The Year We Fell Down
The Ivy Years • Book 1
by Sarina Bowen
Why You'll Love This
Two injured hockey players, one narrow dormitory hallway, and a relationship that was never supposed to happen — except it absolutely had to.
- Great if you want: a friends-first romance with real emotional stakes, not just chemistry
- The experience: warm and low-angst but with enough tension to keep pages turning
- The writing: Bowen writes banter and longing with equal precision — deceptively simple
- Skip if: slow-building setup without explosive drama frustrates you
About This Book
What do you do when the future you planned—the one you worked your whole life toward—disappears overnight? That's the question facing Corey Callahan as she arrives at Harkness College in a wheelchair instead of on the ice. Across the hall lives Hartley, another sidelined hockey player with a broken leg and a girlfriend who doesn't quite understand what loss really feels like. Two people who should have had everything, suddenly navigating a version of college they never imagined. The emotional core here isn't about disability or even hockey—it's about grief, unexpected connection, and figuring out who you are when your identity gets pulled out from under you.
Sarina Bowen writes with a light hand and an honest one. The dialogue crackles, the pacing never lingers too long in any one feeling, and the friendship-to-romance arc is constructed with genuine patience rather than manufactured tension. Bowen resists the urge to over-dramatize—she trusts the quiet moments to carry weight, and they do. For readers who want romantic tension that feels earned and characters whose vulnerabilities are specific rather than decorative, this one delivers.
