The Year We Fell Down

By: Sarina Bowen

Narrated by: Nick Podehl, Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

The sport she loves is out of reach. The boy she loves has someone else. What now?

She expected to start Harkness College as a varsity ice hockey player. But a serious accident means that Corey Callahan will start school in a wheelchair instead. Across the hall, in the other handicapped-accessible dorm room, lives the too-delicious-to-be-real Adam Hartley, another would-be hockey star with his leg broken in two places. He's way out of Corey's league. Also, he's taken. Nevertheless, an unlikely alliance blooms between Corey and Hartley in the "gimp ghetto" of McHerrin Hall.

Over perilously balanced dining hall trays and video games, the two cope with disappointments that nobody else understands. They're just friends, of course, until one night when things fall apart. Or fall together.

All Corey knows is that she's falling. Hard. But will Hartley set aside his trophy girl to love someone as broken as Corey? If he won't, she will need to find the courage to make a life for herself at Harkness - one that does not revolve around the sport she can no longer play or the brown-eyed boy who's afraid to love her back.

©2014 Sarina Bowen (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Great 1st book in a the series! Loving It!

I loved this book! This book was very different from all the other books I've been reading. I have read so many "injured athlete" books in the past but never where the girl is the athlete in question. This book made me think about so many things I haven't really considered before. It was so sweet and romantic and had so many real life problems. Book 1 has me completely sucked in! I am dying to start book 2.

The narration is great! Nick Podehl is great but I don't love his female voices and Saskia Maarleveld was perfect all around!

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Hope Fairies Everywhere Rejoice!

I am kicking myself for waiting so long to read/listen to this book! Sarina Bowen writes the most heartfelt, yet humorous and quirky, books. Thanks to the wonders of whispersync, I was able to switch seamlessly back and forth between the ebook and audiobook. Nick Podehl and Saskia Maarleveld do an amazing job narrating and I especially enjoyed Saskia's performance as Corey.

Corey was an amazing heroine. She was tough yet vulnerable and showed such incredible strength. She did seem more mature than the average college freshman, but given her history/past it made sense. I loved that she stayed true to herself, despite the heartache, and moved forward instead of wallowing in her own sadness. Her fortitude and bravery make her my favorite Bowen heroine to date.

Hartley made my heart hurt at times when he denied his true feelings, but I could also understand to a degree why he made the decisions that he did. At his core, he's a good guy. It just took a while for that side to prevail. The only thing that didn't sit well with me was what happened the night of his 21st birthday.

***SPOILER***

Just because his girlfriend was off with another guy and they have an "understanding", a little hook up is still a hook up. I know that he was grappling with his feelings for Corey, but it still felt like cheating to me. Also, if my timeline is correct, he broke up with Stacia and had Corey's virginity the next night. Even though they had been building up to this for months, it still seemed crazy fast. I'm hoping he at least changed the sheets in between! Corey was a very willing participant though and knew exactly what had been happening, so there really isn't any blame here. Just my own 2 cents ;)

*****

I couldn't wipe the goofy grin from my face once Hartley finally admits the truth and lets his sweetness show. I don't think that I have ever rooted for a couple harder to get their HEA. My hope fairy was definitely rejoicing at the end! I can't wait to read the next book in the series and I'm hoping we will continue to see Hartley and Callahan throughout the rest of the books too!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not my favorite Sarina Bowen, but still good.

I liked this one, but I've read better from Sarina Bowen. I'm hopeful that the series continues to improve. It was a little bland for me, but I saw potential there.

The narrators were good, especially the male narrator, but I thought the female narrator sounded a little old for new adult. I still think that they did a very nice job, especially with the voices for other genders.

All in all, worth the money.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

So good!

I fell in love with this book all over again. Fantastic narrators. They were perfect.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Very uplifting, very inspiring

Any additional comments?

You never know how strong you are ....until being strong is the only choice you have
This was a very beautiful and tender story...
It touched something deeply inside me and many times i thought that something get caught in my eyes!!!This was a story about fighting and courage and bravery...
Because you have to be brave to succeed to have this kind of life that had our heroes and especially, Corey!!!Corey was a fantastic heroine that didn't let her disability get in the way of living her life, despite what she'd been through. Her strength was admirable and I couldn't help but root for her to get a well deserved HEA!
It might have taken Adam a little longer to figure out how great Corey is.....but in the end he recognizes what's in front of him and goes after the girl.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Beautiful story to start an amazing series

Sarina Bowen writes with so much heart and soul. It’s her trademark. Her stories are heartfelt and witty. I seriously adore her sense of humor. She is a genius. Her writing shines because of its simplicity and beauty, it flows. And to top it all, her characters are real people, relatable people. It’s the real deal. Basically, great literature.

I love this book. The Year We Fell Down is everything I love about romance. It is perfection. You have a very interesting collection of secondary characters, a beautiful and very detailed setting, a heartwarming slash heartbreaking story, and a very likable set of main characters.

Adam Hartley is a very hot, popular, sweet, and clueless Hockey player. He has a broken leg and therefore is reassigned to a different dorm building. There he meets Corey Callahan and her roommate Dana, and they become friends.

Corey Callahan is a freshman and is trying to move on with her life after an accident that left her on a wheelchair. She is dealing with the changes normal college students face, but also with plenty of feelings regarding the changes that being partially paralyzed have brought her.

Hartley and Corey bond over their disability and a mutual love for Hockey, but for Corey, soon friendship turns into something more. The bad news, Hartley has a girlfriend. The good news, she’s going on an exchange program for a few months abroad. Time will tell if their connection can grow into something more for both of them.

I love Corey. She is so strong and at the same time so unsure of herself regarding Hartley. And he is so clueless at first. Then he pretends not to be aware of Corey as a woman, but the attraction runs both ways. It is sweet, really. I love the way their relationship grows and how we get to know them through their thoughts and feelings. The story is very well written, the characters are well developed, and is an artful combination of painful and hilarious situations, making you laugh and cry in equal measure. You won’t be able to put it down.

I enjoyed both narrators very much. Nick Podehl and Saskia Maarleveld did a wonderful job bringing Corey and Hartley to life. Their performance is enjoyable and heartfelt. You can sense their emotions, and their voices are really pleasant and also age appropriate. I love this book, and the audiobook makes it justice.

The Year We Fell Down

I really enjoyed this book, so I really wanted to listen to the audio as well. I loved the plot of this story. Nick Podehl and Saskia Maarleveld did a wonderful job of bringing Hartley and Corey to life! I definitely recommend this audio (and the book, too!)!

Sweet and tender.

I loved reading about University/College life for Corey and Hartley and how they were drawn together by increments, the two “gimps” sticking together against the able-bodied world. This was a satisfying slow-burn romance that I found infinitely romantic and heart-pleasing with sweet sexy-times.

It was my first Sarina Bowen novel. I was so impressed by the story-line about a heroine in a wheelchair and seeing life from her perspective. It was really well-done.

I listened on Whispersync/Audible and loved the narrators as well. Usually I would say the same narrators should not do the voices for the continuing stories in the same series about friends of the protagonists. Here, however, the narrators are SO GOOD that I’m more than fine with them reading other novels in the series.

Curtailed but not broken

This is a coming of age story. It reminds all of us that although obstacles get in our way we can overcome them. We can be broken, but rise back up and start again. Reinvent yourself and be stronger for it. Corey Callahan did and this is her story.

Couldn’t stop listening

Loved it! I couldn’t stop listening! Had a good story line and the people reading did a nice job with the voices

A HEARTWARMING COLLEGE ROMANCE

The year we fell down is the first book in the Ivy Years series, its the first book I have read by Sarina, wont be my last and the added bonus this book is also currently free in Amazon which meant I got it also for a bargain price in audio.


The year we fell down is a heart-warming College Romance.

Cory is starting her year at college in adapted dorms from an accident that has left her in a wheel chair and the inability to walk again. Prior to the accident Cory was a hockey player, active, outgoing, you
​Hartley is a popular guy and also starting his year in the same dorms due to an accident that has temporarily left in on crutches.

​Hartley and Cory have the opposite rooms from each other and it was such a heart-warming journey seeing them go from friends to more and I must admit I was so rooting for Cory at one point I didn't thin they would get there after all Hartley did have model looking Stacia as his girlfriend at the beginning of all of this.

​Definitely a recommended read for those lazy days, afternoons in the garden or holiday read. Very little angst one hot moment and plenty of swooning.

​I listened to this in audio and recommend it, the narration was dual and both narrators good. and expressive bringing the characters to life.

A sweet and tender YA romance!

Another great college/sports (hockey) YA romance but for a change, it includes a main character with a disability.

Following an ice hockey accident, Corey Callahan has lost the use of her legs but that doesn't stop her from trying to land the boy of her dreams and to continue to play a sport. She is young but determined and her relationship with Adam Hartley was extremely sweet. Adam, currently sporting a broken leg, is also unable to play ice hockey at the moment but his injury isn't a long-term one. Together, in the "gimp ghetto" of McHerrin Hall they bond, become friends and fall in love.

Very well written and enjoyable via audiobook. Saskia Maarleveld is one of my favourite narrators but her male counterpart's performance by Nick Podehl wasn't as enjoyable. His squeaky voiced portrayal of Corey just grated for some reason.

I'm already looking forward to reading/listening to the next instalment.