I’ll be honest, I went in totally skeptical because on paper it had so many things that I avoid in books

• Professional Athletes
• A Second Chance Romance
• Children

But, this was so much more than I was anticipating! The athletes were endearing, the second chance felt real (like two people actually working on communication in a marriage), and the children weren’t awful.

As a stan of historical romances, I love that they’re getting their time to shine. It was so much fun that Adams added snippets from the novel Gavin reads throughout the story for us to read, too. I thought it was a brilliant touch. I also thought it was clever that she compared pro athletes and WAGs to the aristocrats and wives of the ton in regency England. It really tied everything together.

More than anything, Adams wrote MCs that you wanted to root for while you were reading. Did they make mistakes and say things they didn’t mean? Yes, but it never felt like they took it too far (I seriously don’t understand how some of these romance ships come back from what they say to each other during arguments *shiver*). Gavin and Thea also both work on individual growth while working on their relationship, and it’s not all one sided.

I felt the relationship between the sisters was a bit off, but maybe I’m a bit biased because I also didn’t care for the audiobook narrators voice for Liz (he did great for everyone else), so I was annoyed when she talked. I can’t get into the details of why I didn’t care for her without spoilers, but she was really the only part of the book that was meh.

Right now, coming off the high of reading this book after a slump, this gets 4.5⭐️ because it was fluffy but deep, I genuinely enjoyed it, and I’m excited to read the next one.