[REVIEW] “First Flight, Final Fall” By: C.W. Farnsworth

C.W. Farnsworth recently announced the blurb of her next soccer sports romance, so I thought, what better time to post my review of the first book, First Flight, Final Fall (previously a standalone)?! (The second book, “All the Wrong Plays” follows Saylor’s love interest, Adler Beck’s, sister Sophia!) I mention in my review that I’d love a book following Sophia, and a year after I read and wrote this review, we have news about it!!

What is First Flight Final Fall by CW Farnsworth about?

What do you do when you encounter the famous footballer voted “Sexiest Athlete Alive” three years running on a soccer field in Germany?

If you’re Saylor Scott, you challenge him to a shoot-out. And win.

Saylor’s goals have always involved the literal kind constructed from posts and netting. Her single-minded focus has cost her a lot, but it’s also earned her recognition as the top female college player in the US. She doesn’t get attached, she never gets distracted, and she could care less what anyone thinks of her.

Meeting Adler Beck, the notorious player celebrated worldwide and coveted by women everywhere, challenges her indifference. But Saylor perfected the art of appearing unbothered a long time ago, and her scoring percentage is even higher off the pitch. Might as well add a gorgeous German to the tally.

Because only a fool would fall for a superstar known for breaking hearts alongside records.

And no one has ever accused Saylor Scott of being a fool.

Rating 4.5/5 Stars

Review:

This one definitely joins “Serve” at the top of my favorite C.W. Farnsworth books, and lucky for you, it’s available to read for free in Kindle Unlimited! I’m sure I’ll be buying a paperback copy of it soon enough, though. (update: I did!)

Unlike previous books of C.W. Farnsworth’s that I read, this one was single POV, not double, so it was only from Saylor’s POV. It took me a little bit to get into her as a character, because although she’s not mean, she’s not particularly warm, and her confidence treads the thin line of cockiness/being egotistical a lot — but I also realized that’s gotta be internalized misogyny talking, and I actually really liked her confidence in her skills and abilities when people complimented her. After all, without it, I doubt she would’ve been able to go toe to toe with the #1 soccer player in the world and win the first time she meets him. I think the main issue with her responding to people when they compliment her is that she’s kind of rude about it, not gracious or polite like “yeah I know, thanks,” it’s more like “yeah duh obviously” when they’re just trying to be nice and give her kudos.

Seeing the difference in power dynamic reversal where all the guys at her school want to hook up with her and date her, but she has no interest in dating them, was cool to see, because that’s normally the male love interests role in a romance book (although Beck is also like that…it still works). I will say though, other people always make it clear how attractive Saylor is did get kind of old.

For some reason, I assumed that the whole book would span the summer that she’s in Germany, but that’s not the case, which I loved. It was great to see her life outside of those eight weeks, along with the fallout of having spent a bunch of time with Beck while she was there. I’m trying not to go into a whole lot of detail because I don’t want to spoil anything, but seeing the dynamics that they have both as players and as people outside of their superstar soccer status was cool. The power dynamic, even though there should’ve been a gigantic one, never really felt like much, likely because of how Saylor carried herself in their interactions.

I really liked her and Beck together. The small domestic moments between the two of them, like when she’s picking out a bridesmaid dress and puts her feet in his lap, were so sweet and really showed how the two of them weren’t “just hooking up” like they were essentially pretending they were…considering they were basically dating for the majority of her time in Germany without actually putting that label to it. I do wish we would’ve gotten to see more of them actually together at the end though, aside from the epilogue. They did a lot of pushing their important conversations to later and kind of ignoring their arguments a lot. It’s never really confirmed if Beck hooked up with this model girl that showed up one time when Saylor was leaving his apartment, which I thought would be a bigger thing.

I kind of expected some pushback from either her teammates at the German camp, since almost all of them didn’t seem to like her because her skills and reputation preceded her (not that she was going out of her way to be friends with them either), or with her and Beck being exposed as hooking up and that being a problem for the program, but it never was. She starts off the book by recovering from a knee injury, and I was a little worried that she would hurt it again at another point in the book, but don’t worry — she didn’t. The conflicts her and Beck come up against are more internal than external (unless you’re counting the 4,000 miles between them once she leaves) which I definitely think made for a better story.

The book kind of reminded me of R.S. Grey’s “Scoring Wilder,” which I think was the first new adult book I ever read. Although there are a few key differences between the two, I’d definitely recommend this one for fans of that one!

I know there’s a somewhat sequel that follows Saylor’s friend Emma in her hometown, but I would also love a book following Beck’s younger sister. (Really, anything where I get to see Saylor and Beck again — I adore them together, and wish the book would’ve been longer!) Any books following her roommates would be awesome to read.

Overall, this was a great book, and I’m so glad I read it. If you love college sports romance books with strong heroines and superstar soccer athlete love interests, this is the book for you!

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