Review - I Let You Fall Interview with author Sara Downing

Today on the blog is very special as I'm interviewing Sara Downing from across the pond, a new to me author whose new book, I Let You Fall, I just loved. She was also generous enough to do a Q&A with me. 
Enjoy!

ISBN-13:  978-1631611858
Publisher: Quilla Books
Release Date: 06-20-2022
Length: 338pp
Source: Author for review
Buy It: Amazon (free for kindleunlimited)/ B&N/ IndieBound 

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

A contemporary tale of tragedy, selflessness, love, and renewal.

On a summer night in London, art teacher Eve Chapman finds herself in a hospital emergency room. She watches surgeons desperately operate on a young woman with a terrible head injury. But when the bandages are removed, Eve is horrified to find her own body on the operating table.

Trapped in a coma, Eve struggles to cope with the fact that no matter how hard she tries, her family and friends cannot see or hear her. But then she meets Luca Diaz, a handsome and comatose lawyer who can see her. He takes Eve under his wing and teaches her how to use her new abilities to help the living.

As the weeks pass, Eve struggles to find a way back to her body and to Nathan, the man she loves. But the more time she spends with Luca, the more she wonders if her old life is worth going back to at all.


I Let You Fall lifts the spirits of fans of romantic dramas like The Time Traveler’s Wife, In Five Years, and Afterwards.

My Interview with Sara:

Sara, hi! Welcome to The Reading Frenzy
I can’t wait to start your new book it looks fascinating.
Tell my readers a little about the novel please.

Hi Debbie, thank you so much for interviewing me! I’m really excited to tell you about my new book.

I Let You Fall is fundamentally a romance, but between characters who live in a slightly different world to normal! Some reviewers have said it reads like a romance movie, and I think it is quite filmic in nature. If you like stories like The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Lake House I’d like to think you’d enjoy this.

The story takes place largely in a London hospital. Eve is involved in an accident and ends up in a coma and out of her own body. She meets a man who is in a similar predicament to her, and he encourages her to use the new skills that she suddenly finds she has to help people around her, even though they aren’t aware that she is there. Over the course of a long, hot summer, the reason for her being out-of-body is revealed, and it calls her to question what really matters to her in the life she left behind.

I’d like to think that, above all, it’s a story of hope, selflessness, and how love can triumph, even in the toughest of situations.

What led you to write this particular story?

I’ve always had a fascination with the supernatural. I think there is a lot about this life – and the life beyond – that we just don’t know about, and having to suspend belief, even if just a little, makes for an interesting story! It’s healthy to be able to allow yourself to wonder if… maybe… just maybe…? I hope my story leaves people a little more open-minded about just what is out there, beyond what can be explained by science.

In terms of how the story grew, there’s one particular plot element which holds a real fascination for me, and that drove the whole meaning of the book. But I can’t tell you that here, as it would be a massive spoiler – you’ll just have to read it and see what I mean!! (Ah the plot thickens 😊)

 

I’ve heard this called Magic Realism, and Amazon calls it a Romantic Drama.
What genre shelf would you place it?

It’s often hard trying to place a book within the shelves of Amazon. We opted for Romantic Drama, though, as romance is so fundamental to the story. You do have to open your mind to the world that the characters live in to be able to appreciate the story, but I hope that even the most skeptical reader will be able to do that to some degree and enjoy the heartwarming romance at its core!

 

It looks like your works involving supernatural elements is relatively new to you.
What fueled your writing in this genre?

Actually, I’ve written one other novel which I would label supernatural! The Lost Boy is the story of a woman and a boy who share a bond which extends beyond both their lifetimes. It explores the possibility that maybe our souls don’t fully belong to us, we’re just their guardians for the time being. It’s all set in the backdrop of an English country house, though, so if you enjoy novels with a historical bent, then you should enjoy it for that reason, too.

 

I saw some really nice reviews for I Let You Fall on Goodreads.
Are you the type of author who can’t wait to read all the reviews or one that runs from them?

I’m very lucky to have received some wonderful reviews from early readers. And yes, I can’t wait to read them, even though a bad one can ruin my whole day! I still take it very personally if someone doesn’t like my book, even after 11 years of writing! I know it’s impossible to please everyone, and people’s reading tastes are wildly different, but yes, every review really matters!

 

I know many well established authors who’ve gotten disgusted with brick and mortar publishers and went all Indie. And I know authors like you who went with self-publishing from the get-go.
For all the prospective authors out there what’s the best and worst thing about self-publishing?

I was lucky enough to start my writing career just as eBooks were becoming a thing. All my books are self-published apart from I Let You Fall, where I’ve been lucky enough to work with TCK Publishing under their new fiction imprint, Quilla Books. Self-pub has a lot going for it, but you do have to be prepared to wear many hats other than just your writer hat, although you – and just you – are in total control of what happens to your book, which is a great feeling. Kindle Direct Publishing has been a wonderful tool and allowed me to get my books out there – and actually sell quite a few. Head Over Heels, my first novel, sold upwards of 40,000 copies in its first two years!

This time round I’ve really loved working with my wonderful editor at TCK, Nicholas Holloway. It’s been a very collaborative process, and I’ve learned so much from him. He’s also a writer, and so he knows what it’s like when someone tells you to cut a paragraph or remove the surplus-to-requirements descriptions. And then there are the other benefits of having a publishing company behind you, such as having an amazing designer run up some draft cover designs for you to choose from, or their marketing team present you with their plans. It’s been very different for me this time!

Saying that, for anyone who feels they have a book in them, I would still recommend trying the self-pub route. Just make sure your book is as good as you can possibly make it, don’t publish until you’re really ready, and use every little tool that Amazon and KDP offer you to the full. Gone are the days when self-pub books were seen as second class, compared to trade pub. Go for it – get your book out there!

 

Sara I see you’ve written a number of novels (I’m ordering The White Angel right now).
What was the catalyst to your becoming an author?

Yes, I’ve written seven novels and a memoir. I’d always wanted to write, but as you progress through school, then university – and then for me, into accountancy training – life gets in the way! I’ve always devoured books (my mother used to say I was born with a book under my arm!)

I got into accountancy as a means to an end (earning a living!) and then life was just busy. I got married, worked on building my career, had kids... Then it wasn’t until our two youngest children (twins, now 16) were at nursery a couple days a week that my husband suggested I give it a go. I did, and the rest is history, as they say!

I hope you enjoy The White Angel, Debbie! That’s the memoir – and it tells the story of a man I met whilst researching for The Lost Boy. The novel features a school from the 1950s & 60s for ‘problem’ children, and I based my story on a real school, where he was one of those ‘problem’ children. After reading the novel, he presented me with a pile of notes about his life and experiences and asked if I’d write his memoirs for him! I’m so glad I did, even though it was out of my comfort zone writing non-fiction. I’ve written the book in a ‘narrative non-fiction’ way, though, so it reads as a story rather than a documentary.

 

Sara thanks for answering my questions.
What’s coming next?

I do have an idea for my next book – I just haven’t started it yet!

In I Let You Fall there’s a storyline which involves organ transplant, and I’m fascinated to explore what the effect is on organ recipients of receiving a transplant organ. Not in the medical sense, but in terms of how it affects the new owner’s path through life. Fate and destiny will play a part again, I’m sure, like they do in I Let You Fall.

It's a complex idea and my next step is to formulate a rough story outline and decide who it’s all going to happen to, and then we’ll go from there!

I’d also like to write a fourth instalment to my Head Over Heels trilogy. It was never intended to be a series, but I love the characters so much. I’ve kind of ‘grown up’ with them as a writer over the past decade, and I’m not prepared to say goodbye to them just yet!

Thank you, Debbie, for the interview – it’s been great chatting to you!

 

 My Review:

I Let You Fall
Sara Downing

Wow is pretty much an adept description of this entire novel and without giving too much away we’ll just call Sara Downing’s I Let You Fall, inspiring insightful and ethereal.  She gives hope while dealing with tragic life and death events and presents to her audience a hypothetical transcendent string that connects we humans as a community to each other. But whether it’s divine intervention, mysticism or fate, she lets her readers decide for themselves.

Her writing style flows at an even pace from start to the unforgettable ending with a dual storyline that skillfully features both of Eve’s realities. Her narrative is conversational and mostly casual albeit throwing in a few googling required medical terms for authenticity’s sake, and her characters especially Eve and Luca are (pun intended) out of this world and readers will learn so much about these two star-crossed individuals. Eve is a total delight, an empathic teacher, an open book and readers will have no trouble pulling for her. Luca is a bit more of a mystery although readers will know he’s definitely a good guy. The other characters in the novel are also important players and will help the audience understand the story and the stars better. Sara also gives insight into outer-body or near-death experiences which are now more than ever accepted as mainstream where they used to be conjecture. And in fact there are many non-fiction titles out there, After by Dr. Bruce Greyson is an excellent choice. If you enjoyed In Five Years, I Liked My Life and She Wouldn’t Change a Thing or the works of Sarah Addison Allen you will love this unputdownable read. And don’t forget to check out Sara’s other works on her website Here.

On her way home excited about a night out at a gala with her boyfriend Eve Chapman never expected to end up in the hospital in a coma fighting for her life nor could she ever imagine what would happen while being comatose.

Eve Chapman can’t imagine why she’s watching a medical team trying frantically to save the life of the woman on the operating table and even more surprising is that no one seems to know she’s there. Then the next day when her parents show up in the ICU she realizes that she was that woman and that it’s her on the bed with all the tubes and beeping machines attached to her and she’s still wondering why no one can see this slightly shadowy version of herself. Confused and scared Eve is soon visited by Luca a man who it seems can see her, at first she’s afraid of him but soon realizes that he like her is in a coma in a room near her own and he’s not a threat but a mentor sent there to help her navigate what is what in this new, bizarre reality. And there are so many questions Eve has like why can she see her parents and boyfriend Nathan when they visit but they can’t see her or feel her presence and what exactly is she when her physical body remains on the bed inert with tubes and beeping machines and what exactly are these new abilities that Luca says she now has?

 

 

About Sara:
Sara Downing writes across several genres, including romance and historical fiction. More recently she has become fascinated with the supernatural. Her first book in this genre, 'The Lost Boy', was followed up by 'I Let You Fall', published by TCK Publishing/Quilla books in June 2022.