The title of Pauline Trent’s debut novel may seem like a generic romance novel title, but when I thought about it, Falling in Love is actually a fairly apt title, as there’s not much more to this story than a couple falling a love. And that’s not a bad thing, as long as you’re not looking for more than a simple, sweet love story.

Green Beret Chris Montgomery nearly died in combat, and has since returned to civilian life. His grandfather recently died, and Chris returns to the old mansion that ‘Doc’ Montgomery had in a small town in North Carolina. He is expecting to clear out the place, clean it up, and maybe start a private security firm in one of the nearby cities. He doesn’t, however, expect to meet and fall in love with Angie Kane. Angie is a waitress at the town diner, a well-liked and goodhearted woman who lives with her younger sister and uncle. Though she’s attracted to Chris immediately, she’s hesitant, both because she thinks her sister is interested and also because she’s shy and has been hurt in the past. Chris, however, is very interested – and arranges to have Angie help him clean his house so that he can get to know her.

His plan works, he and Angie start to fall for each other, and Angie begins to grow into her own as an interior decorator. However, as he’s called out of town more and more, to act as a consultant for his friend, Angie has to decide between Chris and the town she’s know and loved her entire life.

Angie is a character that I think most people will either love or hate. I liked her, but I know that some people would find her annoying; she’s a bit too goody-two-shoes at times, a slight martyr heroine, and sort of weepy and indecisive at the end. I didn’t really care, though. She bugged me at times, but for the most part I thought she was a likable and truly nice, relatable character. Chris, too, was a good man, and I liked him; I liked that he fell for Angie quickly, and also that he had pretty reasonable justification for his behavior at the end. I just would have preferred a bit more development of his character.

The story is very small-town cutesy, with a lot of things falling into place neatly and accidentally, and people playing their parts perfectly. There are some fairly prominent side characters, all of whom I liked but who were somewhat archetypal. One thing that did sort of annoy me was how the author treated the difference between Angie and her sister; Angie is the curvy one who eats, and her sister is the thin pretty one who never has ice cream. It seemed like the author grouped all the “attractive” women in the world as borderline anorexic, and all of the “normal” women like Angie as far superior to them.

Maybe I read too much into it, but it just seemed like such a simplistic division that criticized anyone who’s ever dieted. I’m all about women being able to eat what they want, but just because you don’t eat ice cream all the time doesn’t make you inferior to the women who do. I think the author tried to make Angie more like the average woman, instead of all the heroines we see who could be supermodels in their spare time. While I usually prefer relatable heroines, I think the author swung a bit too far in the other direction.

Though it has its flaws, I enjoyed the book. If you’re looking for a sweet, uncomplicated romance, Falling in Love would be a good place to start.