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subystar's review
1.0
(Excuse my many typos and grammatical errors)
Wow! This was not it! Honestly I can’t believe how well received this book is. Okay, sure, maybe I didn’t read the summary of this book when I picked it up and okay maybe I was assuming it was going to be a baseball romance. So you could say my expectations for this book was a little bit high (because yes…sport romances are my kink) but honestly I was honestly willing to give this a chance and I really wish I hadn’t.
First of all, I don’t think this book really even had a plot or structure. The whole book is just people doing everyday tasks. Seriously! The only thing that was mildly interesting was the beginning where Nik is proposed to. After that it’s just a chain of events of characters going to work, talking to family, going to dinner. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. Except when Carlos’ cousin Jessie has a pregnancy complication, but it gets resolved in I don’t know a chapter? There’s nothing to keep you engaged because you’re not worried about any of the characters. They live such boring and mundane lives. Nik goes viral in the beginning (after the proposal she rejects) and doesn’t really have to deal with any interesting repercussions. What people email her? Friends and family might’ve saw? Does anything actually happen to her? No? She doesn’t have to deal with any threats to losing her job, her friend etc. At one point in the book she’s scared that her Ex Fisher is going to hurt her. Which I thought okay now where getting somewhere maybe Fisher is going to mess with her career. NOPE! Right after than she just kind of forgets Fisher or only brings him up to insult him or her bad taste in men.
For Carlos. Man, you were stale and annoying as hell. I’m not sure if I was the only one but I felt like there were so many sexist moments with his character. He constantly tends to tear down and villainize the women he’s been in past relationships, calling them unintelligent, uninteresting and clueless for wanting to be in a relationship with him. Only to praise every little thing Nik does. She’s not like other girls you guys! Her name is Nikcole with a K! She lets sour cream dry on her face only to peel strips off! He’s just so bland and has a boring career with no threats or conflict in his day to day life. The only conflict he has going on is his cousins pregnancy complication (I don’t remember what it was specifically called and I don’t care) which again gets resolved so quickly.
The romance in this was honestly just so uninteresting. It’s hard to care about it when there’s nothing to keep them from being together other than their dumb reasons. They basically are a couple from the start, why should I care? Or root for them? There’s no good reason why Carlos doesn’t want to be in a relationship. Being in a relationship would keep him from taking care of his family (who like I already said is already capable enough of taking care of themselves) is by far the dumbest reason there could’ve been. His father passed away not that long ago too and seeing how their all adults Im not sure where this need to be a provider for the family stems from. And it’s not an excuse to treat the women you’ve been with like idiots or worthless.
Overall this book just wasn’t doing it for me. It honestly sucks because I really wanted to love it. As I get back into reading I really want to read more books with more diversity seeing how I ( a black woman) hadn’t seen so much of it growing up reading. I was craving a black female led rom-com and thought this would’ve at least been enjoyable but honestly it’s just not worth your time.
Wow! This was not it! Honestly I can’t believe how well received this book is. Okay, sure, maybe I didn’t read the summary of this book when I picked it up and okay maybe I was assuming it was going to be a baseball romance. So you could say my expectations for this book was a little bit high (because yes…sport romances are my kink) but honestly I was honestly willing to give this a chance and I really wish I hadn’t.
First of all, I don’t think this book really even had a plot or structure. The whole book is just people doing everyday tasks. Seriously! The only thing that was mildly interesting was the beginning where Nik is proposed to. After that it’s just a chain of events of characters going to work, talking to family, going to dinner. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. Except when Carlos’ cousin Jessie has a pregnancy complication, but it gets resolved in I don’t know a chapter? There’s nothing to keep you engaged because you’re not worried about any of the characters. They live such boring and mundane lives. Nik goes viral in the beginning (after the proposal she rejects) and doesn’t really have to deal with any interesting repercussions. What people email her? Friends and family might’ve saw? Does anything actually happen to her? No? She doesn’t have to deal with any threats to losing her job, her friend etc. At one point in the book she’s scared that her Ex Fisher is going to hurt her. Which I thought okay now where getting somewhere maybe Fisher is going to mess with her career. NOPE! Right after than she just kind of forgets Fisher or only brings him up to insult him or her bad taste in men.
For Carlos. Man, you were stale and annoying as hell. I’m not sure if I was the only one but I felt like there were so many sexist moments with his character. He constantly tends to tear down and villainize the women he’s been in past relationships, calling them unintelligent, uninteresting and clueless for wanting to be in a relationship with him. Only to praise every little thing Nik does. She’s not like other girls you guys! Her name is Nikcole with a K! She lets sour cream dry on her face only to peel strips off! He’s just so bland and has a boring career with no threats or conflict in his day to day life. The only conflict he has going on is his cousins pregnancy complication (I don’t remember what it was specifically called and I don’t care) which again gets resolved so quickly.
The romance in this was honestly just so uninteresting. It’s hard to care about it when there’s nothing to keep them from being together other than their dumb reasons. They basically are a couple from the start, why should I care? Or root for them? There’s no good reason why Carlos doesn’t want to be in a relationship. Being in a relationship would keep him from taking care of his family (who like I already said is already capable enough of taking care of themselves) is by far the dumbest reason there could’ve been. His father passed away not that long ago too and seeing how their all adults Im not sure where this need to be a provider for the family stems from. And it’s not an excuse to treat the women you’ve been with like idiots or worthless.
Overall this book just wasn’t doing it for me. It honestly sucks because I really wanted to love it. As I get back into reading I really want to read more books with more diversity seeing how I ( a black woman) hadn’t seen so much of it growing up reading. I was craving a black female led rom-com and thought this would’ve at least been enjoyable but honestly it’s just not worth your time.
addicted_reads's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
mkmhb2013's review
lighthearted
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
1.0
annie1017's review
One of the first books I’ve DNF’ed in a long while, but it was so bad I couldn’t keep going. The dialogue is so horrible and unnatural, I’m shuddering even just thinking about it.
ashleec100's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
steffski's review against another edition
2.0
This book was...fine. Not everything everyone said it was. It was fun and light and everything you expect a romance novel to be.
I am ALL about diversity...but I kind of started rolling my eyes at one point like "we get it, she's black." I think it's amazing to see people of color be represented better, but I also want to be able to treat them as normal people and not be reminded every other page that the author is aware and with it in the area of race and diversity. 🤷🏻♀️ Maybe I'm out of line but I just didn't think it was done well in this book.
I am ALL about diversity...but I kind of started rolling my eyes at one point like "we get it, she's black." I think it's amazing to see people of color be represented better, but I also want to be able to treat them as normal people and not be reminded every other page that the author is aware and with it in the area of race and diversity. 🤷🏻♀️ Maybe I'm out of line but I just didn't think it was done well in this book.
laurolly's review
4.0
3.5 Stars. This was such a lovely romance, the chemistry between Nik and Carlos was so sweet. A really nice use of the ‘friends-to-lovers’ tripe. I thought the two perspectives were used really well to give the reader additional details, and I liked seeing how each was falling for the other without the characters realising it. However, I think that these perspectives were not all that different from the other, and I did at times miss who was narrating. What did annoy me was that Carlos seemed like such a nice person, albeit overprotective, but nearer the ending of the book his reaction seemed so out of character it was jarring. I liked Niks best friends and how present for each other the three of them were. I also thought that Guillory did well at presenting the topic of feeling unsafe, however, I thought the implications of this for Nik could have been more fully developed. Overall, this was a sweet read, and I would be interested in reading more by Guillory.
jess_mango's review
4.0
I think I like this one a little more than the first one. :) Nice, fun, quick read.