A review by bribreez
Breakaway by Anastasija White

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

*Thank you to Wordsmith Publicity and Anastasija White for providing me with an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

*Check Trigger Warnings Before Reading

5⭐️/ 3-4🌶️

Anastasija White knows how to write amazing sports romances with enjoyable tropes, but also lovable characters with depth, vulnerabilities, and heart. Plus, with the added heat of spice, and good hearted moments sprinkled throughout the story, it always leaves me feeling happy and all kinds of good when I read her stories. When I saw this story was going to be centered on Angie’s best friend, Nevaeh and Drake’s teammate, Roman, with accidental marriage and other goodies, I WAS EXCITED! 

Nevaeh and Roman’s lives weren’t going as expected when the story started. With Nevaeh, she felt like she wasn’t in a good place despite getting a job promotion, and having a loving boyfriend. The looming future of her boyfriend planning to take their relationship to the next step made Nevaeh realize that she wasn’t herself and definitely wasn’t ready for anything more with her boyfriend. For Roman, with recurring nightmares, lack of sleep, and grief from his past making a reappearance, he wasn’t in the best head space either. Both, Nevaeh and Roman needed a break from everything, and when a newly single, Nevaeh found herself being invited to go to Las Vegas with Roman, it seemed like a spontaneous good idea…right?

An accidental marriage wasn’t the plan when Nevaeh and Roman went to Las Vegas, but you know what they say, VIVA LAS VEGAS! WOO! I really loved the accidental marriage trope in this story! Seeing how Roman and Nevaeh were suddenly married together not only made them husband and wife, but also add into the fact that Nevaeh was basically already temporarily living with Roman in his apartment, FORCED PROXIMITY! OMG YESSSS! While I’m not one who usually goes out of their way to read stories with the jealousy trope, seeing how each Roman and Nevaeh found themselves getting lowkey jealous over seeing others hit on them made me think, “YUP THEY TOTALLY LIKE EACH OTHER!!!” I was throughly enjoying every moment! 

Now, I loved Drake and Angie (*I still do), but…goodness gracious, ROMAN AND NEVAEH STOLE MY HEART!!!! I loved their story so much and not to mention the moments that further made me swoon and make my JAW DROP! Nevaeh was trying to find herself, work on her life in general, but seeing how she was with Roman made me see that even early on, ROMAN WAS THE MAN FOR HER! Travis was a decent guy, but compared to Roman, it was CLEAR AS DAY that Travis wasn’t the guy for Nevaeh. With Roman, Nevaeh found herself inexplicably happy, and unable to describe the amount of times Roman made her feel butterflies in her stomach. Roman was equally a star in this story, and MY GOODNESS I LOVED HIM! Seeing Roman open up to Nevaeh little by little was significant as well as seeing him do the kindest things for her. There was plenty of times that made me SWOON, and want to hug Roman so much because, (sigh) that handsome beautiful Russian speaking man was sentimental at heart and it showed when he gifted Nevaeh a really sweet gift later on in the story!!!!

Anastasija really nailed this story! With the few books of hers that I’ve had, she continues to create such wonderful fun stories with depth. Seeing Drake and Angie again was great, but having Roman and Nevaeh center stage in their own story was even better! The accidental marriage trope in this story was PERFECTION! Nevaeh was like sunshine, and for Roman he gradually embraced all the warmth and love Nevaeh brought into his life. Roman dealt with a lot of inner guilt and grief, but over the course of the story, he learned that he didn’t need to punish himself over what happened in his past. This story mentioned some heavy topics, but the way Anastasija wrote it wasn’t overwhelming, just the right amount of detail to fully get me to understand both Roman and Nevaeh’s minds in what they dealt with individually. The romance was FANTASTIC! I WAS LEGITIMATELY SWOONING, GIGGLING, GASPING IN EXCITEMENT OVER THE SWEET ROMANTIC THINGS ROMAN DID FOR NEVAEH! Roman really was out there loving on his wife, and I WAS HERE FOR IT! The spice was equally hot and passionate! MY GOODNESS! HOT HOT HOT! I fully had so much fun reading this story, but also finding myself getting emotional over Roman and Nevaeh’s stories. I instantly felt a connection to both Nevaeh and Roman, and knew instantly that this book was an immediate five stars in my heart. Plus, it had me wanting to read it again or even prolong finishing the book because I didn’t want it to end! I loved the romance, everything about Nevaeh and Roman, the chemistry was off the charts, the epilogue was a really sentimental and beautiful way to end Roman and Nevaeh’s story! I’m even more intrigued to see who will be the main couple in the next book… I have my theories, but I won’t say haha. Highly recommend!