🥹 SWOON 🥹

What a fun installment in this series! I loved the hockey setting and the grumpy/sunshine dynamic. Parker and Logan had amazing chemistry and tension from the start and I loved every second. From their first moment alone in the elevator to the time on the ice with the rest of the team (iykyk) this book had me sighing, swooning, melting over the heartwarming moments and loving this story. Logan is protective and supportive of Parker, always listening to her and defending her when she sells herself short. Parker sees the man behind the celebrity persona and she recognizes Logan’s loneliness for what it is and makes him feel a part of something for the first time in a long time. I loved the vulnerable moments and the romantic build up that included lots of amazing scenes and almost kisses that left you feeling so much tension with the frustration of most slow burns. I loved it and I loved these two together.

Read if you love:
🧡 brother’s best friend
🧡 never been kissed
🧡 hockey romance
🧡 celebrity romance
🧡 swoony slow burn 🔥

Many thanks to the author and Netgalley for an audiobook copy of this story. The dual POV story was narrated beautifully by the two narrators. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the audiobook “Just Don’t Fall” by Emma St. Clair in exchange for my honest review.

Logan Barnes is a professional hockey player but also her lifelong childhood crush and brother’s ex-best friend. He’s now playing for his hometown hockey team while rehabbing. Parker has never been kissed and her father is constantly trying to set her up. She’s trying to avoid being set up again, so she tells her dad she’s bringing a date to his birthday gala. She over sells the commitment and tells her dad Logan is her boyfriend!

Fake dating might just be one of my favorite tropes, especially when it involves a crush on your brother’s best friend. I also love a good hockey romance, although I would have loved to see more hockey in the storyline. I found the book to sweet, entertaining and an overall a nice second chance at love story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

Would love to book the next trip to Harvest Hollow ✈️

This is a sweet, wholesome, small town hockey romcom. Both narrators of the audiobook were great!

Super cute second chance, fake dating, brother’s ex best friend hockey romance. She’s super sweet and always had a crush, he’s just bidding his time until he can get back to the NHL but ends up finding real connections with her and the new team.

I had the pleasure of reading Emma St. Clair’s Just Don’t Fall book when it first released last year. St. Clair just has a way of making you care about her characters and that was most definitely the case here with Parker and Logan. The bad boy of hockey Logan Barnes gets sent down to the minors and ends up in the last place he ever expected. Harvest Hollow, it’s where he grew up and a place he never intend to return to. And Parker, the little sister of his former best friend, is the last person he expected to run into, but she is in charge of the social media for the team he’s just joined. And she’s no longer the little girl he remembered. Parker also just happens to have had a crush on Logan since forever. Fake dating is such a fun trope, and St. Clair definitely runs wild with it here. Sure some may claim things get a little cheesy toward the end, but as a massive fan of The Office, I loved it. The audio performances by Emily Ellet and Jay Myers were great, both brought their respective characters to life quite effectively. I actually think I enjoyed even more this second time around. This is one cozy romance I can easily recommend people fall for. I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to listen to an audio ARC of Just Don’t Fall.

I love, love, loved this audiobook! When I come across a 5 🌟 read, I tend to revisit it as an audiobook if it's available. This did not disappoint!

🎧 Listened to Audiobook
🌟 5/5
🌶 G

What you get: Hockey romance, closed-door, childhood crush to lovers, fake-dating, grand-gestures, dance routines, social media shenanigans, fancy chair.

Logan Barnes is sent back to minor leage hockey after some controversial incidents on and off the ice. He didn't expect his image rehab time with Appies to reconnect him with his childhood best friend's sister.

Parker has always had a crush on Logan. Seeing him after all these years, she's realized the crush has never left. In an attempt to keep herself from being setup on dates by her father, she tells him she's dating Logan Barnes.

What starts out as fake-dating turns into an epiphany of feelings for both Logan and Parker. The story is filled with romantic gestures and happily ever afters! The narrators did an excellent job bringing the characters to life. This is definitely going under my list of cozy romcoms to listen to again.

7 authors, 7 love stories, 1 small town, endless cozy fall vibes, and I adore it all!! Just Don't Fall is the first story from Harvest Hollow and written by one of my favorites for feel-good sweet romance, Emma St. Clair. Parker is a hometown girl working in social media marketing for the local AHL hockey team, and Logan is her brother's (former) best friend who returns to the small town after getting bumped down from his NHL team. Combine a little fake dating with a lot of chemistry and you've got yourself a delightful small town rom-com!

As with all of Emma St. Clair's books, I adored the characters. Parker radiates with pink, sparkly, girl boss energy, and Logan is a cinnamon roll in a hockey player's body. The humor and heart in the book were absolutely perfect. The fact that Fancy Chair was pretty much a major character was divine. The audiobook narrators, while new to me, made this book really sparkle. 5 stars for the mushy gushy, hot chocolate, fuzzy blanket, never been kissed girl meets Taylor Swift dancing hockey players vibes!

Thank you to the author via NetGalley for gifting me with this audiobook to review! I loved it!

Tropes
Sports Romance- Hockey
Brothers ex best friend
Childhood friends
Workplace proximity
Fake Dating
Social Media Manager/Hockey Player

This is a YA slow burn that’s centered around a FMC in her late 20s that’s never been kissed. There is no spice, but lots of swoon and chemistry between the two MCs. The narrators are great!

10 years since they last saw another, Parker and Logan are thrown together when the minor hockey team takes over Logan’s NHL contract after a few incidents. Logan is forced into 1:1 time with Parker who runs social media for the team.

Such a quick listen! Crushed 40% of this in one day. The story moves quickly and it’s full of humor between female friendships and men’s locker room antics. It started to lose me when it’s uncovered that she’s never been kissed. I struggled with adult females who are sooooo attractive and sure of themselves and what they want, but have never been kissed despite dating people. Idk. Just not my cuppa, and really took away from this being a 4 star listen for me.

Side note- love the inspo and callout from the Savannah Bananas🥰

Thank you NetGalley and Victory Editing for the ALC.

Brother’s best friend is my favorite troupe! But then again, anything written by Emma St Clair is an automatic winner! I have already read the second book in this series so when I was offered the opportunity to listen to the audiobook of the story, I couldn’t say no. This book is set in North Carolina which is a big plus in my book.

Logan left town years ago to play for the NHL, but when he gets demoted and has to go back home to play for the hometown AHL team, he doesn’t realize how much heartbreak his leaving had caused. Parker had the biggest crush on her brother’s best friend until he left one day without ever saying goodbye. Years later she is all grown up and needs a date to her father’s birthday gala. Logan never told anyone why he left but when he finally breaks his silence, he learns that Parker was the one that he hurt the most.

I’ve quickly fallen in love with this series, even though I never really felt drawn to hockey romances.

I missed the Sweater Weather series when it first published last year so when I saw this was available on audio via NetGalley, I quickly requested it. I loved this book. It was just what I was looking for at the moment. The brother’s best friend tension, hockey romance, the swooniest not-kisses (plus some pretty great actual kisses too), a nickname that I loved and humor made for a great read. I loved the epilogue so much. The dual point of view narration was very well done and I enjoyed the performance of both narrators. I’m definitely interested in more from the Appies and have the other books on my list.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from NetGalley. The thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Content Notes: Kisses

I loved this book so much as an audiobook’! I read it last fall when it came out as an ebook and loved it so much I got a physical copy. So when I saw it was available as an audiobook I requested it right away. And I’m so glad I did because it was wonderful to be in Harvest Hollow again. The narrators did a fabulous job and they truly brought this story to life!

Parker’s teenage crush, Logan, is back in town, forced to play for the local hockey team after a career setback. As Parker, the team’s social media manager, works with him daily, their old feelings rekindle. Their accidental fake relationship ignites a passionate connection, but Parker knows Logan’s return is temporary. Can she resist falling for him again, knowing the pain of his inevitable departure?

This is an adorable hockey rom com. It’s full of likable characters, with a strong family feeling among the players. Parker is strong yet vulnerable, while Logan is sweet and caring beneath his brusque exterior. It’s a feel-good novel made better by the narration.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I was hooked from the first page! A fun, sweet, hockey rom com that’s the perfect summer (or any season) read. You can’t help but cheer for Logan and Parker. This book gives all the heart tugs and feels while crafting the perfect dream man for all readers. I cannot wait to read more in this series!

I waited for the audio to read this one and I was not disappointed.
I love this series, if you'd ask me which is my favorite series, it's this one, by far.
The audio was perfect, absolutely loved the female narrator.
Our male narrator did sound like he was breathing in through his teeth at times, but frankly the story was so good I stopped noticing.

This is a clean, but very hot, romance. And no, it's not just because there are a bunch of hot, sweaty hockey players in the locker room, or playing on the ice.
Yes it's clean, but it has more chemistry than a lot of spicy books. Who needs the spice anyway! All we need is to feel the love, to feel the chemistry and Emma give it to us on a silver platter. I can go back and read this forever! And sigh every time!

Just Don’t Fall is the first closed-door romantic comedy in Sweater Weather, a connected series by various authors. Each week an author will release their book, which can be read as a stand-alone.

25-year-old Parker is working for as a Social Media Manager for her hometown’s minor league hockey team, the Appies. She is underpaid and unappreciated by management, but the players love her. She lives in a tiny apartment, and is determined to be independent of her wealthy, overbearing father and passive mother. She is surprised when her older brother, Brandon’s, childhood best friend and hockey buddy is sent to the Appies from the NHL. Parker idolized Logan but he ghosted her family when he was drafted into the NHL at age 18.

Logan Barnes is unhappy about being back in Harvest Hollow while he continues to recover from an injury. Brandon and his adorable younger sister, “Pete” Parker, were the only positive things in his hometown growing up. He is stand-offish and isn’t friendly with his teammates. He doesn’t want to participate in any publicity for his new team, but his contract requires it. He offers to attend Parker’s dad’s birthday gala as her date in exchange for her allowing him to appear in the background of some team videos, instead of front and center.

Parker has never had a real boyfriend, partially because she was a competitive figure skater as teenager and then her strong unrequited feelings for Logan. She has never kissed a man on the lips and now has anxiety about it. Logan seems to be developing real feelings towards her, but Parker knows his time in town is short. In addition to dealing with Parker’s family, Logan also has to work around his overprotective teammates.

This is the fourth hockey romance that I have reviewed lately and it’s definitely the best! Logan and Parker are both wonderful characters and the chemistry between them is magnificent! There are too many good quotes from this book! Just Don’t Fall is the kind of closed-door romance that readers dream about: a great story with sizzling chemistry between the main characters but no profanity or graphic sex. I really hope that that the author writes Felix’s story next. I plan to read the books in the Sweater Weather series as they are released.

The audiobook is narrated by Emily Ellett and Jay Myers, who do an exceptional job of bringing the characters to life. Their portrayals match the way that I envisioned the characters sounding when I read the book.

After I purchased a paperback copy of the book from Amazon, I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) e-book from NetGalley and the author for free. In June, 2024 I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) audiobook from NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Oh this was GOOD! I loved this book as I did laundry and cleaned. I just was so engulfed with the characters and the spicy story of this! Loved it! Highly recommend

✨ PRINCEMAN REVIEW ✨

📝 Parker can't believe her eyes when her childhood crush/ brother's best friend is the newest player on The Appies Hockey Team. Years ago, Logan Barnes left town without saying a word, only to become extremely successful in hockey. When an injury and attitude problem sends him back down to the AHL, he's in the last place he wants to be...Harvest Hollow. Parker isn't a little kid anymore, and there's something about her he just can't resist.

What I 🤍:
🏒 Sports (Hockey) Romance
🥅 Workplace Romance
👧👦 Childhood Friends
💕 Brother's Best Friend
1️⃣ Ist Crush
🛋️ Close Proximity-Neighbors
💋 First Kiss
🍂 Small Town

This book so so sweet! Just Don't Fall is the first book in The Sweater Weather and The Appies Hockey Romance Series, and it doesn't disappoint. Right away, you fall in love with Parker. She's a successful social media manager for The Appies, and watching her put all those men in place was absolutely hilarious. 😂 Parker is also unique because while she is in her 20s, she's never been kissed. Whenever she's attempted, disaster strikes, and now, so much pressure has built up around it. Logan is a little bit broken, but in all the best ways. Watching him fall so hard for Parker was SWOONY!

Prince's Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audio Version: 🎧🎧🎧
Passion: 🔥(Kisses)
Read If ➡️: You love sweet, kisses only romances.
Read 📅: September...Start of Hockey Season
CW ⚠️: Complicated Familial Relationships

I was able to listen 🎧 to this book on audio. (Thank you Emma for the copy). While I ADORED this story, the audio version really didn't work for me. I struggled with the female narrator. For starters, the way she executed Parker's voice just made her seem younger than a woman in her mid twenties. Additionally, the narrator held her s's for long time, and by the end of the book, it was driving me crazy! Sorry! On the flip side, I really enjoyed the male narrator for Logan.

Just Don't Fall in Love is out now, and I recommend it to those wanting something sweet this fall season! 🍂

I absolutely loved every part of this book. From the narrators, to the love story it was amazing! If you’re looking for a cute hockey romance with mutual pining between the characters, this is for sure the book for you. It included some of my all time favorite tropes!

This was my first hockey romance, but definitely not my last! I may have found a new favorite sub-genre of romance books. Although this book was completely closed-door, I appreciated how Emma St. Claire did a great job giving readers the fiery chemistry descriptions and flirting scenes that were plenty steamy. In addition to Logan and Parker’s relationship development, I also loved them as individual characters and enjoyed watching them grow as individuals as well.

Just Don't Fall (Sweater Weather Book 1)
By Emma St. Clair
Dual POV Narration by Emily Ellet & Jay Myers

Just Don't Fall by Emma St. Clair is super cute, sweet, and entertaining. It's a no spice, low drama brother's (former) best friend hockey romance that is part of the Sweater Weather Series, a series of interconnected stand-alone romcoms written by multiple authors.

'Just Don't Fall' follows Appies social media manager Parker Douglas and pro hockey player Logan Barnes as their public fake relationship blurs the line into real feelings.

Narrators Emily Ellet and Jay Myers play the roles of Parker and Logan, Parker's teenaged crush who left their hometown to play for the NHL without saying goodbye in dual narration. The two characters are reunited when Logan is sent down to the minors to play for the Appies, his hometown's AHL team, when his reputation takes a hit.
Ellet"s performance was fantastic as always. She's one of the many female narrators who disprove the stereotype that women can't narrate male voices.. Jay Myers did an awesome job narrating the surprisingly swoony Logan. This is a great listen for when you want something satisfying but lighthearted.

Thanks to Netgalley's Victory Editing Co-op for ALC of Emma St. Clair's 'Just Don't Fall. This review is also posted to Goodreads and on my audiobookstagram account, Bawdiophile on 6/14/24.