3.5 stars
Rounded up (for now) because of the amazing duet-narrated audiobook (extra points for that). Plus. Troy Duran 🥵. That man can read me the dictionary and I’d 🫠. Great choice 😮💨 (and Alexis Paige is amazing too 👏🏻 made me get emotional).
I was enjoying this soooo much… and then an immature scene made me reduce the rating 😒. Sigh. I hope we don’t get the same immature scenes in the next book because I really wanna read Walker’s book.
The book opens up in Layla’s POV (10). She experiences a traumatic event that forever marks her life and her view of herself and her relationships. But she meets a green-eyed boy, Ari (older by a few years I think) who helps her and becomes her friend.
Fast forward to the present. Layla’s name was changed to Blake by her adoptive, toxic parents. She just moved to LA and her current boyfriend wants her to move in with him. But she wants to do things for herself. She’s tired of living under her parents' house and rules, especially because they’re not loving parents 😐. Ever since she’s been a kid, she’s suffered from mental health issues ☹️, many of them stemming from what she experienced as a kid. However, her current parents have exacerbated her mental health issues, and she realizes that she needs to be away from them.
When she’s at a charity event sponsored by her parents, her boyfriend Clark proposes to her 😅 and she says no 😅🫣. Little does she know that the childhood friend she had is about to reenter her life 😅.
Ari sees a billboard with Blake on it. His dream girl from his childhood has finally appeared. He tried looking for her, not realizing that her name had been changed but never found her. He gets traded for a year so that he can temporarily move to California to go after his girl 🫶.
You see; he’s been stalking and spying on her 👀. he’s not going to let distance or her current boyfriend stop him from getting the woman of his life 💅.
Let the bulldozing begin 😈
What I liked/loved: potential spoilers
—the audacity 🤣. Lordt. Give me strength 🤣. The audacity and lack of Fs Ari gives made this book OTT 🤣. Pickpocketing her phone 😅. Blocking her boyfriend’s number and social media 🤣. Hiring her roommate 👀 and others as well 🫣. Vegas trip 😈. Ari is ALLLLL about his Blake, and he’ll stop at no ends to get her 💅
—stalking/spying 👀. I mean. Duh 🤷🏻♀️. This guy makes social media ads look like child’s play compared to what he does 🤣
—the 🔥. Ufffff😮💨. Ari likes it DIIIIIRTAAAYYY. 🫠. About 1/3 of the way through is when the 🔥 magic happens 🥵. And Ari is OBSESSED with making Blake 💦. We need to keep that woman hydrated 🤣
—Ari likes to eat a hearty breakfast 😮💨. Blake’s a lucky girl 🫠🔥💦
—diiiiirty talk 👀. Yup. I’d expect no less Ari 💁🏻♀️
—obsessed with making Blake O 😮💨. He could teach other heroes some lessons 💅
—9 or 10 inches 😳. Umm… and a Jacob’s ladder 😳? I was praying for Blake’s v the entire book 🤣. I DO love that Ari makes sure she’s READY-ready… not just normal ready 😅. Lots of things can tear otherwise 😬. Because she needs all the help she can get 💀
—how realistic mental health is addressed 🫶. This is a hard one because mental health issues aren’t easy to address or digest, and it’s represented well in this book. As someone who’s had people in her life who continually struggle with it, I appreciated the rawness and vulnerability that comes with admitting this. It’s not easy ☹️. It was gut-wrenching going through Blake’s mental state and her insecurities because millions of people also experience the same as her ☹️. There’s no “cure” for it, or an easy “bandage” to fix people. All we can do is try to find ways of helping them cope with it all, and I love how this was portrayed 🫶
—I LOOOOOOVE how Ari makes Blake feel worthy 🫶😭. He protects her, loves her, shelters her, cuts himself for her, all to let her know she’s worth it. She’s important. She’s his soul mate ❤️🫶. He doesn’t downplay the feelings or insecurities but uses them to bolster her qualities, and this was amazing to see 🫶
—ring where? 😅. Yup. There 😳. Ari is so OTT 🤣
—becoming BFFs 🤣. Awww. Not Ari acting like he doesn’t know everything about Blake 😅. I love how Blake is “competing” against Lincoln and Monroe 🤣
—Lincoln and Monroe’s cameos 🫶. I love seeing previous couples and their HEAs❤️
—references to book 1 🤣. Tie her to the bed? 🤣 need help? lol Lincoln and Ari take it to another level
—Ari and Lincoln’s bromance 🤣. I GIGGLED sooooo many times 🤣. These two are thick as thieves 👏🏻. I looooved it ❤️ and then we get introduced to
—call me Mr. Miyagi 💀
—WALKER AKA DISNEY 🫶. Gaaahhh!! I can’t wait to read his book! I mean. He gave me Taylor Swift moves
—SHAKE IT OFF 🤣🤣🤣. 💃🏻 that’s right Walker and Ari 👏🏻 and also 👀
—MINEMINEMINE 👏🏻👀. Dual JP ness 👏🏻
—repealing OW 💅. Not Ari requesting a new coffee cup when a woman writes her number on his coffee cup 🤣 (which is why the 65% scene makes no sense 🤬)
What I didn’t love/HATED: SPOILERS AHEAD
—lack of safety talk 😐. Considering Ari has been a manwhore, I’d like to know he’s clean 😒. Annnnnnd, we don’t even really know the last time Blake was with her boyfriend 😐. I’m really more concerned about Ari though 🤷🏻♀️. He’s the one that’s been hooooaring around while Blake was in a committed relationship, so I’d like to know he’s clean
—THE OW SIGN SCENE AT 65% 😑🤬. Look. I knew Ari was a manhooooar. I was wary of this book because he was a very loose character in book 1, and I HATE, HAAAAAAATE when we get a book for side characters when we’ve been seeing them sowing their wild oats 😐. Up until 65%, I was pleasantly surprised that we weren’t being reminded of how “experienced” Ari was. And then the hockey game with the sign-holding ow scene came up 😐. The ow’s holding a sign where they address Lincoln as someone they’ve been with (more specifically, a sign where they announce they’ve “sucked his d”). Instead of Ari being EMBARRASSED that these women, who one has actually been with ARI not Lincoln, is at the game while the LOVE OF HIS LIFE is at home, he gets UPSET…😐
What. The. 🥴 F???? WHYYYY are you upset that this random woman gets confused??? He addresses Lincoln who giggles at the fact that maybe Ari isn’t as memorable as he thought he was, and Ari gets upset??? 🤦🏻♀️If anything, Ari should be ASHAMED 🤷🏻♀️. He’s being disrespectful to Blake by getting upset about this 🤬.
Do you think I would be happy to know that my boyfriend/hubby is upset that a girl that previously sucked his d confuses him for his best friend????!!! 🤬🤬🤬
Yeah. Nerp. I’D BE PISSSSSSSSED 😑
Blake never finds out about this since she’s not at the game. But still. What. The. Fuuuuuuu!!!!
I bet you if the tables were turned, it would NOT have been done this way 😐. But because this scene is supposed to be funny (🙄🙄🙄🙄), it’s okay?
Nah… nah, BRUH… homie don’t play that 🤬.
^^this isn’t swoony!
If anything, it reminds me of a manhooar telling his buddies who he’s been with and adding another notch to his bedpost versus the way Ari has been characterized this ENTIRE book: an OTT hero who’s all about his woman
IT. DOES. NOT. MAKE. SENSE 😒😑🙄.
And then he goes and marries her when she’s basically out of it (consistent with his character), further proving how SUPERFLUOUS this scene is 😐.
—the cheating 😬. Sigh. I actually felt bad for Clark 🫣. He’s NOT a bad guy. In fact, he actually saved Blake when she attempted suicide at 16. While I get he’s not the MMC, he’s not a terrible person 🤷🏻♀️. Blake doesn’t know she’s technically cheating on Clark because Ari has blocked everything and she hasn’t really been texting Clark (she’s been actually texting Ari), but still 🥴. It left a sour taste in my mouth 😒.
—f’ing in front of Clark 🥴. This was PAINFUL and gave me SECONDHAND EMBARRASSMENT!!! . Whyyy would this EVER be okay!?!?!?!? This was actually pretty f’ed up 🤷🏻♀️. Clark’s already lost Blake, why would it ever be okay to further rub salt into his wound by having him witness Blake and Ari have sex? 🥴Whyyyyy 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️. This is actually making me wanna downgrade this again. Sigh (now, if he was a bad guy, then by all means 🤣🤣🤣. But he’s not 😬) ETA So should Blake go and do the same in front of the girls Ari's f'ed? Imagine... they'd never be able to do anything else.
—the lack of ages 😐. For a second-chance ish romance, I needed some ages somewhere. All we know is that she’s 10 in the past and Ari is slightly older than her. We don’t know how much time has elapsed since they were kids 😑. He’s in the NHL, which means he’s probably in his mid-twenties, right?
Overall, I liked/loved a lot of things, but I also found many things lacking or tacky 🥴
⚠️safety squad⚠️
-no cheating*/sharing/owd* (see line below)
-previous manwhore status: at 66%, we get a reminder of what a huge manhooooar Ari’s been, even Lincoln (H from book 1) when there’s a sign held up by two girls who are boasting about sucking Lincoln’s dick and Ari felt the need to clarify that it was HIS dick that was sucked 🙄
-mental health/anxiety/body dysmorphia
-eating disorder/bulimia
-self-harm/cutting
-parents murder/suicide
-attempted suicide recounted
-unloving parents/gaslighting
-OMD- the h has a boyfriend when the H reappears in her life. The h ends up technically cheating on the OM with the H 😬. There’s OM2 who’s also a hockey player and tries to get aggressive with the h, especially during the threesome scene she walks in on. The H takes care of him 💅 and his teeth 🤷🏻♀️
-biting/marking/praise kink/dual anal play/anal/spanking/cock warming/voyeurism/hand necklace
-no condoms/no safety talk 😐
-no info on the last time either of them had sex. The H is known as a manwhore in Book 1. It seems as if the h has only been with the OM/boyfriend
-HEA/epilogue/months later