Delilah has somehow found herself singing in her friends' band, something she never thought she'd do--and it turns out people like them. In fact, people LOVE them.
Reggie, dragged to the venue to see his friend's band, wanders into the venue early, and instantly falls for the opening band's lead singer. When he notices her leave the venue alone, he eventually heads outside to check on her. Faced with just her, he manages to play it cool and paint himself as a super confident guy.
Delilah really likes the guy who came to talk to her. And when she sees him on Valentine's Day, it's clear there's a pattern: she runs into Reggie on holidays.
Thus begins their friendship, one built around chance encounters on major holidays and planned encounters on whatever holiday happens to fall on that day. But Reggie can't help but wonder when his facade will fall and Delilah will see him for the anxious person he is, ashamed of his nerddom. Meanwhile, Delilah clings to Reggie's confidence, drawing inspiration from it to stand up for herself.

The main conflict between the two MCs--that Reggie isn't actually as confident as he seems--reads a bit immature at times--which is perfect, considering the characters are in high school. They both have these lives that are big and bold, but at their core, they are still young people trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world.
Both characters struggle with feeling connected to their Blackness, or feeling like other people acknowledge it--Delilah, because she's often dismissed for being biracial, and Reggie because he's often dismissed for being too into stereotypically white people things like D&D. I really loved seeing how them grappling with their identities--which played out differently and came from different roots--brought them together, and how, through the doubt, they both claimed their Blackness.

As a biracial Black person who is both a nerd and a performer, I saw a lot of myself in both of these characters. And while, like I said before, the central conflict felt a bit immature, putting someone on a pedestal and being disappointed when they don't live up to it--and struggling to live up to the pedestal someone else has put you on--are both, unfortunately, still relatable.

Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling is a book I wish I'd had while I was in high school--and one I'm glad I have in my late 20s, because I definitely am coming away with some lessons learned and lots of warm fuzzy feelings. I hadn't read Elise Bryant's other books, but I'm absolutely going to now!

Reggie and Delilah are two characters I haven’t read a story about before. I really enjoyed the discussion of being a person of color in mostly white spaces.

The book started slow for me (there was a lot of dungeons and dragons talk!) and some of the drama seemed a little cringe- however, as a teacher, I would have students lining up for this book.

There were great lessons about being unashamed to take up space in whatever world you want & learning to be an authentic person. This is a great book for a classroom library (particularly in the 8th-10th grade range).

Thank you for the ARC, I enjoyed the book!

Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling is a sweet novel that takes an in-depth look at a high school romance that starts on one New Year’s Eve and ends on another. Teenagers are bound to love and have fun sinking into it, especially if they have a fondness for online Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying streams.

They meet on New Year’s Eve. Reggie Hubbard has dedicated himself to the art of dungeon mastering for his own D&D game, which he plays with friends, Yobani and Leela. But he’s got plenty of criticisms about dungeon mastering, which has led him to write critical articles under the name Keepin’ It d100, often pressing back against outright racism. His family, however, hopes it’s a hobby he’ll outgrow – and his brother Frankie outright teases him about it.

Delilah Tyler is a growing singer for the punk band Fun Gi with her friends Asher and Charlie. Delilah prefers to keep a cool, remote point of view. She’s not one to let anyone in, let alone someone who’s as nerdy but extroverted as Reggie.
Holiday by holiday and moment by moment, success by success and setback by setback, Reggie and Delilah begin to open up to one another. But will viral fame mean they might not be together at the turn of the next new year?

This story is so charming but, most importantly, it rings true to the teenage experience. Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling feels like the sort of romance any kid might go through as they try to figure out who the heck they are. Each of them is at an odd place in their lives; not grown, but not children. Delilah’s faith in romance has been broken by her parents’ divorce; Reggie has to face prejudice in his hobby and a family in which he doesn’t always fit. They’re both stuck in majority-white spaces and have to deal with the slings and arrows of racists who will not give them a chance. Reggie is shy, and kind of sees Delilah as a punk goddess at first – she manages to prove to him that she’s just as vulnerable as he is in her own way.

The book is great at landing its landmarks – getting the number, showing up at the Juneteenth family barbecue and having to deal with the extended family scene, the I-Love-Yous, the first fight. All of this is beautifully balanced and wonderfully handled and Reggie and Delilah are great kids who are easy to relate to. Their different family and friendship groups help set the stage as well, though their friends are a bit underdeveloped.

Overall, Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling is a sweet and romantic story that pleases one’s inner romantic and inner nerd at all once.

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I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book follows Reggie, a hardcore Dungeons and Dragons player and Delilah, the lead singer of a the local punk band. Over the course of the year Reggie and Delilah have multiple run ins with each other; the first time being a New year Eve party in which Delilah is performing with her band. They later decide to get to know each other and go through revealing their true selves to one another after first presenting themselves to each other as what/who they want to be. They work through their insecurities from Delilah being unsure of her voice to Reggie dealing with bullying from his brother and his brothers’ friends.

Overall this was an easy read and I enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more from Elise Bryant in the future.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children’s Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was so lovely! A sweet and funny friends-to-lovers story perfect for fans of Becky Abertalli, John Green, or Alexis Hall, The characters' development throughout the story was excellent, and was truly the major turning point of the story.

Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling follows the two title characters as they meet - sometimes coincidentally, sometimes not - on various holidays throughout the year. Told through alternating viewpoints, this YA romance is such a sweet read. Elise Bryant's writing had me connecting with the characters in such a way that I often had to remind myself that they were not real!

While the story touches on typical teen anxieties such as fitting in, it also dives deeper to address racism and stereotyping. Both main characters experience their own insecurities about their identities. Throughout the year, they gradually learn to cope with these feelings of otherness & not belonging as they fall in love with each other and themselves. Elise Bryant does such an amazing job at addressing these heavy issues in a genuine and sometimes light-hearted way. I LOVED the nerdy MMC, while Delilah is everything I hoped to be as a shy teenager.

Although I enjoyed the love story aspect, I especially appreciated the secondary stories of familial love and friendship. This book is all around a lovely read. I definitely plan to read more of Bryant's work in the future!

Elise Bryant has done it again! Exploring many of the same themes as her the first two books, this third offering follows the titular teens as they navigate expectations and learn to stand up for themselves. Alternating POV chapters immerse you in Reggie and Delilah's respective thought processes, and the similar anxieties hey share about their families, their interests, and well...each other. Bryant has done an excellent job of conveying teen infatuation and the characters' (especially Reggie's) reluctance to be vulnerable. Although the ending is verging on saccharine (for me), I appreciate that it's not as tidy as one would expect from stories of this genre.

✨Book Review✨
Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elise Bryant
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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Elise Bryant is truly one of my all-time favorite authors. She is one of the only authors I've read who has such a distinct voice, but is able to write so many different characters with it. I had no idea how it was going to work with her first male main character, but I loved Reggie more than anything! Maybe even more than Delilah. :p
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This book is swoony, sweet, and frustrating, but most importantly, it tackles so many deep issues. Only Elise can write a light and fluffy love story that makes you laugh while constantly discussing racism, colorism, the internal struggle of being your true authentic self, mental health, chronic pain, dyslexia, family dynamics, and more. How does she do it!?
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I also love her books extra because of their settings. This book took place all over Long Beach and Southern and Central California, and it was so fun to get to visit some of my favorite places through Reggie and Delilah's eyes.
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One True Loves is still my favorite Bryant book, but you truly need to read Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling. I know you will fall in love with these endearing characters just as much as I did.

This rom-com is adorable and I'd love to interview Elise for pop culturalist. @bookbearbajwa introduced me to Elise's debut novel. Reggie and Delilah are so much fun to read about. This was such a fun time! Thank you to the publisher for a digital copy of this book!

This morning I found myself wondering what Reggie and Delilah were up to. 😂😂😂 Why am I this? When that happens, I know I’ve truly fallen in love with a book and the characters.

Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling is a YA romance novel told from the alternating perspectives of Reggie and Delilah, which I love! I love being able to see inside the mind’s of multiple characters.

Delilah is quiet, anxious, and tends to go with the flow. Her go with the flow persona leads her to playing in her friend’s punk band as a favor.

Reggie is a Blerd (Black + nerd) who spends all of his time gaming and writing essays critiquing the games using a pseudonym.

The two meet on New Year’s Eve where Reggie pretends to be a confident version of himself to impress Delilah. The two continue to meet by happenstance on different holidays throughout the year and eventually end up falling for each other. Can their love survive once Delilah learns that she’s head over heels for a false version of the guy she loves?

I am a huge holiday/national day lover, so I was loving all of that throughout the book. The way Elise Bryant formatted this novel is so fun!

I was surprised by the end which I didn’t expect to happen, because most romance novels follow the same format of fall in love, conflict, and rekindling. The way Reggie and Delilah end up back together is creative, fun, and unpredictable.

If you love YA Black romance, have ever felt like you aren’t “Black enough,” and/or have enjoyed Elise Bryant’s other two novels, this book is for you!

I did rate it 4.5 stars because chapter 2 (Reggie’s first chapter) was hard for me to get through because of all the gaming talk. I later learned that the chapter was necessary in understand Reggie and his behaviors throughout the novel.

All in all, I’m so grateful that I was able to read this novel early. I can’t wait until January to add a forever copy to my shelves.

This is the type of book that Netflix needs to make into a movie! It was so sweet! Elise Bryant is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA authors. Black DnD players? I just love quirky, relatable Black kids doing "unconventional" things. It was so good.

This is a very sweet and fun YA romance. I know many DnD players and it was so fun reading about Reggie’s campaign. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments for me. But this book was so much more than just another teen romance. Both characters struggled with confidence, with sticking up for themselves, and with being comfortable with who they are while others seem to be telling them that’s not who they should be. The characters are very relatable.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

This was SO CUTE! I found a lot of relatability within both Reggie and Delilah, and I loved them both so much. I enjoyed their introspectiveness and the way they helped each other learn and grow. I did feel like sometimes it was maybe a little heavy on the introspectiveness and didn’t offer enough plot (did they ever go to school???) but it was still a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed all of Elise Bryant’s books, and this one was no exception. A really sweet coming-of-age/romance that anyone can enjoy :)) Also made my Swiftie heart very happy.

Reggie and Delilah's year of falling is about a D&D guy falling for the lead singer of a local punk band. They have a series of flirty meetings that fall on random holidays (hence the "year" in the title) before really getting to know each other and it's all very sweet and adorable. What really makes the book though, are the main characters' journeys to be comfortable in their respective identities. Delilah's band is finding some fame and this can chafe as she's the biracial frontwoman in a band of mostly white guys; Reggie gets a lot of flack from his non-D&D friends and family for being a Black guy who's into a role playing game. Anway, it's an excellent book. I loved it and can't wait to recommend it to my students.

(Horrendous Pun Warning) This book is aDORKable. The mmc and his friends being obsessed with D&D was not something I knew I needed in my life. Delilah being *the* cool girl and not even realizing it through the whole book was honestly so great to read.

Elise Bryant knows how to write accurate black characters. From Delilah forgetting to wrap her hair every night (me) to Juneteenth Barbecues with 50 different families. All the way down to the small micro aggressions we have to pick and choose to call out.

Anyway I love when characters scream I’m black instead of it just being thrown in there (like when the fmc is black but has pin straight hair, no relationship with her family, and doesn’t celebrate any black holidays or traditions.)

Anyway if ur looking for a black ya romance this is it (and so are Elise’s Other books)

Much Love,
El Soreest