Author: Chloe Liese
Kindle Edition
(Audiobook, Anyplay)
Willa is one of the female soccer stars at her university. So, sometimes, she has to depend on a little help from her professors understanding that she may miss a few classes and the she will need the notes to those classes. In one of her Math classes, the professor tells her to ask another student for said notes – some big, bearded, flannel-wearing lumberjack type. She does. And he plain ignores her! She gets royally pissed and every time she tries to approach him it appears he is doing this on purpose.
There is a catch, though. Ryder didn’t ignore her. He is hard of hearing and just didn’t hear her talking to him. The professor, who happens to be Ryder’s brother-in-law has paired them up as study buddies because he thinks Ryder needs to socialize more. And Ryfer used to be a soccer player, so he assumes they will hit it off.
We have a frenemies situation then. Everyone around them, though, can sense that those two are really into each other, but who’s going to cave first?
I loooooooved Ryder. He’s such a cinnamon roll, such a caring and loving guy! And to be honest, Willa got on my nerves a little bit. I know she is going through a really shitty time with her mom being sick and she’s in compete denial that her mom is dying. On top of that she is a top athlete who has to also do well in school, but I swear to God there were times I just wanted to slap her a little. And what’s with the verbal diarrhea? No one just blurts thoughts aloud that frequently. I would assume she is neurodivergent, but since the author hasn’t made it clear in the book, she just comes out as a little annoying and even maybe self-centered. By the end of the book, you get used to her and end up cheering for her to find love with Ryder.
The book has great secondary characters, specially Ryder’s family. Willa’s mom is also a pretty cool woman going through some really crappy stuff thrown at her.
There is also one little thing that bothered me a tiny bit by the end of the book: this was a slow burn (instalust, but they take foreeeeeeeeever to get together) mostly because of how skittish Willa is when it comes to feelings and then… BOOM. The girl who didn’t want a relationship all of a sudden is on board with “forever”. I still bought it. It’s a romance novel after all, but with all the slow burning, she could have gotten there slowly too.
Still a good read. I’m definitely going to read the next installments in the series to catch up with the Bergmans.
Note on narration: I DNFed it only because the version they have in Anyplay is the first version of the book and there have been major changes made to the text.
Possible triggers: death of a parent, hero is hard of hearing and still adjusting to it
