Book Review: The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams

"Someone who really wants to be with you would be willing to move mountains, let alone break the rules."

Fake dating trope? Check. Two characters but only one bed? Check. Representation? Check. The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams is such a fun read and I’ve never felt more seen in terms of fitness and body image.

I have a confession to make: before I read this book, I had never picked up a rom-com. This is blasphemy, I'd been doing weekly chick flick night with friends for half a year and never thought to pick up a book? What an introduction to the genre this was! I loved it. Even now, after having read a few more contemporary rom-coms, this one remains one of my favorites because of the balance it has between the plot and the tropes.

The Technical Stuff

Reading Format: Audiobook by Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. Narrated by N'Jameh Camara and Teddy Hamilton.

Genre: Contemporary Rom-Com

Content Rating: MA

NeuroCandy Scale: 🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Official Summary from the Denise Williams Website

Britta Colby works for a lifestyle website, and when tasked to write about her experience with a hot new body-positive fitness app that includes personal coaching, she knows it's a major opportunity to prove she should write for the site full-time.

As CEO of the FitMe app, Wes Lawson finally has the financial security he grew up without, but despite his success, his floundering love life and complicated family situation leaves him feeling isolated and unfulfilled. He decides to get back to what he loves —coaching. Britta’s his first new client and they click immediately.

As weeks pass, she’s surprised at how much she enjoys experimenting with her exercise routine. He’s surprised at how much he looks forward to talking to her every day. They convince themselves their attraction is harmless, but when they start working out in person, Wes and Britta find it increasingly challenging to deny their chemistry and maintain a professional distance.

Wes isn’t supposed to be training clients, much less meeting with them, and Britta’s credibility will be sunk if the lifestyle site finds out she’s practically dating the fitness coach she’s reviewing. Walking away from each other is the smartest thing to do, but running side by side feels like the start of something big.

Review

The biggest thing that stuck with me about this book is that it features a plus-sized heroine who often describes herself as fat. The Fastest Way to Fall has followed in the footsteps of entertainment like Drop Dead Diva in the movement of embracing the word “fat” as any other adjective and not as a negative descriptor. Britta loves her body as it is and maintains a strong sense of self throughout the story.

While we’re on the topic of representation, Britta is also a woman of color. The portrayal of Britta as a plus-sized woman of color is incredibly authentic.

As readers, we see the multifaceted and intersectional parts of Britta in subtle ways. It’s in her post about her difficulty with finding clothes. It’s in her sleepwear that includes a scarf wrapped around her head to protect her hair. She writes in notebooks, which brings her writing outside of her job and makes it part of her identity. All of these character building details make a wonderfully rounded heroine for us, as readers, to cheer for.

I love that Britta is just Britta, and Britta happens to be a plus-sized woman of color. If I had a dollar for Every time I’ve rolled my eyes at authors trying too hard with their representation, I’d be able to pay off my student loans.

We also see representation in how differently Britta and Wes were brought up. Britta’s parents live in a large house in rural Illinois, while Wes grew up bouncing around apartments. Britta has a large family who enjoys hosting community gatherings. Wes’ upbringing resulted in strenuous familial relationships that affect him into his adulthood.

Socioeconomic class and upbringing is a part of intersectionality that can often be overlooked. I appreciated the emphasis in The Fastest Way to Fall that everyone’s backgrounds and hardships are different.

The emphasis on adopting fitness from a healthy standpoint was a great addition to this book. The reader catches a glimpse of Britta beginning to succumb to an obsessive and unhealthy mindset, resulting in a health scare, and we are reminded that getting fit doesn’t always equal getting healthy.

"You're better than easy fixes, Britta. You don't need fixing at all. You're making changes, but not because you were broken to begin with."

Also, Britta’s fears about fitness (and Britta as a character in general) were so relatable. While working out, Britta is incredibly conscious that other people might be looking at her. That fear is so real and gyms can be intimidating! There have been several times that I was the biggest girl at the gym and I felt extremely self conscious about what I was doing. At one point, Britta worried about how little weight she added to a weightlifting machine. I am not very strong, so I’ve definitely been there, and it felt good to read about a character that made me feel so seen!

The process of Wes and Britta’s flirtation did make me facepalm a bit as Wes blatantly ignored his own rules regarding the FitMi app. It seemed that he had too easy of a time rejecting the standard approach to FitMi in favor of personal messaging.

Maybe it’s because I take my career and professional life extremely seriously, but at this point in the book, my inner monologue was screaming about how easily Wes and Britta were disregarding professionalism at their respective jobs. Wes points out several times “I shouldn’t be doing this” but still seems unconcerned, which threw me off. Like I always say, though, I try not to take fiction too seriously, so I did my best to look past it.

I did have a hard time maintaining my suspension of disbelief when Wes started fantasizing about Britta when he had barely met and never seen her, especially since he had only taken her on as a client 1-3 days before.

Even though I did find Wes’ initial fantasies a little unbelievable, I did love the aspect of the story where our protagonists started building a friendship without knowing what the other person looked like. It made their friendship and connection genuine. Love is Blind wishes they could do it like this.

When I got past the unprofessional flirtation and into the personal training part of the book I had an easier time. Wes and Britta adopted a new training approach very easily, at which point I was able to forget the lack of professionalism. It’s much more believable to me that two people would fall in love in this in-person situation rather than an online situation.

I love some old fashioned rom-com tropes, and like I said before, this book has two of them. Our protagonists go through a stint of fake dating which leads us to a sub-trope of the two sharing a bedroom with only one bed. Yes, please! I do want to leave some of the details to the imagination, so you’ll have to read the book to find out.

I loved seeing that Britta was desirable to Wes and I especially appreciated that being plus-sized never even crossed Britta’s mind when she thought about what might prevent Wes from being with her.

"I shouldn't think about you as much as I do or count down the hours until I see you next.

I shouldn't want to kiss you again more than taking my next breath, but I do."

One gripe I have about the audiobook is that the narrators talk so slow. I usually listen to audiobooks at 1.25-1.5x speed, but I had to crank this book all the way up to 4x. I listened to a snippet of the audio at 1x and laughed because, and I'm not exaggerating here, it was like that scene in Zootopia where they talk to the sloths. I think they slowed the narrators' recordings down in post, there's no way they were actually speaking that slowly.

Though there were a few hiccups at the beginning that pulled me out of the story, it was so easy to root for Britta and Wes. They are so good for each other and the story is very heartwarming. Britta gives Wes a sense of security and safety, which he needs in a partner. Wes gives Britta motivation to achieve her goals. The two are such a great power couple.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a stress-free, fun read that also motivates for developing healthy habits for the right reasons. Not only was it great entertainment, I read it at the beginning of my own fitness journey and have carried it with me since.