Clara’s Verdict
Contemporary sapphic romance is a genre I’ve come to read carefully and with genuine pleasure over the past few years – the craft level has risen dramatically, and with it the emotional ambition. Falls from Grace by Ruby Landers, the debut entry in the Grace Notes series, won the GCLS Goldie Award for Best Contemporary Romance in 2025, which is a meaningful signal rather than marketing noise. Having listened to Quinn Riley’s narration across nearly eleven hours, I can say the award is deserved.
This is a book about a superstar country singer whose marriage has publicly imploded, a directionless dropout in need of purpose, a fake-wife scheme gone complicated, a Vermont winter, and the slow and frequently painful process of two people discovering they might be exactly what the other needs. It sounds familiar because the bones are recognisable. What Landers does with those bones is not.
About the Audiobook
Savannah Grace was, for almost a decade, one of the biggest names in Nashville. Her band Twice Struck topped the country charts; her marriage to her co-writer and bandmate seemed like the ideal story. Then both fell apart in very public fashion, and now Savannah is trying to rebuild – creatively, personally, professionally – from scratch. She is searching for a sound that is her own rather than the product of a partnership, and she needs space to find it.
Brynn Marshall is adrift in Los Angeles, a med-school dropout whose family hasn’t forgiven her for choosing her own path. When her best friend Noah lands a dream co-writing gig with Savannah, and Savannah needs a plausible fake wife for the creative retreat in Vermont, Brynn finds herself transplanted into someone else’s life in the snowy Vermont woods, with instructions to perform a role she hasn’t prepared for.
Landers handles the fake-relationship trope with intelligence and without cynicism. The deception never feels contrived because the characters’ reasons for it are entirely believable, and the emotional consequences – the way the lie erodes as genuine feeling develops – are rendered with real sensitivity. The country-music backdrop is more than set dressing; it shapes how both women think about performance, authenticity, and the distance between a public self and a private one. There is something inherently interesting about a story of emotional honesty set in a world built on carefully managed persona.
The Vermont winter setting is another asset. Landers uses the physical isolation and enforced proximity – two people confined to the same secluded house in the snow – with a careful awareness of the genre’s conventions, and knows when to lean into them and when to subvert them. The book is cosy in the best sense of the word, without ever becoming saccharine.
The Narration
Quinn Riley’s narration is excellent throughout. She differentiates the two leads clearly – Savannah has a contained, slightly guarded quality; Brynn is more openly chaotic – and the chemistry between them, even as a solo performance, is palpable and convincing. The Vermont winter settings come through in Riley’s delivery, and the emotional peaks of the story – and there are several – are handled without melodrama. Riley understands that understatement, at the right moment, hits harder than intensity. Her timing in the comedy sequences is particularly good; Landers writes genuinely funny dialogue, and it requires a performer who trusts it.
What Readers Say
Falls from Grace holds a rating of 4.6 out of 5 on Audible UK. One listener described it as “fun, sexy, and heartstring-tugging,” with strong characters and excellent narration. Another, who didn’t expect to love it as much as she did – noting that her expectations were low because the author was new to her – reported skipping lunch because she couldn’t stop listening. A third reviewer, who reads extensively in the sapphic music-world subgenre, placed it “right up there with the very best,” praising the emotional complexity of the fake-marriage execution and the genuine confusion of feelings it generates for both protagonists. The consensus is consistent: the characters feel real, the chemistry is real, and the resolution is earned rather than merely delivered.
Who Should Listen?
Readers who enjoy contemporary sapphic romance, the music-world setting, fake-relationship dynamics, and stories where both leads have genuine depth beyond their function as love interests. This is a complete standalone – the first in the Grace Notes series – and works perfectly well without prior knowledge of Landers’s work. Given that this is a debut novel, the craft level is remarkable, and the GCLS recognition reflects a genuine quality rather than the enthusiastic response of a small niche audience.
If you enjoy Taylor Jenkins Reid’s music-world fiction or Casey McQuiston’s emotional intelligence, this will sit very comfortably alongside them.
Find Falls from Grace on Audible UK here: Listen on Audible UK
