The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Saoirse is reeling from a breakup a few months ago. So when she meets a cute new girl who's only in town for a couple of months, she suggests a free and breezy, no strings attached relationship. That'll work, won't it?

Saoirse and Ruby agree that they'll take all the most fun parts of romantic movies; the dancing, kareoke, skinny dipping. But they'll do it without any deeper feelings. No matter that they're both going through heavy family changes and could use someone to talk to. No matter that they sort of need each other. It's all going to be fun and games no matter what.

Until it isn't, any more.

I loved the tone in this. Saoirse is a little snappy for my tastes, but she's angry and grieving so it makes absolute sense. There's some of the best banter I've read in ages in here.

I am a little confused about why an Irish girl sitting the Irish Leaving Cert exam would talk about choosing her A Levels, in her own internal montage; I'd have understood it if she were speaking to either of the two English characters. Other than that, though, this is flawlessly Irish; I'm not sure I've read one this authentic in a long time. 

Also, I love Oliver so much and I want one of my own please.

I really liked the way this book handled degenerative illnessess. They are difficult and messy and no one reacts the same way, or even the same way two days running, and I thought that was really well shown here.

I'm not usually a huge fan of romcoms, but this one was just that good. I really enjoyed it.

Little old ladies at the next table lean consicuously in our direction. Hannah stands and takes a tenner out of her purse, then puts it on the table. I am confused for a momment until I realise she is paying for the cake.

"You're my best friend," she says, looking at her feet. "I think we can still have that. If you want to."

I look at her. She's biting her lip. I don't know what to say. Whatever she says about wanting to be friends, it's still something she's willing to risk giving up to get out of our relationship.

She leaves the coffee shop. My eyes follow her involuntarily. I let my head fall into my hands, but my elbow slips and I accidentally flip the plate with the cake on it over the table, where it clatters against the floor, rattling the way a penny oes when you spin it and it slowly stops. The cake slides across the cafe, leaving a long streak of caramel frosting on the tiles like a skidmark.

One of the little old ladies reaches out and pats me on the knee.

"It gets better, dear."

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.




But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.




Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.