Review: Crashing Back Down by Kristen Hope Mazzola

Mags McManus has just become a war widow in her mid-twenties. Her late husband, Randy, left for the Army right after their wedding. Instead of celebrating his homecoming and living in marital bliss with her soulmate, Mags finds herself living in constant agony. Dealing with the guilt of still living without Randy, are Randy's best friends and parents.

Rising from the ashes of this tragedy, Mags starts to learn how to love and trust again, finally being able to find happiness. But sometimes things really are too good to be true and again Mags learns how cruel the world can be as she crashes back down.

 Published November 7th 2013
Genre: New Adult

Kristine's Thoughts:

Crashing Back Down is the debut novel by Kristen Hope Mazzola and I do believe this is a name to watch out for. She does an amazing job of telling the story of one woman's journey through grief after becoming a widow at a very young age. This book is packed full of emotional highs and lows as Mags struggles to survive and function without the love of her life.

Mags is in a very dark place when this book begins. She deals with every emotion from grief to guilt and doesn't know how to or if she even wants to find her way back to normal. The only thing she can do is drown herself in work to keep the pain at bay. With the help of family, friends and a little professional help she slowly begins the process of learning to live again. I could feel her pain every step of the way. I was married at the same age as Mags character and I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose your future before it even had a chance to start. Mazzola does an incredible job of portraying the emotional mess that is Mags.

Mags finds comfort in the support in her dead husband's best friend Walker. Together they are both dealing with the pain, grief and survivors guilt. As feelings begin to emerge, Mags is even more confused as she struggles with feelings of infidelity, guilt and attraction.

Together Mags and Walker slowly learn to start living again. There are some beautiful moments and heartbreaking moments as their journey unfolds. I do have to warn you that there are a couple of twists and a shocking ending that will leave you wide eyed and begging for the next book in the series. I have no idea how it will play out or how I even want it to play out but I can't wait to find out.

The only thing that stops me from giving a 5 star rating is the extreme amount of alcohol use in this book. Initially I thought that the book was going to be about alcohol abuse in the grief process and how Mags overcomes it. That was not the case... they just drank a lot all the time and even though responsible drinking and driving was mentioned on two occasions there was an over abundance of times where there was drinking involved and then the characters would drive.

I think Mazzola has a bright future ahead of her. I can't wait to find out how the story ends!

 

About the Author

Kristen Hope Mazzola is an up and coming independent author from sunny South Florida. Crashing Back Down is her debut into the literary world. Kristen is currently working on the rest of her Crashing Series, which will include a sequel, Falling Back Together, and a prequel, Walking Away. She even has a few more tricks up her sleeve, with more characters to introduce and more twists to unravel, so keep your eye on this talented young author!

When Kristen is not driving a pen into paper, she enjoys reading all different genres and fishing. “There is just something so magical about water and the calm it brings to my life,” says Kristen. Even though writing is not her only career she is pursuing, Kristen hopes to one day be a full time writer. Having a day job and a busy life, makes finding time for writing difficult, but anything worthwhile in life is difficult. Loving life, writing, and fishing basically make up her world.

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