⭐⭐
Characters | ⭐⭐⭐
Ease of Read | ⭐⭐⭐
Quality of Writing | ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall | ⭐⭐⭐,25

Review to be soon published on my bookstagram account @direadsomebooks!

Crush in the Cascades is a fun enemies to lovers story set in a reality tv setting. The reality tv aspect was unique especially since technically the characters are being filmed almost the entire time you're reading about them. I also enjoyed seeing the banter between all the other contestants and seeing alliances formed like you would any other reality tv romance drama.

Amity and Cooper, the main characters, are likeable but not the most favorite characters I've read about. I think because they made so many assumptions so quickly I viewed them as quite shallow-- and I know the reality tv aspect plays into why they think or act a certain why but I still wasn't the biggest fan of some of their actions or inital thoughts about each other.

Overall this was an easy and quick read. Perfect for anyone who enjoys watching shows like Amazing Race or Survivor with a touch of romance.