Andie Burke’s Fall For Him is a charming antagonists-to-lovers contemporary romance that actually deserves the ‘rom-com’ label because it delivers on both fronts. It’s warm and funny, the romance is beautifully developed and the two leads have depth, complexity and off-the-charts chemistry.

Dylan Gallagher has moved – temporarily – into his uncle’s apartment to do some renovation work, and an unfortunate flood sends him falling through the floor and the ceiling of the downstairs apartment. He has a softer landing than expected when he lands in a bed – Derek Chang’s bed, to be precise – although the heavy weight on top of him is definitely not Derek; it’s a huge dog. Derek pulls the dog off and starts frantically checking it for injuries while Dylan hauls himself up off the pile of rubble that used to be Derek’s bed. Dylan and Derek have never got along; ever since Dylan moved in a few months earlier, Derek has been antagonistic (at best) towards him and Dylan has no clue why. The ceiling collapse isn’t exactly going to improve Derek’s opinion of him.

When Dylan is able to have a good look at the damage, he sees that there are a lot of other problems with the joists and plumbing between the two apartment units, problems that have not been properly fixed and have caused some serious structural damage. This isn’t going to be a case of replastering a ceiling or relaying a floor, and it’s not going to be a quick – or inexpensive – fix. And there’s another problem. One with huge paws and fur. The residents’ association doesn’t allow dogs in any apartment for more than twenty-four hours, and if Derek has to make an insurance claim, the fact he has Gus living with him will come out, he’ll be in trouble with the HOA and could get kicked out.

Realising that – and given that Dylan doesn’t want his family to find out about the flood and label it yet another one of idiot Dylan’s screw-ups – he tells Derek he’ll fix the damage himself and will pay for it all, too. Derek is sceptical (to say the least) – but Dylan grew up working in the family construction business and has undertaken a lot of renovation projects, and he knows what he’s doing. That issue resolved there’s one problem left – with both apartments damaged, where are they going to live while the work is carried out? There’s really only one option; they’ll have to use what they can of both places, and given that their schedules are quite different – Derek, an ER nurse, works long shifts and Dylan works irregular hours, often during the night – they usually sleep at different times, so there being only one bed means they can share it. Just not together.

That’s the set up, and as Dylan and Derek (and yes, there is a reason for both names beginning with the same letter) start sharing living space they start learning more about each other, bonding over shared troubles (and hiding Gus from the nosy HOA lady!) and learning to admire and appreciate the other’s skills. Dylan is a loveable nerd who comes from a large Irish-American family (large in the sense that he’s one of six; and also in the sense that his three older brothers are built like brick shit-houses), and is something of the odd one out. He’s been dealing with what he describes as debilitating ADHD all his life, but was only diagnosed quite recently and has been working hard to retrain his brain after years of bad coping mechanisms that messed with his head and caused major insecurities. He’s made big changes to his life and routine – he quit a high pressure job in California and moved back to Maryland where he now runs his own tech consulting business, to have better control over his working environment (although it can still be stressful) – and he’s proud of how far he’s come, that he’s prioritising what’s best for him and no longer thinks of himself as broken. His relationship with his family – specifically his dad and brothers – is a difficult one, because they don’t seem able to realise that Dylan is no longer the awkward kid he used to be, and can’t see how much their constant ragging (which they think is affectionate) gets to him.

Derek is hard to like for the first quarter of the book because he’s such a dick to Dylan – for reasons the reader is made aware of but about which Dylan has no idea – and I admit that this made me cautious, because I’m not a fan of romances where dislike is built on misconceptions or where those things are one-sided. Thankfully, however, the author doesn’t drag this phase of the relationship out for too long, and, through his interactions with his friends (Olive, from Fly With Me and Joni, one of the ER doctors), she shows us that he’s a good guy at heart, but that he has a lot of unaddressed bagagge relating to the death of his father when he – Derek – was a teen. His dad thought he was doing the right thing by making Derek promise to take care of his mother and sisters, not knowing just how seriously Derek would take that promise. Now, almost twenty years later, Derek is still taking it very seriously – but not in a way that’s ever enabled him to properly process his grief. He’s become one of those people intent on fixing everything for those around him, but who has done it largely at the expense of his own happiness, and he has internalised his grief, making him reluctant to open himself up to new things – and new people.

I really enjoyed this story. Dylan and Derek are flawed, three-dimensional characters who are dealing with a lot, and who find, in each other, that one person who really gets them and sees them for who they are. The complex emotions in the story are sympathetically and skilfully written, and the banter is fabulous; it’s genuinely funny and never feels as though the author is trying too hard. I loved the way Derek and Dylan support each other, whether it’s in doing small but significant things for each other, or in a big way, as when Derek tells Dylan’s family some home truths.

The secondary cast is nicely drawn, and the various friendships are well-written. I admit that I struggled a bit with the reasons given for Derek’s initial antipathy towards Dylan, as it seemed somewhat immature, but as the story unfolds, it becomes easier to understand why Derek has been holding onto the misconception, and it becomes less important as Derek begins to realise that he’s wrong about Dylan, that he enjoys his company and that he’s attracted to him.

Fall For Him is a delightful read in which the author achieves a good balance between the humour, the steamy romance and the exploration of more serious issues (including alcoholism, toxic family expectations, grief and struggles with neurodivergence). It’s the first book I’ve read by Andie Burke, but I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for whatever she comes up with next.