A very entertaining audiobook

Since her popular debut Casting Lacey, I’ve been following Elle Spencer’s career closely. Her book 30 Dates in 30 Days was one of my favourites of 2019. Ms. Spencer’s books are automatic reads and with A long way to fall, once again, she has delivered an entertaining story.

Bridget Berg is the daughter of a famous downhill skier and now that her father passed away, she’s in charge of his sky resort located in Elk Mountain, Utah. Kennedy Fleming’s father is the owner of the cabin next door and both families have a history of antagonism and conflict that has been passed to the next generation. When Bridget and Kennedy first meet sparks fly and not of the good kind, but as they get to know each other and attraction gets in the way, they decide that maybe it’s time to leave the families’ differences behind. But when past conflicts come back to threaten their budding relationship, Kennedy will have to choose between her family loyalties and her newfound love…

This is an enemies to lovers romance with a heavy dose of humour. As a matter of fact, the book blurb doesn’t reflect how funny this story is. Elle Spencer normally mixes her stories with humour and my favourites are when there’s more comedy than drama, just like in this one.

The book is written in third person from the point of view of both main characters. Kennedy’s pov is hilarious, she has an epic sense of humour which is reflected in, for example, the way she describes Bridget as a “Viking Goddess of the North with the cute freckles”, a “Nordic Queen”, or the “She-Wolf Queen of the Mountain”. Her self deprecating attitude and a penchant to get involved in ridiculous situations made her my favourite character:

“… she could ski down the mountain if she needed to. It had been a few years since she’d clicked into a pair of skis, but it was just like riding a bike, right? The kind of bike that had no brakes and she could easily wrap herself around a tree on.”

Regarding the romance, I loved the chemistry built from the antagonism and how, despite Bridget’s determination not to fall for Kennedy’s charms, she does exactly that. However, I thought that there was a bit of insta-love when it was time to move the relationship forward, even for lesbians’ timeframes but I guess that it was needed in the context of the story.

Lula Larkin narrated the audiobook version and did an absolutely amazing job. I haven’t listened to many of her narrations despite that she reads quite a few Bold Strokes Books novels. I’ll definitely listen to more of her audiobooks in the future. Her voices are distinctive, her performance of emotions is spot on and her comedic timing is great. Ms. Larkin made this story even more enjoyable. 4 stars.

Length: 7 hours, 58 minutes