The Year We Fell Down forms its friendship after Corey Callahan arrives at Harkness College expecting a hockey career and instead has to navigate campus in a wheelchair. Across the hall, injured hockey player Adam Hartley is temporarily on crutches. Video games, inaccessible buildings and the loss of ice time give them reasons to keep choosing each other before the relationship turns sexual or romantic.
This researched editorial assessment recommends Sarina Bowen’s novel for readers who want a current-college friendship with specific shared routines and meaningful hurt-comfort. The main reservation is not the friendship but Hartley’s existing girlfriend: critics differ sharply over whether the romantic transition feels emotionally convincing or uncomfortably close to cheating. Disability-focused criticism also praises Corey’s growing agency while questioning the book’s repeated ableist language and limited disability community.
A convincing campus friendship and emotionally specific heroine arc, with a disputed infidelity boundary and dated disability language that readers should weigh before choosing it.
Provisional Eikna score: 3.9/5. Four core dimensions cover 85% of the quality weight. Ending satisfaction and reread appeal remain unscored; heat is excluded. Researched editorial assessment; no firsthand reading claimed. Evidence confidence: moderate.
A numeric heat level has not been established. Read the review’s heat and content discussion for attributed descriptions before choosing. An unknown level is not a closed-door or no-spice promise.
The heat-level guide explains detail and frequency; the glossary entry for spice separates sexual content from quality.
The romantic outcome is not established in this summary. A romance label does not independently confirm an ending. Consult the discussion before choosing if closure is essential.
For the difference between romantic commitment and wider plot closure, compare HEA, HFN and cliffhangers.
Standalone or continuing-series status is not established in this summary. Read the existing format and series guidance for any available context; do not assume a missing series entry means the book stands alone.
The series-order guide explains what to check when a complete romance belongs to a connected world.
| Title | The Year We Fell Down |
|---|---|
| Author | Sarina Bowen |
| Inspected edition | English paperback · ISBN 9781950155446 · 270 pages |
| Publication scope | Paperback published 18 October 2022 · work first published in 2014 · checked 11 October 2026 |
| ISBN-13 | 9781950155446 |
| Edition page count | 270 pages |
The author or publisher evidence identifies the work. Publication dates refer to the stated edition or release scope, not automatically the first appearance of the story. Unknown identifiers and formats are left open.
Bowen’s official page identifies Corey as a would-be Harkness women’s hockey player who begins college in a wheelchair and Hartley as the injured hockey player in the other accessible dorm room. They bond over broken elevators and video games. The author explicitly calls the book a college hockey friends-to-lovers romance and a full-length standalone.
Publishers Weekly confirms that the pair meet while moving into adjacent accessible rooms and that friendship grows through shared injuries and a hockey video game. The romance is therefore central rather than a subplot attached to a general campus novel.
Corey and Hartley do not arrive as childhood best friends or reunite after graduation. Dear Author describes their repeated dorm conversations, therapy talk and hockey gaming; The Book Pushers emphasizes banter and attraction hidden inside a developing friendship. Their connection is built during the academic year and before the romantic relationship resolves.
City and Book sees the long friendship phase as the foundation for Hartley eventually confronting his real feelings. Viv Lu agrees that the mutual support is solid, even while finding the later love less persuasive. That disagreement makes the exact appeal clearer: the friendship is better evidenced than universal belief in the romantic conversion.
Dear Author values the absence of a miracle cure and the ordinary campus barriers Corey encounters. Sense and Disability responds especially well to Corey choosing inner-tube water polo for herself and becoming more comfortable asking for practical help. Both sources support a heroine whose goals expand rather than a plot that erases disability.
Sense and Disability also identifies what remains narrow: Corey initially rejects adaptive sports and never develops meaningful connection with a disability community. The critic finds the medical material plausible after consulting people with spinal-cord injuries but explicitly does not claim personal experience of that injury. This is useful testimony, not a clinical verification.
Viv Lu dislikes the cheating element and never fully believes the lovers’ passion. Celebrity Readers is also uncomfortable with Hartley’s handling of Stacia, although that reviewer accepts the explanation more readily because the friendship and chemistry work. Rose Summers reaches a similar mixed position: the situation does not feel engineered only for drama, but Stacia is written more stereotypically than the rest of the cast.
Rose also objects to Hartley’s use of an ableist slur even when Corey uses the same term. Sense and Disability questions the campus’s implausibly limited accessible housing and the absence of disability community. These criticisms matter independently of whether a reader enjoys Corey’s individual growth.
Publishers Weekly praises the alternating viewpoints for conveying both leads’ emotional volatility and calls the novel a page-turner. Dear Author responds to its humor, specific accessibility observations and college setting. The Book Pushers values the gradual friendship, banter and secondary friendships.
The contrary response is more about romantic conviction than pace. Viv Lu finds the progression good and the longing strong but has trouble distinguishing the two viewpoint voices and does not feel the same love that positive critics report. City and Book acknowledges predictability while arguing that character depth keeps the familiar structure engaging.
Dear Author discusses on-page sexual scenes and identifies one as especially effective and playful. The author page also reproduces that critic’s description of a sex scene. Sexual content is therefore reported, but complete frequency, timing, explicit-detail level and a calibrated numerical heat score remain unknown. Jane at Dear Author.
Inspected criticism reports spinal injury and mobility limitations, inaccessible spaces, internalized ableism, repeated ableist slurs, alcohol use and an infidelity or cheating-adjacent relationship boundary. These are partial reader boundaries rather than a complete content-warning inventory. Severity, full scene timing and other unreported content remain unknown. Callalily57 at Sense and Disability. Viv Lu review. Lenoreo at Celebrity Readers. Rose Summers at Writing through Rose Tinted Glasses.
Best for current-college friends-to-lovers, hockey as a shared identity, accessible-campus details and a heroine rebuilding life after a spinal injury. Approach cautiously if any cheating-adjacent situation, a romantic rival drawn as a stereotype, ableist slurs or incomplete disability-community representation will derail the romance.
The central disagreement is whether a strong friendship overcomes Hartley’s poor romantic timing. Dear Author, The Book Pushers and Celebrity Readers find the chemistry persuasive; Viv Lu sees supportive friends and credible longing but not fully convincing love. Disability-focused criticism appreciates Corey’s agency and realistic practical barriers while wanting a wider disability community and more careful language. These are directly inspected individual and professional responses, not a measured consensus.
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Bowen’s official page calls The Year We Fell Down a full-length standalone, and her reading-order page places it first in The Ivy Years. The selected facts belong to the 18 October 2022 Tuxbury paperback, ISBN 9781950155446, not the earlier 2014 Rennie Road edition reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Amazon and Bookshop destinations match the selected paperback. An English audiobook with Nick Podehl and Saskia Maarleveld is verified in other Audible regions, but a stable exact US Audible product was not independently resolved, so the Audible action remains held. Libro also remains held. Prices, stock, checkout and subscription access were not tested.
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Quality scale: 1 substantial weaknesses; 2 weaknesses outweigh strengths; 3 mixed; 4 strengths outweigh limitations; 5 exceptional sustained strengths. Half points are allowed. Weights: romance 30%, characters 20%, writing 20%, emotional impact 15%, ending satisfaction 10%, reread appeal 5%. A provisional overall score divides the supported weighted sum by its supported weight and rounds once to one decimal. Heat is descriptive and excluded. These scores express the evidence-based judgment explained in this review.
The friendship is strongly supported; Hartley’s existing relationship makes the change to lovers divisive.
Provisional dimension score: 4/5.
Corey’s agency and adjustment receive strong support, while Hartley and Stacia draw sharper reservations.
Provisional dimension score: 4/5.
Specific campus detail, banter and alternating viewpoints generally work, with some voice and language limitations.
Provisional dimension score: 3.5/5.
Corey’s changed future and the couple’s mutual support give the book weight beyond its familiar shape.
Provisional dimension score: 4/5.
On-page sexual content is reported; numerical heat remains unknown.
Unscored; critics discuss resolution quality, but the exact ending classification remains unknown.
Unscored; one completed reread is documented, without enough broader evidence for a numerical judgment.
Yes. They meet in adjacent accessible dorm rooms at Harkness and build the friendship during the academic year through hockey, video games and shared practical obstacles.
Hockey shapes both leads’ identities and their bond, but injury keeps them off the varsity ice for much of the story. Choose it for an emotional college sports context rather than a game-by-game season narrative.
No miracle recovery is reported. Critics describe Corey using a wheelchair and arm crutches while building a college life around her continuing mobility needs.
Several critics describe the Stacia boundary as cheating or cheating-adjacent, while others accept the relationship explanation more readily. Readers with a strict no-cheating boundary should treat this as a caution.
Dear Author discusses on-page sex scenes. The exact heat level and frequency remain unknown because no complete scene audit was available.
Yes. Sarina Bowen calls it a full-length standalone, although it opens the interconnected Ivy Years series.
No. This assessment leaves the ending type unknown because no inspected primary source explicitly verified the classification.
For another college friendship involving hockey and a transition into intimacy; it is lighter and built around a bucket list rather than disability and changed athletic plans.
For college sports, friendship and a romantic boundary complicated by professional or family connections; its football context and texting setup create a different path to closeness.
For current-college hockey and emotional problems beyond the rink; its tutoring bargain starts with negotiation rather than adjacent-dorm friendship.
For a campus slow-build where repeated proximity lets trust deepen; its friendship dynamic does not center injury or accessible-campus barriers.
The friends-to-lovers guide includes this book among other choices. Compare those options if its premise appeals but a limitation gives you pause. The College friends-to-lovers guide explains the surrounding reading route and what to check before choosing.
A convincing campus friendship and emotionally specific heroine arc, with a disputed infidelity boundary and dated disability language that readers should weigh before choosing it. Best for current-college friends-to-lovers, hockey as a shared identity, accessible-campus details and a heroine rebuilding life after a spinal injury. Approach cautiously if any cheating-adjacent situation, a romantic rival drawn as a stereotype, ableist slurs or incomplete disability-community representation will derail the romance.
Libro.fm when this balance matches what you want to read.
Checked 2026-10-11. The How this assessment was researched preserves attributions and research limits. Unknown details do not establish absence. Purchasing links use our account.
College and New Adult Romance: Campus Life and First Independence includes this book and explains the verified collection boundary.