Fast read, YA-Teen-Thriller. Very good characters, both good ones and bad ones, some are in between (not simply black and white).
Jess Tennant, the heroine is very likeable, stubborn, intelligent and has a good sense of doing the morally right thing or telling other people that.
A nice twist in the solving of the case.
A decision by her mother near the end of the book hints at the next book.
Unputdownable page turner, although I guess some may differ or will not see it.
As with her more adult Maeve Kerrigan-series, some chapters are rather long, and that makes it difficult for me to stop.
Recommended, I really like the style and the scenery (UK, but, sadly in this case I could not look it up on Google Earth, like in her last book).
Have bought and started the next book in the series, [b:Bet Your Life|18041969|Bet Your Life|Jane Casey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388620529s/18041969.jpg|25317380] and I guess I will have finished it by tomorrow evening. ( )

When Jess Tennant’s mother takes her to the small town of Port sentinel to meet her aunt, people keep staring at her. She soon learns that she is the spitting image of her cousin, Freya whom she has never met and who died from a fall. Jess soon becomes obsessed with the mystery of Freya’s death – was it suicide, an accident, or perhaps murder – and the more people try to stop her from investigating the more determined she is to find out what really happened that night on the cliff.

How to Fall, by author Jane Casey, is an enjoyable YA mystery. It is fairly clear fairly fast who dunnit but it is still a fun read and much of that is down to Jess who is a very likeable character, feisty, brash, and curious, more Veronica Mars than Nancy Drew. Something for a bored teen on a rainy afternoon. ( )

This is the first book of Jane Casey's that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it, would give it a 4.5.
When Jess moves back to her mom's hometown, it is after the mysterious death of Freya, the cousin she had never met, but looks exactly like.
She instantly becomes the target of mean girl Natasha, as Freya was, and Jess Starts to believe there was more to Freya's fall from the cliff. Was it suicide? An accident? Or murder? Of course this novel must also contain teenage romance angst. Ryan likes Jess, Natasha thinks she has possession of Ryan. Jess liked Will, but then so does her cousin. And then there is Wills dad, chief of police, who doesn't believe any of Jess's theories, who also happens to be bossy and possessive and a little scary and creepy. He also happens to be her moms high school sweetheart.
Put all of this together and you have a very well written thriller, it'd make a great movie. I love the writing style. I love Jess's sarcasm and wit. Really enjoyed this one. And went straight to the book store to pick up another book by this author. ( )

Jane Casey is best known for her likable police procedural series set in London featuring Irish Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan. With this book, Casey begins a YA series about sixteen-year-old Jess Tennant, a girl from London who goes with her single mom to spend the summer in the small wealthy seaside town of Port Sentinel, where her mom grew up. There, Jess meets her mom’s family for the first time, including her mom’s twin sister Tilly. Jess creates somewhat of a sensation in Port Sentinel, because she looks like the spitting image of her cousin Freya, who died a year ago in an apparent suicide after falling off of a cliff. But from the beginning, Jess picks up vibes that Freya didn’t fall without help, and that her peers know what happened but aren’t telling. Jess is determined to find out.

Jess, a British version of Veronica Mars, is fearless, impulsive, and abrasively forthright - reputedly nothing like her fanciful, artistic doppelgänger Freya. Jess makes a lot of insta-Friends, mostly because of those curious about the way she looks, and she also gets an insta-maybe-boyfriend with Will Henderson, the next-door neighbor on whom Freya had a crush. Will thought of Freya more like a sister, but he is intrigued by the very different-from-Freya Jess. Will is a little too perfect, but then again, so is Rob, who is Maeve’s boyfriend in Casey’s adult series.

Evaluation: This is a good start to a series, although I was not as taken with it as I am with Casey’s adult police procedurals. It feels to me like Jane Casey is trying to get her “YA legs” with this book. But I liked it enough though to want to see where she takes the series next. ( )

How to Fall was easily one of the best YA novels I've read in a while. It had all the elements of a good mystery and what I always feel is lacking in other books, a believable plot line. That's not to say I didn't cringe at Jess' antics half the time because she was the typical teen making bad choices. It was because everything that Jess did was logical for an inquisitive teen dead set on investigating her cousin's death.

The characters that shared the story with Jess were so well done that I felt like I knew each and everyone of them when I was in high school. I'm definitely putting book two in the series, Bet Your Life, on my to be read list.

I recommend this one for anyone who loves YA and mysteries. ( )