Sweater Weather Series
Author: Emma St. Clair, Melanie Jacobson, Courtney Walsh, Julie Christianson, Carina Taylor, Savannah Scott, and Jenny Proctor
Published: 2018
Genre: Sweet Romance, Sports Romance
Books in Series:
1. Just Don’t Fall by Emma St. Clair
2. The Fall Back Plan by Melanie Jacobson
3. Can’t Help Falling by Courtney Walsh
4. Faking the Fall by Julie Christianson
5. Easy as Pie by Carina Taylor
6. A Not So Fictional Fall by Savannah Scott
7. Absolutely Not in Love by Jenny Proctor
Synopsis From Goodreads:
Before Logan Barnes was hockey’s hottest bad boy, he was my brother’s best friend … and my first crush. Oh, yeah—and the guy who ghosted me and broke my teenage heart.
Now Logan is back in Harvest Hollow, but not willingly. Recovering from an injury (and some bad press), he’s stuck playing for our minor league team.
Which means I’ll be working with him almost daily.
As the hockey team’s social media manager, it’s my job to wrangle all the guys into filming TikTok trending videos. But Logan doesn’t want to be wrangled.
Turns out … neither does my heart.
Because my old crush never died.
And when Logan becomes my accidental fake boyfriend, those old feelings flare hot enough to melt the ice.
But this is all totally one-sided. Totally fake. Isn’t it?
No matter what signals he seems to be giving me or how real things start to feel, I know Logan’s not home for good.
I survived Logan leaving me once. But this time, I’m not so sure my heart will recover…
My Take:
For this review, I read the first three books of this series so that I could get a general overview and feeling of this fall-themed series. Instead of doing a review for each book, it made more sense to review them as a group, because it is evident that the authors collaborated when writing this series. Each book in this series is set in the fictional town of Harvest Hollow, which is located in the mountains somewhere between Asheville, North Carolina and Knoxville Tennessee as those two cities are briefly mentioned as “somewhat nearby”. Businesses and secondary characters such as a specific bookstore, the minor league hockey team located in town, and a coffee shop and the workers therein are mentioned across several of the books. The books are all set in the fall, and very much give you cozy fall-like feelings: the crisp fall nights and still somewhat warm days, harvest festivals and warm coffee drinks. They can be read in any order, except for the hockey books, as those do build upon each other, and there is an off-shoot series set after the hockey books in this series that focuses on other teammates and brings the previously mentioned ones back in.
These books were interesting to read, as each book being written by a different author gives each one it’s own vibe and tempo, but with being all set in the same town, gives them enough harmony that they go together and you can imagine these story lines all playing out concurrently. But also, with them being written by different authors, if one isn’t quite your style, you can try the next one and see if it’s a better fit. But in general, they are light, sweet stories with a fall vibe, a la Hallmark. There’s no great mystery, or plot twist, but these are not the books you’d pick up if that’s what you wanted. They’re an enjoyable walk down a wooded path that’s ablaze with fall colors with a happily ever after ending.
Language:
There is only words that might be considered swearing-adjacent such as sucks, shut up, and dang.
Sexual Content:
In Just Don’t Fall, there is a scene where the MMC walks into his hotel room and a woman is waiting for him in his bed. He immediately left. And in Can’t Help Falling and The Fall Back Plan there are brief mentions of or innuendos to sexual relationships in the past (a general: did you hook up?) or reference to dating a lot, possibly sexual in nature. Other than that, there are brief kisses in the happily ever after endings.
Drug/Alcohol Use:
There is a scene in a sports bar in Just Don’t Fall and secondary characters have a beer or glass of wine. And in The Fall Back Plan, the MFC buys the bar her alcoholic father used to frequent, revamps it, and reopens it. So there are a lot of scenes in the bar, as it is her place of business, the bartender talks about making up new drinks that are a play on what is going on around town at the time, and there are a few scenes dealing with her life growing up with an alcoholic father and dealing with an alcoholic currently in her bar. The main characters don’t drink, and there is actually not a lot of focus on people actively drinking, but if you don’t like reading about anything having to do with alcohol or bars or especially alcoholism and it’s repercussions, then I would recommend you skip The Fall Back Plan because a lot of the book either peripherally or directly deals with those things.
Violence:
I have only come across mild violence in the books I read for this review. There are hits and fights on the ice in the hockey rink in Just Don’t Fall, and mention of fights in the past. The Fall Back Plan has a “gun scare” scene, and Can’t Help Falling has fights in the past and current time, as well as a house fire.
Plot/Storytelling:
All three of the books I read for this review are character-driven stories told in a dual POV.