Review Detail

Kaitlyn is living the perfect country life with her family in Northern California. She is a great student, swimmer, and musician. She has a twin brother Caden, a best friend Brody, and a handsome boyfriend Pistol Black.
‘When Fall Breaks’ is the first installment of the Seasons of Jefferson series. It is both a slow burn teen romance and a contemporary story of domestic abuse and teenage love gone wrong.

What I Loved: The slow burn romance between Brody and Kaitlyn is both realistic and very sweet. I love the idea of Kaitlyn and Brody being best friends before they started dating. I liked how the storyline tackled some hard-hitting topics such as domestic abuse and underage drinking and showed the consequences. Also, the country setting to this story is something different from the usual YA suburbia.

What Left Me Wanting More: First off, I understand that the underage drinking and risk taking in this book is to make a point of the consequences of bad behavior. However, I would have liked to see more of a parental presence in the story. Aside from Kaitlyn and Caden’s father being the football coach, their parents were almost never mentioned. Over-achieving teens like Kaitlyn and Caden would certainly have parents active in their lives and I would have liked to have seen that represented more in the story.
Secondly, being the mother of boy/girl twins myself, I found Kaitlyn and Caden’s relationship, one-dimensional and stiff. The only emotion that they seemed to show each other is Caden’s over protection of Kaitlyn. There’s no bickering, no joking, and no real affection between them other than Caden constantly looking over Kaitlyn’s shoulder.
Lastly, Kaitlyn perfection is a little much. Over and over again it’s mentioned that Kaitlyn is beautiful, smart, talented, and outgoing and is even described as an athletic Barbie doll. Yet she acts as if she doesn’t know if Pistol or Brody will find her attractive.

My Final Verdict: I enjoyed ‘When Fall Breaks’ and would really like to find out what happens next for the characters. The story is a YA romance with some important messages behind a sweet love story.