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A review by ghostiegail
What Are The Odds? by Madi Leigh
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Grace Hughes, an Australian swimmer, transfers to an American college and finds herself in the middle of a bet between rival sports captains. While I had fun reading What Are the Odds, I felt it really stuck to genre conventions and tropes: the playboy jock prone to one-night-stands, the FMC who is unphased by his popularity and drives him crazy, the background entourage of puck bunnies that let us know the FMC is not like other girls.
I don’t want this review to come across as overly critical because it really was a fun read and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it. That being said, I have a lot to say and a lot of it is negative.
Cheers~!
❤︎ What happened to their group project? What was anybody’s major?
❤︎ I didn’t really get the bet. In the beginning, these two teams hate each other so much that they can’t even share a gym and apparently the only way to settle this is by… seeing who can bone the exchange student first?? Thenthe competition element of the bet is abandoned when they sort of just anticlimactically decide to call a truce? The team rivalry fades into the background along with the bet, players from both teams throwing parties together and coexisting. Why did we even need a bet? Why did they decide that was the best course of action? Why did they pick poor Grace?
❤︎ I enjoyed the background cast of characters (though it was maybe too many people to keep track of). I like that Grace has genuine friendships with Levi’s teammates… and sometimes I liked those teammates more than Levi. Specifically, the part when Trippglares at Levi and basically warns him off from hurting Grace. He doesn’t even know about the bet, he can just sense that fuckboy Levi is up to some bullshit.
❤︎ There were a lot of sports to keep track of, which may sound like a silly criticism for a sports romance — but if I have to read about the rules to MULTIPLE sports and read scenes of games/meets in MULTIPLE sports, that’s maybe a bit much for my sports illiterate brain.
❤︎ The more I explore the hockey romance genre, the more I realize that I’m not into the alpha male shtick. For me, Levi often comes across as jealous, immature and insecure at the slightest threat to his claim over Grace — despite the fact that he is apparently so hot and manly and good at sports that every woman within spitting distance is trying to get into his pants.
I don’t want this review to come across as overly critical because it really was a fun read and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it. That being said, I have a lot to say and a lot of it is negative.
Cheers~!
❤︎ What happened to their group project? What was anybody’s major?
❤︎ I didn’t really get the bet. In the beginning, these two teams hate each other so much that they can’t even share a gym and apparently the only way to settle this is by… seeing who can bone the exchange student first?? Then
❤︎ I enjoyed the background cast of characters (though it was maybe too many people to keep track of). I like that Grace has genuine friendships with Levi’s teammates… and sometimes I liked those teammates more than Levi. Specifically, the part when Tripp
❤︎ There were a lot of sports to keep track of, which may sound like a silly criticism for a sports romance — but if I have to read about the rules to MULTIPLE sports and read scenes of games/meets in MULTIPLE sports, that’s maybe a bit much for my sports illiterate brain.
❤︎ The more I explore the hockey romance genre, the more I realize that I’m not into the alpha male shtick. For me, Levi often comes across as jealous, immature and insecure at the slightest threat to his claim over Grace — despite the fact that he is apparently so hot and manly and good at sports that every woman within spitting distance is trying to get into his pants.
I tried to gauge whether she was being flirtatious or not. Usually with girls it was easy to tell. Maybe that was because, more often than not, it was. As egotistical as it sounded, I’d always been able to get any girl I wanted. Put it down to being six-foot-three and good at sport. Dumb, I know. But a reality, nonetheless.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the jealousy makes sense and adds a fun dynamic to the plot. I just wish we saw Levi’s possessiveness challenged more.
“And I want every guy in this college and country and world to know that you’re mine and they’re not allowed to look at you. Or touch you. Or think about you. Or fucking take you into their room to talk.”
❤︎ I’m not usually a stickler for spelling in self-published works because I understand it can be expensive to hire editors and betas, but there were enough spelling issues and inconsistencies to be distracting here. Some of it was just AUS vs USA spelling, but then the American guy’s POV would use Australian slang and spelling and it didn’t really make sense. It didn’t ruin the book by any means, but it also needed another round of edits/beta in my opinion.
❤︎ WHERE is the groveling? Levi made a huge mistake, majorly betrayed Grace’s trust, outright manipulated her, continued to conceal the truth… and in the end, all he has to do is
Overall, What Are the Odds didn’t stick out from the crowd for me, but it did keep me thoroughly entertained for all 420 pages.