Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Enemies to lovers, Forced proximity, Small town girl x Rich city boy
CW ⚠️: Loss of a loved one, grief, anxiety, bullying, emotionally distant parents
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
This was different for Lynn Painter. I’d gotten used to her romances always having the fake dating trope, which I always have a fun time with. But in her latest YA novel Trust Fall, we take a break from the fake love shenanigans to explore the wealth and privilege of New York City’s Upper East Side.
FMC Julia and her family are given the opportunity of a lifetime when they learn that their late neighbor has left them his extravagant New York home, as well as millions of dollars. So they pack up their lives in smalltown Nebraska and move to the big city. And while they work out the stipulations of the will, they’re forced to keep their inheritance on the down-low. Because there are certain people who would be extremely upset about it…
Enter our MMC Damion. He’s already grieving the loss of his great uncle Remi, who was more of a father to him than his actual father. But when he discovers that some random strangers have gotten Remi’s house, he assumes the worst. Surely these people took advantage of his aging uncle and manipulated their way into his will. He meets Julia in the neighborhood, and eventually at the elite Gardenwood Academy, and he’s determined to uncover the truth.
With the prep school setting and the secrets/lies theme, I was getting a lot of Gossip Girl vibes. We got the typical mean girls, the typical playboys, and poor Julia practically gasping for air as the fish out of water. I liked that even with Damion’s prejudice, he immediately sympathized with her. He tried to hold onto his anger and she tried to hold onto her own prejudices of him — but hoo boy. Once they let go of all that, they fell and they fell hard.
Their initial attraction mostly felt physical to me, but by the time they were fully obsessed with each other, I was obsessed too. I mean, how could I not be? Bro sent her poems that he thought she would like. He brought treats for her cat. But it was the big saving gesture at the end that really brought it together. Swoon city.
**Much thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Trust Fall will be released on September 29, 2026.
Sara Bechtol 