CANR
WORK TITLE: JUST MY TYPE
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WEBSITE: https://www.falonballard.com/
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
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PERSONAL EDUCATION:
Received her bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Worked as a teacher for eight years before becoming a wedding planner in Southern California.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Self-proclaimed Disneyland, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and reality television enthusiast Falon Ballard received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing before venturing into an eight-year teaching job. From there, she went on to become a wedding planner in Southern California but kept her love for creative writing alive by authoring such contemporary romances as Lease on Love and Just My Type.
In Ballard’s 2022 debut novel, Lease on Love, Sadie Green gets fired from her financial analyst job after finding out her boss’s son-in-law is receiving the promotion that she believes she has in the bag, leading her on a “profanity-ladened rant about nepotism and sexism,” as a Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote. To soothe her wounds, Sadie goes out drinking with some friends and then drunkenly downloads a roommate-finding app that she mistakes for a dating app. When she matches with a guy named Jack Thomas, things get off to an awkward start. But after clearing the air and seeing Jack’s impressive brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, Sadie decides to move in and begin a new career as a florist. While the roommates’ relationship starts off as cool and comfortable, the two soon recognize the intense chemistry they have, inspiring a fierce, but initially unstable, romance.
Lease on Love garnered many positive reviews. One Publishers Weekly reviewer called it “quirky, heartwarming,” and “a treat.” The same reviewer noted that “Ballard’s snappy prose and unconventional couple charm.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor was less enthusiastic, observing that “[r]eaders may not match with Jack and Sadie right off the bat” but also concluded that it was “[a] balanced romantic comedy, once it finds its footing.” However, in her review for Booklist, Keira Soleore called Lease on Love a “fantastic read” and “keenly funny,” and Sierra Wilson, writing for Library Journal, was captivated by Sadie, saying, “[t]his charming story of new beginnings and emotional growth has a sassy and likable narrator.”
Ballard followed Lease on Love in 2023 with another love story. In Just My Type, Lana Parker is a relationship columnist for the online magazine Always Take Fountain, and when her long-term boyfriend breaks up with Lana, her boss sees it as an opportunity for Lana to write a new column about intentionally staying single. Lana knows it could be her chance to move up the journalism ranks at the newspaper that recently acquired Always Take Fountain, but when she finds out her first boyfriend, Seth Carson, has been instructed to write a column about how to go from ladies’ man to boyfriend material to compete for the same job, the stakes are even higher. As Lana and Seth are forced to work in close quarters, though, they reconnect and rediscover the spark they had years before.
Reviewers enjoyed Just My Type, with a Publishers Weekly contributor calling it “entertaining” while also noting that it is about “healing and emotional growth as much as romance.” Similarly, a writer for Kirkus Reviews hailed the novel “[a] compulsively readable second-chance romance that’s full of pining and laughs.” The same reviewer expressed that “Seth and Lana have instant chemistry … and it’s a joy to read their snarky banter that transforms into something more heartfelt.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 2022, Keira Soleore, review of Lease on Love, p. 50.
Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2021, review of Lease on Love; (January 1, 2023), review of Just My Type.
Library Journal, February, 2022, Sierra Wilson, review of Lease on Love, p. 57.
Publishers Weekly, November 29, 2021, review of Lease on Love, 43; (November 14, 2022), review of Just My Type, p. 52.
ONLINE
Falon Ballard website, https://www.falonballard.com, author website.
Hi! I’m Falon and thank you so much for stopping by! I love to write about love! I also have an undying affection for exclamation points and I’m not ashamed to admit it! When I’m not writing fictional love stories, I’m helping real life couples celebrate as a wedding planner in Southern California. I have a deep obsession appreciation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, am a Disneyland devotee, and a reality TV aficionado. If I’m not busy wrangling my six year old, you can probably find me drinking wine and posting a pic on Instagram, while simultaneously snarking on Twitter. What can I say, I like to multitask!
Author Bio
Falon Ballard loves to write about love! She also has an undying affection for exclamation points and isn’t ashamed to admit it! When she’s not writing fictional love stories, she’s helping real-life couples celebrate, working as a wedding planner in Southern California. She has a deep appreciation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a Disneyland devotee, and is a reality TV aficionado. If she’s not busy wrangling her seven-year-old, you can probably find her drinking wine and posting a picture on Instagram while simultaneously snarking on Twitter, because multitasking!
Name Pronunciation: Falon (like Jimmy Fallon) Ballard (rhymes with mallard)
Lease on Love
Falon Ballard. Putnam, $16 trade paper (352 p) ISBN 978-0-593-41991-5
Debut author Ballard shines in this quirky, heartwarming contemporary romance. After financial analyst Sadie Green gets passed over for a well-deserved promotion, her profane outburst earns her a pink slip. While drunkenly commiserating with her best friends, she mistakes a roommate-finding app for a dating app and ends up matched with the reclusive Jack Thomas. They clear up the miscommunication fairly quickly and, after seeing Jack's expansive Brooklyn brownstone--and learning how little in rent he's asking--Sadie moves in and decides to chase her longtime dream of becoming a florist. At first, she sees Jack as just her kind but nerdy roommate, but when their chemistry sparks, it's explosive. Then Sadie discovers that Jack has been keeping a (relatively mild) secret about his past, and their future seems anything but assured. Ballard's snappy prose and unconventional couple charm, and she gets some good chuckles out of skewering the New York City real estate market. Meanwhile, stellar supporting characters (especially Sadie's besties Gemma, Nick, and Harley) provide a solid underpinning to this enjoyable tale. This is a treat. Agent: Kimberly Whalen, the Whalen Agency. (Feb.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Lease on Love." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 49, 29 Nov. 2021, p. 43. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A686559099/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=86c67b6e. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Ballard, Falon LEASE ON LOVE Putnam (Fiction None) $16.00 2, 1 ISBN: 978-0-593-41991-5
Opposites attract as a grieving man and an excitable woman become roommates.
For six years, Sadie Green has been working overtime as a financial analyst, and now a senior position in her firm is up for grabs. She thinks she's a shoo-in, but when it's revealed that her boss's soon-to-be son-in-law is getting the job, Sadie's profanity-ladened rant about nepotism and sexism gets her fired instead. She goes out drinking with friends, who commiserate and encourage her to get back into the dating scene now that she doesn't have a job to demand so much of her attention. She goes online and quickly matches with a guy named Jack Thomas, but the two get off to a confusing start--and it soon becomes clear that while Sadie thought she was on a dating app for singles, it was actually an app to match up potential roommates. Jack has a whole brownstone in New York City to himself due to the sudden deaths of his parents. He offers Sadie cheap rent--which she now needs, badly--in return for help getting out of his isolating rut of playing video games and watching movies in his basement. Readers may not match with Jack and Sadie right off the bat, given that their introductions make Jack seem rather joyless and Sadie, a handful. It takes a while for both to mellow out and become less caricatured. Once they do, however, the romantic beats and the slow-burning attraction between them are things to savor. With Jack and Sadie both in a transitional period, Ballard sweetly explores the ways they complement one another and also how they hope to reinvent themselves following catastrophic personal changes.
A balanced romantic comedy, once it finds its footing.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Ballard, Falon: LEASE ON LOVE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A684108492/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=54e6974c. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Lease on Love. By Falon Ballard. Feb. 2022. 352p. Putnam, paper, $16 (9780593419915); e-book, $11.99 (9780593419922).
Ballard's debut novel, a fantastic read for fans of The Flatshare (2019), is a keenly funny roommates-to-lovers, opposites-attract rom-com. Sadie Green gets fired from her financial job for mouthing off to her boss. In her self-castigation over her loss, she mixes up a dating app with a roommate-finding app and finds herself with a rental room in an exquisite Brooklyn brownstone for a ridiculously low price. She decides to launch her dream florist business. Jack Thomas is wealthy and owns the brownstone free and clear. He is a gifted painter but spends his days playing video games. Jack is wary and shy. Sadie is loud and brash. She barges into his world, bringing along her close-knit group of friends, and changes his life irrevocably. Sadies larger-than-life personality hides the trauma of emotional abuse by her father. Jack's circumspection hides his suffering from the grievous loss of his beloved parents. With profound sensitivity, Ballard shows how therapy and each other's company help Jack deal with his grief and Sadie with her low self-esteem and negative self-image.--Keira Soleore
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Soleore, Keira. "Lease on Love." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2022, p. 50. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A692710726/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b552c449. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Ballard, Falon. Lease on Love Putnam. Feb. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780593419915. pap. $16. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
DEBUT A mix-up between a roommate app and a dating app leads to unexpected love and a fresh start in Ballard's debut. When Sadie loses her job as a financial analyst after years of working overtime and stifling her colorful personality, she drunkenly swipes right on the wrong app, and finds herself trading in a midtown apartment for a Brooklyn brownstone with rent that's too low to pass up. The brownstone's owner, Jack, is young, rich, and a recluse, and Sadie sweeps into his life like a fresh breeze. As she reinvents her career and opens a florist shop, she also draws Jack into her circle of friends. He starts to open up to the world again, and eventually, to Sadie. However, their tentative romance is threatened by Sadie's deep insecurity. This charming story of new beginnings and emotional growth has a sassy and likable narrator in Sadie, and the novel keeps a light tone despite touching on difficult subjects like toxic families and grief. VERDICT Readers who enjoy female entrepreneurs, found family, and gentle romantic leads will enjoy.--Sierra Wilson
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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Wilson, Sierra. "Ballard, Falon. Lease on Love Putnam." Library Journal, vol. 147, no. 2, Feb. 2022, p. 57. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A694559796/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8976fbed. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Just My Type
Falon Ballard. Putnam, $17 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-41993-9
This entertaining rom-com from Ballard (Lease on Love) kicks off when relationship columnist and serial monogamist Lana Parker is dumped by her boyfriend of four years in "an Elle Woods moment" and her boss at online magazine Always Take Fountain challenges her to write a new column about being (and staying) single. If she does well, she has a shot at writing lifestyle pieces for the much more prestigious paper that has just acquired the site. But there's a catch: she's competing against her former best friend and first boyfriend, Seth Carson, a rootless freelance journalist who's been challenged to write about becoming "boyfriend material" after years of playing the field. As former lovers turned bitter rivals turned uncertain coworkers, Lana and Seth slowly rebuild their old connection, discovering a deep chemistry that never quite faded. Ballard's leads easily prove their compatibility through snarky banter and subtext-laden glances that leave no doubt as to their inevitable happily ever after But the story, which refreshingly sees both protagonists undergoing therapy for their respective issues while teassessing their personal and professional goals, is one of healing and emotional growth as much as romance. There are few surprises here, but that doesn't make it any less fun. Agent: Kimberly Whalen, Whalen Agency. (Feb.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Just My Type." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 47, 14 Nov. 2022, p. 52. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A727946289/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=835d8138. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.
Ballard, Falon JUST MY TYPE Putnam (Fiction None) $17.00 2, 7 ISBN: 978-0-593-41993-9
A dating columnist vows to stay single and then her high school boyfriend shows up.
Lana Parker is a serial monogamist. After her devastating breakup with her high school boyfriend, Seth Carson, she made sure she always had a long-term boyfriend. Lana is good at being a girlfriend--but perhaps less good at being herself. Her experience with relationships might make her the perfect person to write a relationships and dating column for the website she works for, but she'd much rather write about pop culture. When her latest relationship implodes, Lana's boss, Natasha, decides that Lana should write about staying single. It's a terrifying prospect for Lana, but she's determined to do everything she can to stay away from relationships. However, there's one problem: Seth Carson himself, also a writer, just showed up at her job. Natasha, desperate for traffic, decides to pit the two of them against each other in a not-so-friendly competition: Lana has to learn how to live life on her own, while Seth has to focus on settling down with the right person. They both have to write about their journey, and the writer who is most popular with the site's readers wins their own column. This could finally be Lana's chance to break out of the dating department and write about what she wants--and destroy the man who broke her heart so many years ago. But Seth doesn't make things easy, mostly because he's infuriatingly charming. As they spend more time together, Lana finds herself wondering what she really wants. Lana is a likable character whose background (she was mostly ignored as a child by her philanthropist mother) makes it easy to see why she jumps into relationships. Seth and Lana have instant chemistry on the page, and it's a joy to read their snarky banter that transforms into something more heartfelt. Their longing for each other and the obstacles in their way feel realistic. Ballard also creates a warm and witty friend group for Lana that adds plenty of comic relief.
A compulsively readable second-chance romance that's full of pining and laughs.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Ballard, Falon: JUST MY TYPE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A731562279/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3d276dc0. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.