A steamy love story with memorable characters despite occasional distracting asides.
In Bell’s romance, an NFL player and his unlikely best friend fall in love.
Sawyer Jackson, a 25-year-old Miami Mavericks tight end—a position likely chosen for its double-entendre—is convinced that beautiful, hilarious, 21-year-old Kennedy Quinn, a student at the Berklee College of Music, has “gifted [him] a FastPass to the friend zone.” Kennedy reciprocates Sawyer’s attraction, but an ex-boyfriend, Boston College’s star quarterback Hunter Sterling, recently cheated on her. She isn’t ready to move on, so she and her “Hottest Friend,” Sawyer, maintain a flirty but platonic connection. The narrative then shifts abruptly to three years and four months later, when Sawyer is about to join the big-league New York Cougars—for which Hunter is the quarterback—and still nursing his crush on close friend Kennedy. She’s moved to New York City with musical-theater aspirations and a powerful agent, William Abreu, to match. Sawyer wants to get out of “Kennedy’s friend zone and into her heart’s end zone,” but a number of factors could jeopardize their romance: Sawyer’s playboy history; Kennedy’s sexy new roommate, Andrew; a “morality and ethics clause” in Sawyer’s Cougars contract that could keep the couple apart; and neither party's wanting to ruin their current relationship. As Sawyer and Kennedy’s attractions heats up, the author heightens the internal and external stakes for the characters, making for a page-turning read. Sawyer’s voice is full of “colorful verbiage,” as Kennedy puts it in one of her point-of-view sections, and often-funny metaphors: Kennedy’s laugh is described by Sawyer as a “cock-hardening ballad” in narration; he also calls his teammate Declan Walsh an “anti-wingman” and opines that calling men’s boxers “panties” is “basically verbal castration.” However, italicized asides sometimes distract from the narrative: After a heartfelt confession, for instance, Kennedy breaks out of the moment to think, “Whoa. That’s a lot to unpack.” Both Sawyer’s and Kennedy’s perspectives are laugh-out-loud funny, but the author occasionally dips into cliché: “She didn't wear a drop of makeup; she didn’t need it.” That said, the leads each gain depth as their relationship progresses.
A steamy love story with memorable characters despite occasional distracting asides.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2022
ISBN: 9798985418453
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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