~~~ Excerpt and Review for Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole ~~~

Excerpt One

Three hours later, and we’d won. Carillo had scored three touchdowns and the Tide took the W from the Mocs—the perfect season opener.

Within minutes, the crowd began to filter out of the stadium and the cheer squad ran back into the tunnel, high off the win.
Trailing at the rear, just taking in the scene, I was left alone. It was strange to see the stadium so quiet, kinda apocalyptic, like the aftermath of some great catastrophic event. Plastic red Solo cups were scattered in the stands, confetti strewn on the grass, and the thick stench of stale beer clung to the humid air.
“Kinda weird, huh?” a deep Bama-accented voice said from beside me.
Dropping my poms in shock, I laid a hand on my chest. Catching a flash of a Crimson shirt, I looked up, blocking the blinding sun from my eyes with my hand, and suddenly lost my breath.
“S-sorry, what?” I asked in a quiet voice, tipping my neck right back to be able to see the guy’s face.
When shade hit, he appeared. Austin Carillo, wide receiver, number eighty-three.
Carillo stepped closer to me from his secluded spot beside the players’ tunnel and the stands. “This. The quiet after the storm.” He gestured to the empty stadium with a wave of his hand. “It’s my favorite part of the game.”
I followed the action of his hand. “Not the three touchdowns you scored?”
The corners of his mouth hooked up in a reluctant smirk. I’d seen Carillo around campus from time to time over the past three years, and I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him crack anything close to a smile. I wasn’t surprised. He was like me—darker, quieter, kept to himself.
Austin Carillo was the Italian bad boy of UA: six-foot-four, beautifully olive skin, piercings galore, black ear gauges, neck-to-toe tattoos, dark hair and the darkest of brown eyes.
I felt myself blush. If I had a type, he’d be it. But I didn’t date, and from what I’d heard, neither did he.
“Nah. It’s this. The replay of the game in my mind, the making of memories on this field.”
A sense of peace floated over me at what he described. “I know exactly what you mean,” I replied wistfully and inhaled the smell of greasy food, churned-up grass… victory.
Austin glanced back to the tunnel and, without another word, began to saunter away. I stared back out onto the gridiron and sighed in relief… I’d done it. I’d actually made it through a game unscathed.
The voice within hadn’t had the strength to spoil it.
“It’s about fuckin’ time, by the way!” I suddenly heard and looked behind me, straight at Carillo.
“Are you talking to me?” I asked in confusion, checking around us to see if anyone else was here.
Austin smirked in a deliciously dark way and gestured to my hair and face. “Yeah, I’m talking to you. It’s about time a pompom chick ’round here broke the mold. It’s good to have another one of us freaks on this team.”
One of us freaks? I thought, but all I could do was watch him disappear into the locker rooms. My heart pounded in my chest, and lifting my hand, I ran my fingers over my black hair and lipstick, and I felt a flutter in my chest… one of us freaks…
Seeing the cleanup crew enter the stadium, I quickly bent down, plucked a piece of grass from the field, and held up the single blade. It was my tradition. A piece of memorabilia from every game I’d ever cheered… But this would be my first in four years.

The symbol of my new life.

Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In a heart wrenching story of addiction, overcoming it, and relapsing, Lexi just wants to be normal. No voices talking in her head about how fat she is and will always be. No gut wrenching loneliness behind the mask that she wears.

Born on the wrong side of the tracks and a member of the local gang, Austin broke out of that stereotype to play football for the Crimson Tide. He’s just trying to make it to graduation so he can become draft eligible and provide for his ailing mom.

This story was, for me, hard to read. The darkness that they both feel comes out and shows you how hard life really is for some. Fighting everyday to battle a demon in your head and heart drains all of the happiness way until you have an empty shell. Fighting to stop being a stereotype is always like an uphill battle. The love between the two was earned and well worth it. They connected and came together because of the situations they were both in. Forming a bond that only they could as broken souls, they came together. Love always wins and in this story it wasn't any different.

Sweet, dark, gritty, swoon worthy, raw, devastating and captivating, this novel has it all. The characters are amazing and feel like friends and family when you finish. I cried, laughed and pulled my hair reading this. As emotional as it was, I loved it for that reason alone. Pulling me in until I had to finish to see the outcome.

Thank you Ms. Cole, for sharing part of your life experience with us in such a public forum. May you always have sunshine in your life, no matter the circumstance.


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