Lexi's life is not what she dreamed it would be. She's working at Dress Hut, as well as waitressing party time. One day, Will, the heir to a business in Seattle, winds up sitting in Lexi's section. The same day, some of Lexi's high school best friends come into the restaurant, and wind up inviting Lexi to an engagement party for one of the girls that night. With their chance meeting that day, Lexi and Will attend the friend's engagement party. Upon arriving to the engagement party, her friend's fiance mistakenly calls Will Lexi's fiance, which turns into a public fake engagement.

Will and Lexi try to navigate their fake engagement, while Lexi is also trying to figure out her path in life, Will is dealing with family businesses drama, all the while, the two are catching real feelings for each other, and trying to figure out how to navigate them.

This was a heartwarming romcom and I truly enjoyed it!

Sophie Sullivan wrote a feel good story about a waitress who has many jobs so she could help her mother, who is not over losing her father. When she is at work and sees friends from her past she panics and gets the attention of a customer who pretends to be with her and goes along and follows her lead. Absolute strangers, but after the encounter he is intrigued to see where this goes. I found it a easy read and enjoyable. I wanted more of the characters, but still really loved this ARC.
Recommend~
4 stars

I feel awful for doing this, but this is a dnf.
I've read one of the author's books before, which I loved. However, this one is doing nothing for me. I paused it at some point, and came back to it several days later to continue reading. I read a further 10% before giving in.
I don't know what to say, except that it was very mellow. Too mellow for my taste.

I adored every single second of this. I’m a sucker for a fake engagement, but add in the fall elements and a ceo romance and it’s a recipe for an amazing read.

Can’t Help Falling in Love is such a fun story! Good for YA and adult romance readers. This book was very well written.
I had never read anything by Sophie Sullivan before but now I plan to see what else she has written.

Thank you St Martin's Press & netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. I was hesitant to read this however because i have read books by this author before and they were not my cup of tea. However, I was pleasantly surprised with this book and actually ended up really enjoying it! This book was very hallmarky, perfect for the upcoming fall season! I loved the banter between Will and Lexi, their chemistry is truly unmatched!! I also enjoyed the side characters in this book as well.

Tropes:
- fake dating/engagement
- meet cute

Can't Help Falling in Love: ★★★☆☆ (3)

Pub date: September 17 - preorder yours now!

Q: who's an author you didn't love at first but you gave them another chance and loved their books now?

I devoured this book in a single day—it was that great!

Sophie is grappling with her life’s direction, juggling several jobs in order to pay for school and taking care of her mom after her father’s death. During a particularly disastrous waitressing shift, she unexpectedly encounters old friends and ends up pretending to be engaged to the charming stranger she was serving.

Rather than coming clean, they attend her former friend’s engagement party, where after an innocent accident, they became an overnight media sensation. As Sophie navigates grief, family tensions, and the stress of her deception, she must confront whether she’s ready for love.

Will Grand is Seattle’s most eligible bachelor, and he sees an opportunity to stop his mother’s matchmaking efforts by helping a charming waitress who clearly needs a break. What he didn’t anticipate was that their fake engagement would start to feel all too real.

With multiple POVs, he falls first, a friends-to-lovers plot, and a touch of damsel-in-distress, this book is set to be a hit this fall!

It all felt kind of trivial. Lexi didn't want her friends to know she was down on her luck and in turn, kicked off the whole book.

This was a cute and easy read. I read it relatively fast and enjoyed the fall vibes. However, it felt kind of blah. This didn't stick out to me in any real way. It all felt kind of trivial. Lexi didn't want her friends to know she was down on her luck and in turn, kicked off the whole book. I get that feeling of not wanting to show your cards to the world but this was a thought I had as a kid. Now a an adult I know not everyone has their life together and we all have problems and we should all just share them to feel better. Also, this was marketed as a fake dating romance, but it didn't really feel like one. If anything this was all just one big miscommunication trope which isn't my favorite.

The last 10% of the book where finally Lexi and her mom start talking out their issues surrounding her father's death and her outlook on her parent's love story, is when I got invested. I actually cried which I don't do very often when it comes to books.

Read if you like opposites attract, insta-love romance with somewhat of a fake dating plotline. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 9/17.

3.75 rounded up.

This was a sweet read but I just didn’t feel myself pulled to finish it as soon as I could. What starts off as a fake engagement to help out these two strangers turns into love. There is so much growth with Lexi and her mom and I really enjoyed how honest everyone ended up being with each other. The grief that they went through shaped them and made them change their perspectives - not necessarily for the best. But in the end they worked it out and it was sweet to see the changes and positive outcomes.

Oh this book!!!! First, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this arc.
I enjoyed this a lot. I started reading it on a flight and then I found myself reading it while waiting in lines at Disney. This is just a good sweet romance.
Fake engagement, rich MMC, grieving FMC/FMC family, bits of loss and recovering from it. I loved it. It’s not SPICY spicy, it’s just a great romance. 10/10

Can’t Help Falling in Love is a super cute heartfelt romance. I could see this as a Hallmark movie. Lexi is a former track star whose dreams were derailed by personal tragedy. Now a waitress, she juggles multiple responsibilities: helping her grieving mother, managing debt left by her late father, and balancing work while finishing school. The story unfolds when a chance encounter with the charming Will sparks an unexpected and intriguing connection. The romance begins with a fake engagement that turns into a genuine relationship. This story is swoon worthy with themes of grief, healing, love, and second chances. Lexi's journey from heartbreak to hope is portrayed with depth and authenticity, making her eventual growth and the romance that blooms feel both gratifying and believable. It’s a very easy read, uplifting, and a little drama. Barely any spice maybe 1/2 🌶️ but you can feel the love between them.


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Can’t Help Falling in Love by Sophie Sullivan. I’ve been picking up this book for a while because I’m a mood reader, but even when I was in the mood, I just couldn’t get into it. It’s written in third person, which made it difficult for me to connect with the story. Every time I picked it up, I lost interest.

Also, I’m not a fan of insta-love, and the main character hiding from high school acquaintances at almost 30 didn’t work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy.

Thank you to the publisher and author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was more than a romance. In fact, although I liked the romance part, I enjoyed the initial character growth /journey even more. I loved watching Lexie grapple with growing up, once you’re ready grown. Her feelings of inadequacy, complacency, and being stuck where you don’t want to be were really relatable to me. Will was a gem. The side characters were great. This book had slow pacing for me that was hard to get past, but overall a solid romance!

This was such a cute and entertaining rom com book. It honestly felt very hallmark movie, but I’m absolutely not complaining. I love books that make me feel like I’m reading a hallmark movie. This was such a cozy read and everytime I picked it up the story would just suck me right back in like I never left. This book follows Will (one of the heirs to a green baby supply fortune) and Lexi (a struggling student/dress barn employee/attempted waitress) and how one fateful meet cute led to a fake dating fiasco that turned into true love. I loved how natural the progression of the romance felt. Despite it being a relatively fast romance, I didn’t feel like that was too forced and I really enjoyed that despite having a rich boyfriend he didn’t offer to solve all her problems with his money and she didn’t push him to solve all her problems with his money, throughout the book despite all her struggles with finances, work, and her mother’s mental health, Lexi still managed to remain independent and solved her problems for the most part on her own. Overall, I found this book to be immensely entertaining and I would highly recommend this book if you like a good fade to black romance with good banter and a happily ever after.

This should have been the book for me: I love the fake dating trope, he falls first is a favorite, and that cover is great! Unfortunately, Can’t Help Falling in Love didn’t live up to my expectations.

Insta-love isn’t one of my favorite tropes, and this was insta-insta-love. The fake engagement was the result of an assumption that could have been easily corrected. I found it hard to connect to Lexi or Will, and I wasn’t really invested in the outcome.

Sullivan does a great job with the banter between the leads and treats Gwen’s struggle with grief with sensitivity, but that wasn’t enough to rescue the story for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for an eARC. Opinions are my own.

This was my very first Sophie Sullivan novel and it did not disappoint! Can’t Help Falling in Love is the ultimate cozy meet cute for your fall reading list. In this sweet, friends to lovers romance we meet Lexi, a young and grieving waitress who is clumsy and terrible at her job. Will is her handsome customer who finds Lexi’s clumsiness adorable and takes pity on her when her shallow high school friends invite her to one of their swanky parties. One thing leads to another and somehow they find themselves caught in a fake engagement. However, it isn’t long until they discover that there is nothing fake about their feelings for one another.

I loved the characters and found Lexi to be relatable which only made me love her even more. I feel Will’s character could have used a little more depth to avoid him falling flat on the page but all in all the two characters worked well and made for a great love story.. I also appreciated that this story wasn't just your typical romcom but also added tones of grief giving more depth and dimension to my reading experience. If you love the fake dating/marriage of convenience, friends to lovers tropes then you will eat this book up.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with this digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first book by this author and it definitely will not be my last. I enjoyed this story and these characters so much. Packed with great banter, fun, and love. Lexi is just awesome. And Will turns out to be amazing! You could tell that from the first time they meet that he would be just the best guy. And what a meet-cute it was. I enjoyed their fake engagement turned real love so much. It left me with a big smile and a full heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Can't Help Falling in Love. This was my first book by Sophie Sullivan, but it won't be my last. I absolutely loved this one -- it was such a heartwarming, fun, and swoon-worthy book. This was not only a fun rom-com with lovable characters (and great character development) but also a book that made you feel and think (I teared up several times). I loved the exploration of grief, family, and trying to live up to one's potential alongside the fun tropes (fake dating, he falls first, opposites attract). I highly recommend this one, and I can definitely see/hope she explores more of the characters in this book in happily-ever-afters of their own! And now, I'm off to read all of Sophie Sullivan's back catalog!

This book was everything I wanted from a fall romcom! I’m a big fan of the anxiety rep and the way the characters’ grief is portrayed in such a realistic and heartfelt way. Now I’m not the biggest fan of a third-act break-up if I’m honest, but you don’t have to put up with it for very long and it felt authentic in a way that most don’t so that was good. All in all a solid story!!

I've read several of Sophie Sullivan's books, and they always leave me feeling like I'm living in a rom-com, which I absolutely love. This one was no exception! I was hooked from the very beginning. While insta-love isn’t everyone’s favorite trope, this story probably has the fastest insta-love moment I've ever encountered. For me, it was exactly what I needed, and it made for a quick read since finished it in just a couple of days.

I particularly enjoy when the guy falls first, and Will is honestly a dream boyfriend! He’s instantly drawn to Lexi, and a misunderstanding leads to their fake engagement, much to the surprise of everyone—especially Will's family. Beyond the charming romance, I appreciate how Sophie Sullivan delicately explores themes of grief and loss, showing the different ways people cope with pain and how slow the recovery process can be. The character development around this aspect of the plot was really well done, and I found myself falling for every single character introduced.

If you are looking for a fast read - I won't say easy just because of the topic that can be hard for some - this is the book for you!

If you're looking for a fast-paced read—though I wouldn’t call it entirely easy due to the heavy themes—this is the book for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.