I'm sorry to say that this book just wasn't for me. I found Scott (the MMC) to be incredibly boring and without a personality, and Crystal (the MFC) was uncomfortably obsessed with his "six-pack abs". I appreciated the tension between the characters in the beginning (though Scott was extremely childish) and their first kiss, but after that it all went away. It did come back when (SPOILER) they agreed to take things slow and not have a physical relationship, but again I couldn't see them together romantically. Also, this was supposed to be a gym rivalry to lovers situation. Ummm...is the rivalry in the room with us? Because he seemed to just irritate her at the gym for all of 5 minutes (SPOILER) before they were in a miscommunication situation and then they were dating.

I did like the struggle that Crystal went through with fighting through stereotypes of people and her own self-esteem because it felt realistic. I also understand her hesitation in dating him (I went through the same thing where my ex in my one and only serious relationship got with me 5 seconds after breaking up and then got back with their ex suspiciously soon after we broke up). I'm not a huge fan of the fact that they're becoming family because their 70-something year old grandparents were marrying each other, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it. Also, I found Crystal to be a little annoying, it was more like being in my own head which I hated (lol) that's not why I deducted stars so don't worry. I think she was valid in wanting to handle her problems on her own (they literally just started dating it takes a second to start tackling things as a team) she was equally valid in being upset that Scott did exactly what she told him not to do. She was also valid in her annoyance with him in the beginning of the book because he was acting like a stereotypical boy child picking on a girl "because he likes her" *barf*. It's 2025, please let this trope die. Was blowing up on him and calling him names a bit much? Yes. But we're only human. I also never ever want to hear a man call a movie a "chick flick" ever again. 

All in all, I'm glad I read the second book before this one, because I likely wouldn't have read Tara's story if I'd read this one first. Now Tara's story? Man that had my stomach doing the thing multiple times. But now I have no desire to read the third book, partly because of this book, and partly because I was hoping for Mel to get with the super flirty firefighter from the second book (not Trevor, obvi). Have no fear, I do have another book by the author in my TBR.