**spoiler alert** Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.

Alright, I was planning on writing something short and neutral, you know, that whole ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’, but then I got more and more annoyed as time went by, and this whole rant happened.

I went through so many emotions when reading this, and unfortunately, by the end, the majority was negative.
(view spoiler)
Okay, now that my little rant is over, let me mention how several moments that were intended to be important and emotional moments were shortly followed by Tyler using the phrase holy shitballs, immediately ruining any attempt at a serious scene.

Although I generally don’t like a ‘fuck buddies’ situation in my romance, I did think the relationship development from casual sex that slowly built into something meaningful was well done and I actually enjoyed it.

Oh, and a big part of Tyler’s whole schtick is being the funny one, using a lot of cliché phrases and just constant bantering, but unfortunately he was also struck by a very serious case of ‘unfunny’, which made things awkward.

I really enjoyed the gameplay tho. I like sports romances when they play sports. Actually, I think I just like Tal Bauer sports romances.

(pls come back talbert)

Also, all the age jokes fall kinda flat when the oldie is 28.

Alright I’m done shitting on this book now. As you can see it was still 3 stars and it kept me goddamn invested, so there’s that.

⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & content tags ⚠️
Sports romance
Rugby
Rookie x veteran
Small age gap
Teenage crush
Closeted MCs
Fast burn
Fuck buddies
Banging the competition
Long distance relationship
Rivals to lovers

⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Alcohol consumption (on-page intoxication)
Explicit sexual content
Homophobic parent (past and present)
Use of homophobic slurs
Death of parent (past, traumatic)
Internalized homophobia
Toxic masculinity
MC beaten by parent for being gay (past)
MC hospitalized (minor injury)

⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
Other person drama: No
Breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual
Genre: Sports romance
Pairing: M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile
Main characters’ age: 20 and 28
Series: Interconnected standalone
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Pages: 299
Happy ending: Yes


Before I had a chance to fully absorb the change, there was a crashing from the pantry. The door sprang ajar as Tyler fell out. My mother froze for a second before swiveling to me. “Um… Aiden. There appears to be a half-naked man in your pantry.” Her voice was calm. “Thanks. I’d been wondering where he’d gotten to,” I deadpanned.

“Exactly. At the end of your life, when you have to sum everything up, that’s what’s most important. Who you love and who loves you back. And so, it doesn’t matter if I get crap on social media or in the locker room or on the field. I’ll cope with it by remembering that nothing’s more important than you.”