Buy:  Amazon

Review

3.5 stars

A steamy college sports romcom, this is a fun, clever and sexy romance, and I really enjoyed this one.

Scarlett is a student athlete at Stanford. She is studying pre-med and balancing her near-perfect academic achievements with platform diving. She is quiet and a bit reserved, and is coming back from a near career-ending diving injury which has left with a severe case of the yips, but she’s got her head down and is determined to achieve in all things as she has always done.

Lukas is a Swedish swimming phenom. A fellow pre-med student at Stanford, he is captain of the swim team, Olympic gold medallist, world record holder and everybody’s favourite guy. And Scarlett has just discovered that Lukas is a little bit kinky, and he’s looking for somebody to explore his secret nature with. Coincidentally, Scarlett has secret kinks of her own, and when the two of them are thrown together and their secrets are revealed, they agree to a no-strings BDSM(ish) relationship to give them both a safe place to explore their sexuality together.

Holy hotness, I was not expecting this book! Scarlett and Lukas are open about everything, and as they explore their wild sides, we are right there with them. It’s not too kinky, the BDSM aspect is mostly about power and control (which is openly communicated, and consent is discussed regularly) but the chemistry sizzles, and the sexy scenes are seriously steamy. And as they’re opening up to each other about all things, they become friends, they provide support and become each other’s ‘person’, and Scarlett finds herself falling in ways she never expected.

This is a fun story. It’s written entirely from Scarlett’s POV, and there’s a lot going on for her, but the romance is not as prominent as I like in my romcoms (because I’m a romantic sap). The sex is intense, their feelings for each other are definitely there, but it takes a while for the relationship to develop, and the romance is definitely a slow burn. Lukas and Scarlett both have a lot of competing priorities and there’s multiple storylines going on, and they don’t even really spend that much time together – it’s weeks or months between meet ups, and they seem to give each other a lot of space. I got the feeling that Lukas was more invested than Scarlett was, but being the sappy romance junkie that I am, I would have liked to see a bit more of an effort on both of their parts to actually be together.

I really liked Scarlett, and I enjoyed her character development. She’s a socially awkward STEM girl, and between her coursework, her diving, her therapy sessions, new friendships, and all that she is exploring with Lukas, she learns a lot about herself and comes out of her shell, and I loved seeing her work through her issues, start to really embrace her life and find her HEA.

And I really enjoyed Lukas. He is so refreshingly open! He doesn’t play games, he shares things about his life and himself, and they talk about all things sex (as you would in their situation), but he’s more reserved when it comes to his feelings. It’s one of those situations where you suspect there is more happening than what you are aware of, but we only get Scarlett’s perspective on things. I enjoyed the hints that are dropped along the way, and guessing where Lukas’ head (and heart) was at, and I loved how no-nonsense he was about everything.

There’s a bit of a forbidden twist to their relationship which adds to the intensity and, of course, the high-intensity world of college sports and high-strung athletes also brings its own drama. I liked the balance of how all of the different parts of this book come together to create a fully fleshed-out story that had me completely immersed in Scarlett’s world.

There is a bit of OW drama that I wasn’t a huge fan of.

This is an enjoyable read. I would have liked more from the romance, but I couldn’t put this book down, and was invested from start to finish.

3.5 stars.

I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Therese Plummer and Ben Holtzmuller. The book is written entirely from Scarlett’s perspective, but it’s a duet-style narration, and it’s so good! Therese tells Scarlett’s story with humour and heart, and Ben does so many accents so, so well, and his Lukas voice is wildly hot. I recommend listening to this one.