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Campus Players
The Real Thing
When a rumor causes their two different worlds to cross unexpectedly, popular jock Luke and school nerd Avery must find a way to deal. But in the process, they might just find something more...
"He's a playboy jock. She's a big nerd."
Avery Winters is passionate about science and the environment. Sure, she's never been on a real date before, but then again, she's much too sensible to bother with those types of things.
Luke Taylor is passionate about sports. And girls. So of course, he's been on a date with practically every other girl in school.
There would have been absolutely no way that they would be in each other's lives. Except until that one night, at that one bar, with that one dare, which led to that one rumor - which changed everything.
An offbeat and quirky, heart-fluttering, feel-good, sweet and wholesome YA contemporary romance.
"He's a playboy jock. She's a big nerd."
Avery Winters is passionate about science and the environment. Sure, she's never been on a real date before, but then again, she's much too sensible to bother with those types of things.
Luke Taylor is passionate about sports. And girls. So of course, he's been on a date with practically every other girl in school.
There would have been absolutely no way that they would be in each other's lives. Except until that one night, at that one bar, with that one dare, which led to that one rumor - which changed everything.
An offbeat and quirky, heart-fluttering, feel-good, sweet and wholesome YA contemporary romance.
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2016
118 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Sara Breaker
16 books35 followersSara Breaker lives in New Zealand with her husband and two kids. She writes offbeat young adult/contemporary sweet romance.
Suburban mum by day and author by night, she loves to live vicariously through her characters. They don’t have to vacuum all day long and are always guaranteed happy endings no matter how melodramatic she writes them. Easy to read, feel-good love stories that break your heart, puts it back together, bam! happy ending—but then still have enough time to wash the dishes after.
Sign up to her mailing list now and get a FREE e-book! Click HERE to get it!
Also writes under S. Breaker
Follow Sara Breaker:
Bookbub: bit.ly/SBreakerBookbub
Facebook: SBreakerWrites
Amazon: amazon.com/author/sbreaker
Suburban mum by day and author by night, she loves to live vicariously through her characters. They don’t have to vacuum all day long and are always guaranteed happy endings no matter how melodramatic she writes them. Easy to read, feel-good love stories that break your heart, puts it back together, bam! happy ending—but then still have enough time to wash the dishes after.
Sign up to her mailing list now and get a FREE e-book! Click HERE to get it!
Also writes under S. Breaker
Follow Sara Breaker:
Bookbub: bit.ly/SBreakerBookbub
Facebook: SBreakerWrites
Amazon: amazon.com/author/sbreaker
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 15, 2024
this might be my favourite book i’ve read this month.
scratch that, it totally is!
i don’t usually read on vacation but this book was the exception, it took me longer than normal to read it but i was hooked from beginning to end.
this is a cute high school romance between a popular guy, Luke and Avery, a girl who loves nature and is focused on school.
they didn’t start off the best way, he kissed her because of a dare without her consent Because who wouldn’t want to be kissed my the one and only Luke Taylor? Well, Avery Winters didn’t.
after that, every time they crossed off paths she made sure he knew she didn’t like what he did and bit his head off.
but nothing like a Nature Awareness Month to change that, when Luke was basically forced to volunteer in the group that Avery was in.
and i’ll leave it at that, because the rest is too beautiful and perfect for me to write about it, it’s so worth being read.
i love Avery for the person she is and Luke for the person he became.
this book is filled with beautiful and heartwarming moments that had me melting and falling in love with the characters.
the writing is beautiful and i’m so excited to read more of Sara Bellcamp-Breaker books.
if you like cute romances this book is for you, oh and if you need a new book boyfriend, Luke Taylor is the guy for the job.
some of my favourite moments and quotes are below, please be aware of spoilers!!
“It was almost as though he could just sit there and look into her eyes for the rest of the night, for the rest of the week, for the rest of forever...”
“Except the mere thought of Avery kissing Anthony Lewis made his blood boil.”
“I like the way you laugh. I like how your eyes sparkled in the dark when they met mine. I like the intensity in your eyes whenever you’re pissed off at me. And what I noticed about you was that—what I realized—is that you’re the one thing I’m afraid of. Everything about you scares me dumb.”
“He studied her face for a while. The way he was looking at her made her heart pound a mile a minute.”
“Now he just couldn’t get her out of his mind.”
“She could very well plainly be his world.”
“ (…) He wanted to kiss her so badly, he couldn’t think.
It felt like forever, but then he finally felt her lips against his. Softly. He felt waves of relief and contentment wash over him, as though he had reached the end of a long, hard journey, and had now come home (…)”
“Nothing had ever felt more right in his entire life.”
“Do you know what happened that threw my entire universe for a loop? (…) You. You happened.”
“Avery,” Luke started fervently. “I am so crazy in love with you. And when I come back after that game, I’m going to do whatever it takes to make you feel the same way about me. So there,”
“Everyone’s talking about you now,” he teased. Avery dismissed it carelessly. “Been there.” She leaned up to kiss him again. He laughed and obliged.”
scratch that, it totally is!
i don’t usually read on vacation but this book was the exception, it took me longer than normal to read it but i was hooked from beginning to end.
this is a cute high school romance between a popular guy, Luke and Avery, a girl who loves nature and is focused on school.
they didn’t start off the best way, he kissed her because of a dare without her consent Because who wouldn’t want to be kissed my the one and only Luke Taylor? Well, Avery Winters didn’t.
after that, every time they crossed off paths she made sure he knew she didn’t like what he did and bit his head off.
but nothing like a Nature Awareness Month to change that, when Luke was basically forced to volunteer in the group that Avery was in.
and i’ll leave it at that, because the rest is too beautiful and perfect for me to write about it, it’s so worth being read.
i love Avery for the person she is and Luke for the person he became.
this book is filled with beautiful and heartwarming moments that had me melting and falling in love with the characters.
the writing is beautiful and i’m so excited to read more of Sara Bellcamp-Breaker books.
if you like cute romances this book is for you, oh and if you need a new book boyfriend, Luke Taylor is the guy for the job.
some of my favourite moments and quotes are below, please be aware of spoilers!!
“It was almost as though he could just sit there and look into her eyes for the rest of the night, for the rest of the week, for the rest of forever...”
“Except the mere thought of Avery kissing Anthony Lewis made his blood boil.”
“I like the way you laugh. I like how your eyes sparkled in the dark when they met mine. I like the intensity in your eyes whenever you’re pissed off at me. And what I noticed about you was that—what I realized—is that you’re the one thing I’m afraid of. Everything about you scares me dumb.”
“He studied her face for a while. The way he was looking at her made her heart pound a mile a minute.”
“Now he just couldn’t get her out of his mind.”
“She could very well plainly be his world.”
“ (…) He wanted to kiss her so badly, he couldn’t think.
It felt like forever, but then he finally felt her lips against his. Softly. He felt waves of relief and contentment wash over him, as though he had reached the end of a long, hard journey, and had now come home (…)”
“Nothing had ever felt more right in his entire life.”
“Do you know what happened that threw my entire universe for a loop? (…) You. You happened.”
“Avery,” Luke started fervently. “I am so crazy in love with you. And when I come back after that game, I’m going to do whatever it takes to make you feel the same way about me. So there,”
“Everyone’s talking about you now,” he teased. Avery dismissed it carelessly. “Been there.” She leaned up to kiss him again. He laughed and obliged.”
April 9, 2022
High school romance
The first chapter introduces Luke and his friends as stupid jocks who go through girls as a game, and the rest of the story is about showing that he may have other sides. Getting Avery to believe it is another matter. He kissed her on a whim, with no indication that she wanted to be kissed, and she chews his head off, rightly so, thinking she wanted nothing to do with a guy like that. However, a nature project for school gets them working together and the campus rumor mill connects them more intimately.
The writing was okay, with a couple of minor editing misses. In the end I liked Luke a bit better than Avery, the way his interest in her developed and his insecurity when she was snippy for no reason.
Steam level: kissing.
Triggers: there's an incident that might have evolved into a nasty no-consent situation If not for a timely interruption.
The first chapter introduces Luke and his friends as stupid jocks who go through girls as a game, and the rest of the story is about showing that he may have other sides. Getting Avery to believe it is another matter. He kissed her on a whim, with no indication that she wanted to be kissed, and she chews his head off, rightly so, thinking she wanted nothing to do with a guy like that. However, a nature project for school gets them working together and the campus rumor mill connects them more intimately.
The writing was okay, with a couple of minor editing misses. In the end I liked Luke a bit better than Avery, the way his interest in her developed and his insecurity when she was snippy for no reason.
Steam level: kissing.
Triggers: there's an incident that might have evolved into a nasty no-consent situation If not for a timely interruption.
February 10, 2025
This was the longest 190 pages I've ever read. I don't think I like a single character, they're all so rude & full of themselves. Its a weak enemies to lovers trope, it all just felt so forced. Chemistry? Romance? she's not in the room with us. Its a 1 star read but ill let it have a star cause the 3rd person POV could be a me problem, but it made it so confusing to follow. This is probably a petty complaint but introducing each character first and last name so they can be refer to as their last name just made me do extra work to remember fictional characters government name and I'm not trying to do that.
October 27, 2024
Dnf 8%
I struggled to get into this due to an abundance of (not particularly likeable) characters and it being written in 3rd person.
Decided to quit when our hero thought that forcibly kissing someone was okay and didn’t understand why the lucky girl might be annoyed.
I struggled to get into this due to an abundance of (not particularly likeable) characters and it being written in 3rd person.
Decided to quit when our hero thought that forcibly kissing someone was okay and didn’t understand why the lucky girl might be annoyed.
October 26, 2024
3.5 ⭐️YA
cheesy but good. The writing wasn’t bad it was just in a style I wasn’t used to.
cheesy but good. The writing wasn’t bad it was just in a style I wasn’t used to.
June 26, 2025
Got through half the book then skimmed the rest.
September 27, 2025
A quick, yet fun romance with lots of tension and angst.
July 23, 2025
3rd person is not my thing. there wasn’t any chemistry and sorry i’m not falling for a guy who thinks it’s okay to randomly kiss girls without knowing them!
January 6, 2025
- 1 ✭ for being written in 3rd person
- 1 ✭ for having the most insufferable and irritating characters ever written
- 1 ✭ for the unconvincing romance
- 1 ✭ for the poorly done "enemies to lovers" trope
I had to fight for my life reading this book. I wanted to DNF but didn't want to ruin my reading challenge for 2024.
- 1 ✭ for having the most insufferable and irritating characters ever written
- 1 ✭ for the unconvincing romance
- 1 ✭ for the poorly done "enemies to lovers" trope
I had to fight for my life reading this book. I wanted to DNF but didn't want to ruin my reading challenge for 2024.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews