A review by wardenred
Winning Move by Skye Kilaen

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Her life might be smaller, but it was better. Wasn’t it?

I'll be honest, it took me a bit to get into the story because the way it's written is clunkier than what I've read from Skye Kilaen before. I was close to DNFing because of the writing over the first few chapters, but the characters kept growing on me and I kept giving the book chances. And, well, by 20-25% I got hooked! Not sure if the writing got better or if I just stopped caring about the clunkiness, lol.

I empathized a lot with Gina's fears about giving relationships a chance again. It wasn't entirely reasonable, but also perfectly understandable. Her relationship with Aunt Ophelia was lovely, and I enjoyed seeing all those parts of her life: her jobs, her family situations, her home, her board game addiction. Marek, however, just absolutely captured my heart. He is such a lovely, kind, empathetic, thoughtful, introspective character. An inspiration, really, and one of those characters I'd love to meet in real life and become friends with. His gentle optimism was practically addictive, and seeing him simply explore Clover Hill and find things to love about it was as beautiful as seeing his relationship with Gina blossom. 

Speaking of that relationship development, I enjoyed that this couple's interactions included a lot of details that often get glossed over in favor swooping romantic gestures and big feelings. Questions like "is this how you deal with fights?" or "how do you handle medical care?", certain details about sex, generally establishing and agreeing on borders—so much realistic stuff handled in lovely ways that didn't distract from the feelings at all. It was all great to see characters in their later thirties, and of course I loved the bi and fat rep.

Clover Hill itself is the perfect queer utopia, and once the setting started getting prominently explored, it quickly turned into my favorite part of the book (after Marek, of course). I love reading about cozy, inclusive, tight-knit communities like that, and I look forward to exploring it more with other books in the series.