"Even if I Fall" is a quiet book. Brooke navigates her daily life dealing with the scrutiny of her brother having confessed to the murder of his best friend. She has a passion for figure skating and puts up with a lot just to get any ice time at the local rink. Her friendship with Maggie is what actually holds her together. It's a beautifully written relationship and the glue of the book itself. Maggie has been with Brooke through thick and thin, and she never seems resentful of the effort she puts into the friendship vs what little she sometimes gets back. I wish the book had delved a little more into this friendship rather than the romance aspect. However, Brooke and Heath's unexpected attraction for each other gives them - and their community - plenty to chew on. The writing style is gentle - which is a plus for the subject matter covered in the book. As I read the book, I almost didn't realize what was really happening to advance the plot until I was thinking over it later. Nothing is in your face. Nothing seems truly urgent. It was a good read for a winter's day.(The book's description from Goodreads)
A year ago, Brooke Covington lost everything when her beloved older brother, Jason, confessed to the murder of his best friend, Calvin. Brooke and her family became social pariahs, broken and unable to console one another. Brooke’s only solace remains the ice-skating rink, where she works but no longer lets herself dream about a future skating professionally.
When Brooke encounters Calvin’s younger brother, Heath, on the side of the road and offers him a ride, everything changes. She needs someone to talk to…and so does Heath. No one else understands what it’s like. Her brother, alive but gone; his brother, dead but everywhere. Soon, they’re meeting in secret, despite knowing that both families would be horrified if they found out. In the place of his anger and her guilt, something frighteningly tender begins to develop, drawing them ever closer together.
But when a new secret comes out about the murder, Brooke has to choose whose pain she’s willing to live with—her family’s or Heath’s. Because she can’t heal one without hurting the other.