A review by emeliestegbornblixt
Winning Move by Skye Kilaen

3.0

Gina lives in a small town queer utopia, Mareks new fancy car breaks down right outside the town. They have a one night stand, which is followed by awkwardly getting to know each other better despite Ginas attempts to push anything that could make her life bigger away. I like how central nerd culture is to their relationship development. Another thing I really appreciate is how unlikeably flawed Gina is. She is scared to try again after her marriage that ended years ago, and her emotional struggle leads her to actually act like a dick.

I will say this is probably my least favorite book by Kilaen so far. I think there's just something missing from the way the pieces come together in this one, it lacks the spark that truly elevates it. Or maybe it's just that I'm allergic to small town settings where anonymity is impossible. But it's a fun time and I'm glad I read it.

I have seen some people criticize the "politically correct" commentary of this book as feeling somewhat forced at times, and I kind of agree. I do love to see some social commentary in romance, so that's not the problem. Most of the time it works in this one as well, but there's just a couple times that just kind of breaks immersion a bit - like those comments are there for the sake of being there rather than actually playing a role in character development or furthering the story in some way.


eArc provided by the author