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laerkefugl 's review for:

The Striker by Ana Huang
3.5
The Striker is pretty much what you’d expect from an Ana Huang book. A lot of it felt like a repetition of familiar clichés from her previous work, and it was far too long. I don’t necessarily mind longer books, but I don’t think a contemporary romance needs to be over 450 pages. With genres like fantasy, the length makes sense because you need room for world-building, politics, history, and magic. That isn’t the case here. In contemporary romance, the focus tends to stay on plot, characters, and the central relationship. 

The characters were fine. Nothing groundbreaking, but not too dull either. The story mainly centers around Scarlett and Asher, and they are the only characters who really get any meaningful development or conflict. The rest of the cast just shows up when the plot needs a break from the main couple. Vincent gets some attention too, but that feels mostly due to him being the lead in the next book. Given the length of the novel, I found the background characters a bit undercooked. 

The romance wasn’t particularly original, but I did at least feel the chemistry between Scarlett and Asher, which is more than I can say for some of the other couples in the Ana Huang universe. It followed familiar beats and leaned into tropes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

Where the book struggled most, in my opinion, was the plot. For a novel this long, it didn’t feel particularly memorable. I just finished reading it, and maybe it will sit with me more over time, but right now it feels like it lacked substance. While it’s not as weak as King of Pride, it suffers from a similar issue with low stakes. Technically, there were stakes, but I found myself disengaging after a while. Not much really happens beyond Scarlett and Asher meeting up from time to time. The football and dance elements weren’t in focus for most of the story, especially since it takes place largely off-season. In the end, I just wanted either more plot or fewer pages. 

As usual, Ana Huang includes a third-act breakup, which I often don’t enjoy. But in this case, I didn’t mind it too much. Scarlett had a very valid reason to be upset, and it helped tie up some loose ends with Asher that had previously felt too easily resolved. 

A small side note—this didn’t really bother me, but I imagine British readers might feel differently. You can occasionally tell it’s an American writing British characters. One funny example is the use of “shrimp” instead of “prawn,” which happened a few times. It’s the same mistake I noticed in The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith, so it gave me a bit of déjà vu. 

Overall, The Striker by Ana Huang gets 3.5 stars from me, elevated by the audiobook narration as usual. 

|—TL;DR—| 

Focus Genre: Romance 
Nostalgia: Disqualified 
Personal Enjoyment: 3⭐ 
Plot: 3⭐ 
Characters: 4⭐ 
  • Relationships: 4⭐ (includes friendships, rivalries, etc.)
Writing: 3⭐
  • Audiobook Narration: 4,5⭐ | Shane East and Stella Hunter | English |
Romance: 3⭐
  • Chemistry: 3,5⭐
  • Fluff: 4⭐
  • Steam: 4⭐
Pacing: 2⭐
Ending: 3⭐

=Overall=

3,42-stars⭐ ≈ 3,5-stars⭐
 
~25/07/25~
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