Thank you to Luna Literary Management and the lovely author for providing this e-arc!

Sutton finally got her dream job as the new Athletic Trainer for the Utah Knights, but on her first day, she meets someone she never thought she’d see again: her ex-fiancé’s brother. Ezra, a player for the Utah Knights, is all about focusing on the game and not on how lonely he feels, but it seems impossible now that Sutton came right back into his life. The more Sutton and Ezra rekindle their friendship, the harder it is to call it just that, but they both have contracts that could prejudice their careers if they acted on their feelings.

This story is one with not only amazing plus size representation by the FMC, because it’s lovely how she never ties her worth to her weight or think less of herself for that either. She chases her dreams, works out (she even teaches yoga, something she could be criticized by spiteful people and does it amazingly), and embraces her body just as it is, it’s truly inspiring and it made me love her character even more. The representation of what taking care of mental health and going to therapy can do is also very well portrayed. Sutton’s family patterns and how they affected her previous relationship, how she was affected to the point of normalizing them, was very real and so were her conversations with her therapist. I adored that detail because it’s inspiring and can give the reader hope about therapy being a tool to heal.

Talking about characters, I am obsessed with the way Ezra is. Not only is he the ultimate cinnamon roll MMC, he’s a total gentleman and has the best case of not having fragile masculinity. He’s mature in his way to communicate and knowing what he wants. I also adored how he was ready to give up what used to be his dream, because for him, being with Sutton and a future with her was more important and a bigger dream, he’s truly one of the best MMCs.

I also enjoyed the team dynamics. It was nice to see how they start to build the friendships and complicity between players, from the small things like being brave enough to invite them to play videogames, to the more vulnerable stuff like admitting they have feelings for someone and might need some help. All the cast of secondary characters were enchanting and gave the book a cozy found family feeling that makes this book feel like a warm hug.

Lastly, the writing was great, with a good pace and just the necessary amount of chemistry and tension between the protagonists to buy their slow-burn.

Ember wants to prove to herself and her family that her career is important and that she is great at it, so she goes to a reality tv show called “Close Quarters” where they show just how challenging but thrilling being part of a yacht crew can be. It’s her first time as Chief Stew and she needs everything to go without a hitch. However, her goal won’t be easy, the tv show is known for creating unnecessary drama and as a part of it, the Head Chef on board is Finn, the man who broke her heart two years ago. Will she be able to keep the crew professional and down the right path as hearts start to get involved in more and more drama?

This novel is the epitome of angst and drama. I adore dating reality tv shows because of all the drama they have, something unavoidable when you have people who can’t seem to be more different from each other in a forced proximity. Add to that that they are young and attractive and you have the perfect number of affairs and drama. This novel had all of those, the jealousy, the stolen touches when nobody was looking -except from the cameras, of course-, the longing glances, the coded messages to find each other, etc. This was all so perfectly done, that I even cared about the affairs of the secondary characters (I need Leah and Bernard to find their happily ever afters, they both were so good!). The drama wasn’t overwhelming, it was exactly what it needed to be to build slowly and then come to the perfect storm as it pushes Ember and Finn together, against all odds.

The characters in these were some of my favorites because they were all super flawed, which makes for great stories and journeys. Their passions, ambitions and dreams were heartwarming, especially Ember’s and Finn’s. I loved how that is resolved alongside the love story, they truly deserved to have it all.

The author managed to do something wonderful: I felt like I was watching the reality tv show. Between those little interviews before every chapter, the reunion and all the details of a reality tv show (drama, cameras, social media’s opinion, etc) it achieved the perfect reality tv show turned into a book.

Thank you to Hambright PR and the lovely author for providing this ARC!

Allie needs to come up with an interesting investigative article if she wants to prove her boss that she can write more than food reviews, so looking for inspiration, she goes to her usual café, but she never imagined the article would be so easy to find. At the café, she finds a man guiding a woman through a date and discovers that he’s an ex-SEAL turned matchmaker, and it seems like the perfect article, so she requests his services as a matchmaker. The problem is, the more she discovers about Thatcher in all her failed dates, the dangerous it becomes for the both of them, especially as she unravels what really happened to his wife all those years ago. Can she publish the article? And more importantly, would she want to if that means hurting Thatcher?

I think it’s the first time in my life that I read a rom-com with suspense (not romantic suspense). This book was hilarious and cute, so I wasn’t expecting for the suspense aspect to be so well done, and yet, it surprised me. Just like the rom-com part of this book was magical and felt exactly like watching a good rom-com (the meet-cute, the moments between the MMCs, the feelings developing against their better judgment, the drama, etc), the suspense part was equally well crafted (disturbing clues about a past incident, preparing unknowingly to defense oneself and others, adrenaline spike at the last 30% of the book, a good motive for all of it, etc).

The writing in this book was great and made for a quick pace that kept me hooked and reading for hours on end. I can’t wait to read more by this author, especially if she writes Griffin’s or Hunter’s stories.