REVIEW: Falling For Max by Shannon Stacey

In Falling For Max (Kowalski Family #9) by Shannon Stacey, Tori Burns couldn’t help but feel bad when she watched handsome but introverted Max Crawford go down in flames after trying to strike up a conversation with a woman in Trailside Diner. Tori offers to help him boost his confidence during his search for a girlfriend by giving him pointers on everything from conversation to what to wear. Only, she could never have dreamed she would begin to quickly fall for Max and rethink her aversion to relationships. After watching her parents tear each other apart during a terrible divorce, Tori swore off love. But is Max just the guy she needs to change her mind?

‘She wanted Max. There was no denying that at this point. But she wanted him temporarily and it wouldn’t be fair to pull him away from a woman who might want to keep him forever.’

Max Crawford enjoys his job working from home in the little town of Whitford, Maine. But what he really wants at this point in his life is to find a good woman to settle down with. Being shy and also having the whole town wondering what kind of work he really does (no, he’s not a serial killer or into porn) has made it rather difficult to meet someone. So when waitress and graphic designer Tori befriends Max, promising to help him find that special person, he jumps at the chance. As he meets new people and tries out the social scene, he realizes that the woman he wants in right there in front of him: Tori. Now if only he can move their relationship past the friends phase, Max could be happy for the rest of his life.

“Tori and I are friends.”
“Mmm-hmm. What is it the young folk call that nowadays? Friends with incentives?”
“Benefits. Friends with benefits.” He told himself it was a correction, not an admission.
“Right. But you need to start thinking long-term. Like friends with retirement plans.”

Falling For Max is a sweet contemporary romance which plays around a bit with the storyline from My Fair Lady, only with the roles being reversed: the male lead is the one undergoing a makeover this time around.

‘He wasn’t crazy in thinking Tori might be the woman for him. Other people thought so, too. Now he just needed Tori to believe it.’

Shannon Stacey is an author who knows how to write fun, relevant dialogue within the world of romance. That is definitely the case with Tori and Max, as well as the rest of her characters in Whitford,. I thought there was a nice current of light humor that ran through the conversations, keeping the story upbeat overall, even with Tori’s emotional block when it comes to love. I couldn’t help but feel bad for her, having been caught up in the middle of her parent’s divorce. It is easy to see why it damaged her so much, even as an adult, to be constantly barraged with negativity by them both.

And I don’t know about you, but I am all about geek-chic heroes. Max is probably one of the nicest, most charming guys I’ve read about in quite a while. His foray into the dating world was admirable, if not a bit lacking at first. It was interesting to see what happened when Tori stepped in to help him, and how the sparks began to fly the more time they spent together. I thought there was a genuine camaraderie between them which was a great base for a romance to start. And their scenes together were both sensual and fun, just like the characters themselves.

Definitely check out Falling For Max if you enjoy friends-to-lovers romances with a cozy small town feel to it.

Book Info:

Published July 29th 2014 by Carina Press | (Kowalski Family #9)

Max Crawford has reached the point in life where he’s starting to think about settling down. Unfortunately, he’s always been a little awkward when it comes to social interactions, and working from home doesn’t help. He spends so much time alone, painting beautiful, historically accurate model trains that half of Whitford has begun to joke that he may be a serial killer. Not exactly prime husband material.

Tori Burns has found happiness in Maine, thanks in large part to her shifts at the Trailside Diner. She likes the work, and she loves the local gossip. When shy, geeky Max Crawford becomes a regular, she’s intrigued. When she finds out he’s in the market for a wife, she’s fascinated…and determined to help.

Molding Max into every woman’s dream turns out to be much easier than expected. But has Tori’s plan worked a little too well? As she turns his comfortable life all sorts of upside down, she’ll have to find a way to show just how she’s fallen for him…the real him.