A review by kendranh
Against the Rules by Bree Hayden

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to the author for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review! Perfect for sports romance lovers, this book is a sweet and spicy coming of age college romance. While this is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone.

Loved:
  • The found family aspects of the story
  • Vaginismus represented in a way that doesn’t result in lack of any/all sexual drive
  • For that matter, spice that went beyond just sex was fantastic to read!
  • Bad boy dealing with his past
  • Mixed family representation 

Meh:
  • The initial premise of conflict because King didn’t tell Willow about playing sports bothered me. I get that it set up the rest of the book, but it made no sense 
  • The affair parent storyline was confusing for me.
    Even if her dad was the one to ask for a divorce, I still got the impression that her mom had been with her stepdad for years before that happened
  • Just a lot of manufactured conflict which kind of pulled me out of the story

Disliked:
  • Lawson completely flipping from being an advocate for King to his enemy when he found out about King and Willow dating. It just felt like such a dramatic shift. I could understand anger, but not calling him out on his past after going through so much effort to be supportive
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