Reviews

Okay~ off the bat I love Kandi Steiner’s writing. She is great at building tension and anticipation. It’s obvious Zeke and Riley had and still have feelings for each other. Some reviews said that Riley was a little too harsh on Zeke, but I can understand why she is so unforgiving, especially since she doesn’t know all the details of the accident with her brother. However, with the second mistake, she was way too closed minded. I can forgive her the first grudge she held (though it was stupid she didn’t question the incident even after 2.5 years 🙄), but the second grudge she was just being stupid, stubborn and closed minded. Riley just isn’t as smart as her character is portrayed. I love Gavin for telling them both what they needed to do/hear. Overall, loved the story, and love them together…but I definitely could have done without all the football talk! In the beginning of the book Kandi says this book is for all the football girlies out there…that is a 100% true statement. It’s easy to skim over the football stuff and not lose any context, so that’s what I did. But because football talk is such a big part of this book, it was hard for this book to hold my attention for long, so it ended up taking me twice as long to finish. I would recommend the series though, I read Blind Side (once in ‘23 and again in ’24) before I decide to read the whole series (Clay Johnson is my ultimate book bf). Can’t wait to read about Holden next~ (out of order)

skylarmarkayanna's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Zeke and Riley were childhood friends until a tragic car accident permanently injures Riley's brother Gavin on the way home from a party. Gavin made her pinky promise to try out for the football team and to play, knowing how much she loved it. So when Riley is placed in a suite with Zeke as her roommate, tensions rise.

Riley had so much pressure on her to overcome gender constructs and Zeke had familial pressures to succeed in football. Their baggage with each other ended up being easy to overcome in the face of all of that pressure, but all it took was 1 triggering event to send them back to square one. I thought the 3rd act break up was a bit on the uber stubborn side, but when the trigger for it ties back to old traumas, it's difficult to separate them in your mind, and I get that.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and now that the Red Zone Rival series is about to have Kyle's book tacked on to the end, I'm hoping Gavin can get a handicapped sports romance!