Review by harrireadsrommance - The Backup Plan

harrireadsrommance 's review for:

The Backup Plan by Eden Finley

4.5

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Thad is feeling very sad and bitter that his baseball playing days ended with his college graduation and not the pros like he so desperately wanted. Unfortunately, Kelley is the target of all the anger and bitterness when he believes that Kelley is taking his pro career for granted and is overthinking silly things and makes no attempt at hiding these feelings. What Thad doesn’t realise is that Kelley suffers from anxiety and hyperfixation and has a tendency to catastrophize events around him and isn’t overthinking things for fun or because he’s egotistical.

The story doesn’t take long to send Thad, Kelley and Brody off to the Catskills for 2 weeks in the middle of winter to put Kelley on a social media ban after coming out. If you’ve read ‘Can’t Say Goodbye’ you would recognise that the timelines overlap, and it’s funny to see that Brody is not so talented at sneaking around as he thought. Kelley and Thad finally spend significant time together (since Brody keeps disappearing) and realising how much they actually have in common become FWB for the time they are there. By the end of the 2 weeks they both want to take their situationship outside of the Catskills but knowing it could cost Thad his job they separate but both keep fantasising about the other.

I loved loved loved having so much Damon in this book! He has popped up here and there in the Puckboy series but I adored he features heavily here. The other cameos were done very well without overpowering Thad and Kelley’s story with fan favourites. Kelley’s mental health struggles were handled delicately and I enjoyed being inside his head when he was trying to explain his thought processes to Thad. Can’t wait for King Sports!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.