The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 247

Publisher: Skyscape 

Released: 30th of January 2018 

For Clementine Haas, finding herself is more than a nice idea. Ever since she woke up in an Irish hospital with complete amnesia, self-discovery has become her mission.

They tell her she’s the lone survivor of a plane crash. They tell her she’s lucky to be alive. But she doesn’t feel lucky. She feels…lost.

With the relentless Irish press bearing down on her, and a father she may not even recognize on his way from America to take her home, Clementine assumes a new identity and enlists a blue-eyed Irish stranger, Kieran O’Connell, to help her escape her forgotten life…and start a new one.

Hiding out in the sleepy town of Waterville, Ireland, Clementine discovers there’s an upside to a life that’s fallen apart. But as her lies grow, so does her affection for Kieran, and the truth about her identity becomes harder and harder to reveal, forcing Clementine to decide: Can she leave her past behind for a new love she’ll never forget? 

What I Have to Say 

This was a great book about picking yourself up and finding a new identity after a tragedy. Clementine has no memory of who she was before the crash and she's scared of hurting the people from her old life by pretending to be someone she's not. So she runs away from her life and chooses to find a new identity rather than chasing after an old one. 

Obviously it is not a good idea to run away from hospital and go off with a complete stranger in a foreign country, but I really understood Clementine and wanted her to succeed. I wanted her to go back to her dad, but I also wanted her to find her new life and run away with Kieran. It's a book that really makes you think hard about the choices that Clementine is making and whether what she's doing is for the best. 

I love books that make you think about things differently. The right and wrong of it all is obvious, but even then, it still makes you think about it all. 

A love letter to Ireland, with strong themes of identity and truth, this was a fantastic book all around. 

My thanks go to Skyscape and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.