Dare to Fall

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
When I spotted this book I knew straight away I had to read it, I read the DIMILY books in a matter of hours, only taking a break while I waited to get approved for Did I Mention I Miss You. So as soon as I was approved I dropped everything else, leaving a couple of books half read, just to read this book and I was not disappointed.
MacKenzie is dealing with a loss in her family four years after the fact, her crush from the year before, Jaden can't understand why the girl he was seeing dropped him just after the death of his parents. A year on the two meet up and both realise that the feelings they had never really left.
Can I just say wow. This book was just, wow. Right from the first chapter I was all in, I couldn't put it down. The characters are so well written, nothing is ever too far fetched and the story was so fast paced I honestly lost hours at a time without even realising I was nearly finished. Every character was relatable, each dealing with their grief in their own way, but every situation felt so real. This book filled me with so much happiness as I read it, rooting for the relationship between MacKenzie and Jaden, but pages later I was drawn back into the grief, be it with The Rivers family's loss or the Hunter's. With such tough and sensitive subjects like grief, loss, alcoholism, guilt it's easy to be blunt and to the point for the overall progression of a story but Estelle Maskame seemed to take such care when writing about these subjects, never once rushing through a situation with other family members, such as MacKenzie's parents, showing as much care and attention to detail as she did for MacKenzie and Jaden.
5/5 stars

Dare to Fall is the story of MacKenzie and Jaden: their tragedies, their families and their friends and their relationship.

Kenzie has separated herself from Jaden (her boyfriend) and Danielle (her best friend) after the death of their parents because she doesn't know how to treat them. The story picks up a year after this tragedy, and Kenzie is still avoiding them. It's hard to understand this at first: Kenzie seems selfish and I found myself shouting "it's not about you" at various points. Later, we come to learn that there is more to it than this, that Kenzie is dealing with her own grief, or rather, struggling to acknowledge her own grief.
Grief is a big theme of this book: everyone in the book is grieving differently and the author writes about it all beautifully.

Jaden and Kenzie meet by chance when Kenzie is trying to buy cheap alcohol for her mum, and this sparks an attempt to rebuild their relationship which becomes a huge focus of the book. Along the way, Kenzie learns to deal with her own grief and that of those around her.  Everyone is forced to face up to their actions and it makes for a really interesting story with some jaw dropping moments.

The twist at the end that made me sick to my stomach, but also made me feel silly for not guessing sooner. I just wish we knew how that particular storyline concluded because I needed some closure there.

I would definitely recommend Dare to Fall to others, but be prepared for it to play with your emotions.