Book Review: The Takeaway

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5 

The Takeaway follows Hazel, a young woman still trying to figure her life out. She loves the piano, but she's afraid to play in public. She doesn't have too many friends her own age, she doesn't know how to interact with people and she's struggling to figure it all out. Then she meets Hatch, a star football player who she hears through their shared apartment walls. They become friends and they help each other navigate all the struggles that come with trying to figure out what to do with your life. 

I liked it well enough. A little bland and I felt like I was being spoonfed important details at times rather than being able to reason them out myself. Like we're not supposed to like this character and we know it because everyone says we shouldn't like them. But I like how their relationship progresses from a friendship to a romance, despite not getting a lot of the romance. The only issue there being she felt a bit infantilized at points, not in a completely overdone way, just that I would've liked to see a bit more independent thought. 

So enjoyable, definitely will be reading more by Jamie Bennett in the future and looking forward to reading more in her canon.

Book Review: From Lukov with Love

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

From Lukov with Love is another installment of the Zapataverse following Jasmine as she pushes herself to the gold in Olympic figure skating. One issue though, she doesn't currently have a partner and she's a pairs skater. When one of the best pairs skaters in the world asks her to be his partner, it should be an automatic yes as it could be her last chance to get a true title. The only issue? He's been her public enemy #1 for a literal decade and she would rather do just about anything than work with him for hours every day. 

I think that my issue here was that Jasmine was type casted too much in Dear Aaron so she had to really play up being obnoxious in this one. While I feel Zapata books usually have a moment where everything becomes clear and their true love is declared and the slowburn is finally fulfilled, we got more of Jasmine's complaining and we were supposed to accept a lot more of their interactions on the premise of the significance of their history. So I wasn't as into it as I usually am with her books. 

That being said, she still had her moments where I was giggling and screaming so I think she still did her job. I also feel that, based on the hype I had seen for this one versus her other books, I was expecting a lot more but I just didn't connect with them as much as I've connected with other characters she's written. So still super good as I'm highly biased towards loving Zapata, but definitely could have been better.  

Book Review: The Right Move

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5 

The Right Move follows Indy and Ryan, roommates of convenience. Indy found her boyfriend cheating eight months ago, now she wants her life back but can't afford to have that in Chicago. Her best friend offers her a place, but she just moved in with her boyfriend and Indy doesn't want to bother her- so she moves in with her brother instead. Ryan is a pro NBA player, he doesn't do distractions and that's exactly what Indy is. But it's all just temporary. Until he needs a fake girlfriend to convince his coach of his stability. 

I liked it for the first 100-200 pages, but I could not believe that this book went on for as long as it did. I thought everything was resolved and then we would just delve into another completely random topic. I didn't think the author held out on the confession of secrets long enough, because it made the whole miscommunication based faux pas feel much more insensitive at the end. And then it kept going. By the epilogue, I had lost interest in their lives completely. The actual issues weren't really issues at all, it felt sort of random after we got past that first roadbump. 

So the first two 30-40% was a typical fun sports romance, but it really lost me. I don't think I'll be reading the next about their friend because I don't care to be dragged along anymore. 

Book Review: King of the Court

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

I'm so desperate for sports romances at this point that I'm really reading a basketball romance. King of the Court follows a basketball team spending some time in a small Texas town to train for the Olympics. It's your typical basketball superstar meets small town poor girl and tries to solve all her problems. But here, we have kind of a broken part one and part two with the added benefit of a time jump just to avoid actually maybe, I don't know, developing their relationship. 

That seems harsh, but it did feel like a cop out. I also don't know enough about basketball to gauge if this is anywhere close to a realistic portrayal of how a basketball superstar might be treated. It felt way overdramatic. It was pretty entertaining up until the cheat of a plot-twist. Beyond that, everything felt rushed and half-hearted. It's definitely not in my top tier sports romances, but was also not the worst.