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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this read based on the synopsis. I was a little fearful of whether or not I'd enjoy such a taboo story line from a new-to-me author. But wow. I am so glad I picked up this book and gave it a shot. Talk about a risque, immoral, and conflicting relationship between an under age gymnast and her much older coach.
I loved Adrianna's character so much. She was strong, level headed, mature, and spunky. She knew what she wanted and she stopped at nothing to get it. That included catching the eye of her coach, Kova. She had dreams and aspirations, ones that some may feel were far fetched and unrealistic but she just used their skepticism to push herself harder.
Kova was a strong, seductive, closed off man who was extremely focused on the sport and coaching to the best of his abilities. Until little Ria came into his gym and flipped his entire world on it's head. She was everything he knew he couldn't have, yet he lost all self control in her presence. She was only 15, the daughter of a professional acquaintance and completely off limits. But even that didn't stop him from claiming what he thought was his.
Both characters knew how wrong and sinful their relationship was but let the chance of being caught fan their flames. This read was incredibly hot!!!
I cannot wait to read more of this series and see where this relationship goes and just how far both characters are willing to go to keep their relationship status a secret.
I loved Adrianna's character so much. She was strong, level headed, mature, and spunky. She knew what she wanted and she stopped at nothing to get it. That included catching the eye of her coach, Kova. She had dreams and aspirations, ones that some may feel were far fetched and unrealistic but she just used their skepticism to push herself harder.
Kova was a strong, seductive, closed off man who was extremely focused on the sport and coaching to the best of his abilities. Until little Ria came into his gym and flipped his entire world on it's head. She was everything he knew he couldn't have, yet he lost all self control in her presence. She was only 15, the daughter of a professional acquaintance and completely off limits. But even that didn't stop him from claiming what he thought was his.
Both characters knew how wrong and sinful their relationship was but let the chance of being caught fan their flames. This read was incredibly hot!!!
I cannot wait to read more of this series and see where this relationship goes and just how far both characters are willing to go to keep their relationship status a secret.
I'd like to preface this review by saying I would never in a million years condone the type of relationship portrayed in this book in real life. I'm sure it goes without being said, but still lmao.
Ok moving on. I now fully understand why this book is controversial. I went into this knowing that this was going to be a forbidden, taboo romance with problematic situations all throughout.
All that being said, I'm torn on how to rate this, but not because of the previously mentioned problematic/controversial themes. More so, the way everything played out towards the end.
Listen, this book was very long. Did it need to be 600 pages? I'm not sure. I will say that I actually really enjoyed the first like.. 60% (by typical standards that in itself could already be a full length novel lmao). The tension was great, the whole "will they, won't they?" was chefs kiss. Their dynamic was incredibly forbidden and I really appreciated the way the author wrote the progression of their relationship in the first 60% of the book.
I've read other taboo books with an age gap that wasn't even nearly as bad as the one in this one, but I felt more icky about those because I didn't think the author handled it as delicately or as carefully as they should have. In this one, I could feel just how torn Kova was and how disgusted he was with himself for just having impure thoughts about Adrianna. His agony was apparent and he definitely held off as long as he could. The way he was written didn't make him seem like a predator, but I mean, he technically was?
That brings me to the last 40%. Things really fell off for me. I feel like the plot disappeared for a while and all we got were several long, drawn out chapters of them having sex or fooling around. I had to skim and honestly felt uncomfortable the first time they had sex. If this book was intended to make me uncomfortable, job well done.
The power imbalance and the gravity of just how inappropriate their relationship was became very evident in the last part of the book. I absolutely hated Kova and the version of him that came out once things started getting complicated. The more I write this review though and the more I think about it, I have to wonder if it was all intentional. Does the author want us to hate him? Does she want us to feel uncomfortable? Because I was very uncomfortable with how manipulative, toxic, and vindictive Kova acted in the end. I don't know how he is ever going to redeem himself and frankly, I don't want him to??
Also, Adrianna, are you ok??? She worried the hell out of me lmao. It's very clear that she is a teenager in the manner in which she so blatantly disregards any and all consequences for her actions.
First, her eating habits are abhorrent, especially considering she is an athlete that trains 50+ hours a week. Her relationship with food is awful and I know that's mostly her mom's fault.
Second, she definitely thinks she's invincible. It's truly baffling that she thinks she can just push through an injury or ignore severe pain just so she won't have to take off time training like as if prolonging the injury and getting hurt even worse won't be exactly what will happen. I get it though cause I did the same when I was in cheerleading when I was younger.
Lastly, I mean, the whole relationship with Kova. Don't need to elaborate there. My girl needs therapy!!!!
Of course the ending is a cliffy and now I have to read the next one. Just know I'm not happy about it lol. This one made me feel a lot so, 4 stars I guess??? Subject to change.
Ok moving on. I now fully understand why this book is controversial. I went into this knowing that this was going to be a forbidden, taboo romance with problematic situations all throughout.
All that being said, I'm torn on how to rate this, but not because of the previously mentioned problematic/controversial themes. More so, the way everything played out towards the end.
Listen, this book was very long. Did it need to be 600 pages? I'm not sure. I will say that I actually really enjoyed the first like.. 60% (by typical standards that in itself could already be a full length novel lmao). The tension was great, the whole "will they, won't they?" was chefs kiss. Their dynamic was incredibly forbidden and I really appreciated the way the author wrote the progression of their relationship in the first 60% of the book.
I've read other taboo books with an age gap that wasn't even nearly as bad as the one in this one, but I felt more icky about those because I didn't think the author handled it as delicately or as carefully as they should have. In this one, I could feel just how torn Kova was and how disgusted he was with himself for just having impure thoughts about Adrianna. His agony was apparent and he definitely held off as long as he could. The way he was written didn't make him seem like a predator, but I mean, he technically was?
That brings me to the last 40%. Things really fell off for me. I feel like the plot disappeared for a while and all we got were several long, drawn out chapters of them having sex or fooling around. I had to skim and honestly felt uncomfortable the first time they had sex. If this book was intended to make me uncomfortable, job well done.
The power imbalance and the gravity of just how inappropriate their relationship was became very evident in the last part of the book. I absolutely hated Kova and the version of him that came out once things started getting complicated. The more I write this review though and the more I think about it, I have to wonder if it was all intentional. Does the author want us to hate him? Does she want us to feel uncomfortable? Because I was very uncomfortable with how manipulative, toxic, and vindictive Kova acted in the end. I don't know how he is ever going to redeem himself and frankly, I don't want him to??
Also, Adrianna, are you ok??? She worried the hell out of me lmao. It's very clear that she is a teenager in the manner in which she so blatantly disregards any and all consequences for her actions.
First, her eating habits are abhorrent, especially considering she is an athlete that trains 50+ hours a week. Her relationship with food is awful and I know that's mostly her mom's fault.
Second, she definitely thinks she's invincible. It's truly baffling that she thinks she can just push through an injury or ignore severe pain just so she won't have to take off time training like as if prolonging the injury and getting hurt even worse won't be exactly what will happen. I get it though cause I did the same when I was in cheerleading when I was younger.
Lastly, I mean, the whole relationship with Kova. Don't need to elaborate there. My girl needs therapy!!!!
Of course the ending is a cliffy and now I have to read the next one. Just know I'm not happy about it lol. This one made me feel a lot so, 4 stars I guess??? Subject to change.
I have a lot of mixed feelings with this book. I like it, but I'm confused. I think one of the big things is that I really do not like Kova's character. Hopefully, we learn more about him and get good little personality nuggets. I really wanna say screw it and just take Hayden even though they make great friends.
wow oh wow is this book so good!
I have heard about this book for months from a very trusted friend of mine and I made myself wait to read it until I finished school because I couldn't afford my life to be consumed by this series and boy am I glad I waited...
this series is going to consume me so much! you need to read this book ASAP...
Kova and Ria have all the tension and steam and drama... towards the end of this book you may not like Kova, but your feelings for both him and Ria will change a lot throughout the series...
this series is an air gap, forbidden romance where Ria is the gymnast and Kova is her coach.... everything that happens in this book is consensual but be prepared cause when you pick this book up, you are not going to want to put it down!
I have heard about this book for months from a very trusted friend of mine and I made myself wait to read it until I finished school because I couldn't afford my life to be consumed by this series and boy am I glad I waited...
this series is going to consume me so much! you need to read this book ASAP...
Kova and Ria have all the tension and steam and drama... towards the end of this book you may not like Kova, but your feelings for both him and Ria will change a lot throughout the series...
this series is an air gap, forbidden romance where Ria is the gymnast and Kova is her coach.... everything that happens in this book is consensual but be prepared cause when you pick this book up, you are not going to want to put it down!
3.5//
I’m so conflicted with how to rate this book it’s between a 3-4. It was interesting and different from what I expected. The gymnastics element was great but I did feel like this book pretty much just solely focused on the relationship of Kova and Adrianna. Something about Kova’s character bothered me, I just didn’t like how he presented himself as a person. Adrianna’s character was amazing in the beginning and end of the book but you can tell she definitely got lost in the middle to the book. I did enjoy the book I just don’t have any definite feelings as of right now. I do wish you could see more meets with the gymnastics in future books. And tbh I’m rooting for Hayden and Adrianna because I feel like Kova needs to sort himself out.
I’m so conflicted with how to rate this book it’s between a 3-4. It was interesting and different from what I expected. The gymnastics element was great but I did feel like this book pretty much just solely focused on the relationship of Kova and Adrianna. Something about Kova’s character bothered me, I just didn’t like how he presented himself as a person. Adrianna’s character was amazing in the beginning and end of the book but you can tell she definitely got lost in the middle to the book. I did enjoy the book I just don’t have any definite feelings as of right now. I do wish you could see more meets with the gymnastics in future books. And tbh I’m rooting for Hayden and Adrianna because I feel like Kova needs to sort himself out.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes