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Gods of the Game #1
The Striker
She's the only woman he wants...and the only one he can't have.
Asher Donovan is a living legend―the darling of the Premier League, the (arguably) greatest footballer in the world.
But his reckless antics and recent team transfer have caused much controversy, and when his feud with his rival-turned-teammate costs them a championship, they're forced to "bond" during off-season cross-training.
Surviving the summer shouldn't be hard…until Asher meets their new trainer. She's beautiful, talented, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't take his mind off her.
The only problem? She's his rival's sister―and completely off limits.
***
Scarlett DuBois is a former prima ballerina whose career was cut short by a tragic accident.
Now a teacher at a prestigious dance academy but still haunted by the ghosts of her past, the last thing she wants is to spend the summer cross-training Asher Donovan, of all people.
She swore she would never date a footballer, but when her brother leaves town for an emergency, she finds herself thrown into dangerously close proximity with the gorgeous, charming striker.
Training, she can deal with. But falling in love? That's out of the question―especially when he's the only person with the power to break her heart.
Asher Donovan is a living legend―the darling of the Premier League, the (arguably) greatest footballer in the world.
But his reckless antics and recent team transfer have caused much controversy, and when his feud with his rival-turned-teammate costs them a championship, they're forced to "bond" during off-season cross-training.
Surviving the summer shouldn't be hard…until Asher meets their new trainer. She's beautiful, talented, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't take his mind off her.
The only problem? She's his rival's sister―and completely off limits.
***
Scarlett DuBois is a former prima ballerina whose career was cut short by a tragic accident.
Now a teacher at a prestigious dance academy but still haunted by the ghosts of her past, the last thing she wants is to spend the summer cross-training Asher Donovan, of all people.
She swore she would never date a footballer, but when her brother leaves town for an emergency, she finds herself thrown into dangerously close proximity with the gorgeous, charming striker.
Training, she can deal with. But falling in love? That's out of the question―especially when he's the only person with the power to break her heart.
592 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2024
19362 people are currently reading
125281 people want to read
About the author
Ana Huang
41 books138k followersAna Huang is a #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today & #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of contemporary romance.
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UPCOMING RELEASE:
FULL LIST OF BOOKS:
GODS OF THE GAME SERIES
KINGS OF SIN SERIES
TWISTED SERIES
IF LOVE SERIES
STALK ANA ONLINE:
Newsletter signup ↠ https://anahuang.com/newsletter
Website ↠ www.anahuang.com
Instagram ↠ https://www.instagram.com/authoranahu...
TikTok ↠ https://www.tiktok.com/@authoranahuang
Reader group ↠ https://www.facebook.com/groups/anast...
UPCOMING RELEASE:
FULL LIST OF BOOKS:
GODS OF THE GAME SERIES
KINGS OF SIN SERIES
TWISTED SERIES
IF LOVE SERIES
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 15,227 reviews
November 27, 2024
★ 1.5 stars
three perfect words to describe The Striker: tedious, underwhelming and forgettable.
-ˋˏ ── this review will contain a few spoilers. don’t keep reading it if you haven’t read the book yet or follow at your own risk.
this book was genuinely such a waste of my time. i won’t even lie and say that it had potential because i didn’t even think that before going into it; i expected nothing and guess what she delivered? that’s right, nothing! a whole bunch of nothing.
Ana Huang’s lastest books disappointed me a lot, so deep down i had a feeling that this one would be another disappointment to add to the list which is the reason why i wasn’t expecting much — but even so, i decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and check out her newest novel to see if she had made any improvements. spoiler alert: she did not. there’s nothing new under the sun, this is as disappointing as her most recent books. am i frustrated? well, yes. surprised? not really.
there’s so many things that i disliked here that i honestly don’t even know where to start, so apologies in advance if this gets all over the place. but let’s get into it, shall we?
one of my biggest issues with The Striker was its length. why is it so freaking long? i really don’t get it, nor did i like it. just to be clear, i’m not saying this only because i didn’t like the book; even if i had liked it, i’d still complain about the length because i’m a firm defender that contemporary romances shouldn’t be over 500 pages. it’s just unnecessary and pointless to me. sure, there are a few exceptions out there and at times i can see why some romances have to be lengthy because they have so much to unpack in terms of plot and they actually have an interesting story to tell. however, that was definitely not the case here. i can guarantee you. there wasn’t really a lot of [relevant] stuff to unpack and the plot overall was weak, clunky and shallow. it seemed like the author didn’t even make an effort to come up with an engaging and well thought out plot. needless to say, it was not something that needed to be developed through +600 pages given the fact that it lacked the substance (among other million things) for that.
and, on top of all that, the pacing was off. it was all over the place and i wasn’t a fan of it. sometimes it was way too fast and sometimes it was way too slow, no in between. also, there was so much happening and nothing happening at the same time. we would get a bunch of pages filled with basically ✨ nothingness ✨ and then all of sudden we would get whiplashed with random drama coming out of nowhere (not the good kind of drama, i must point out, so it wasn’t even worth it).
as for the main characters, Scarlett DuBois & Asher Donovan, they were... um... okay? i guess? i won’t bother to write two separated and detailed sections to describe my thoughts about them because i frankly don’t have a lot to say. if you asked me to talk about their personalities or something like that, you’d hear crickets chirping as i wouldn’t be able to come up with anything. all i can tell you is that i didn’t connect with them and i found them both unremarkable, insignificant and bland. that’s it. and while there were times where i found myself getting annoyed at Scarlett and/or Asher, i didn’t particularly feel exactly hatred towards them. the thing is that these two just didn’t captivate me and i couldn’t care less about each one of them. they were not memorable in the slightest.
and what i’m going to say might seem a little obvious, but i couldn’t care less about their romance either. i actually hated it. let me explain it to you why.
↳ firstly, they literally had no chemistry together whatsoever, throughout the story i’d often think “is the chemistry in the room even with us right now? i can’t feel it.” not ironically, i think Asher had more chemistry with Scarlett’s brother [aka his nemesis] than with her, which is... very telling.
↳ secondly, there was nothing exciting about their relationship. i adore forbidden romance, forced proximity, secret relationship and brother’s rival, but the execution of those tropes here was bad, to put it mildly. i’m a bit shocked that Ana Huang managed to fumble some of the best romance tropes out there, she had the formula right there and yet she couldn’t do it justice. Scarlett and Asher’s story didn’t make me feel any spark, didn’t make me swoon, didn’t even make me root for it — i just felt nothing. i kept waiting for that to change so i could see them in a different light, but unfortunately, they never won me over.
↳ thirdly, i think their relationship progressed a little too quickly for my liking. what’s the point of writing a long romance book if you’re going to make the main characters get all over each other so early in the story? please, ms. Huang, explain to me like i’m five because that doesn’t make sense to me. Asher and Scarlett were lusting over each other from the get go — no surprises here as the author is always pulling that — then they had their first kiss not even 30% in (in a +600 pages long book, bear in mind) and not so shortly after they were having sex. what’s even the fun on that? why not develop their relationship a little more slowly and give us more to look forward to? why not deliver a great build-up? there was absolutely no need to rush things. if we’ve had a good slow burn and lots of tension and pining and angst, i guess this book would’ve turned out somewhat decent at least; but sadly, those four things were basically non-existent here.
↳ and fourthly, everything was so predictable. i mean, yeah, this is a contemporary romance novel so it’s not exactly hard to guess what will happen, i know that! but still, it was so annoying here because even the conflicts between them were easy to predict. the third act breakup was the easiest one — you could literally see it coming from a mile away, i’m not exaggerating. and it was absolutely annoying, by the way... i loathe third act breakups, especially stupid third act breakups. why can’t authors just ban them for once and for all? it’s getting old, folks.
so, to conclude this review, let’s state the obvious: The Striker was not worth my time and i disliked every second of it. it’s not the worst book i’ve ever read (trust me, i’ve read worse) but it’s a book that i regret reading.
i thoroughly enjoyed Ana Huang’s work in the past, the Twisted series was good, but all of her books after that have been lackluster and disappointing. i think that maybe it’s time for me to stop reading her work since i feel like i’m not exactly the target audience for it anymore. i’m officially saying goodbye to this author. for now, at least; perhaps in the future i can change my mind about that, who knows? i’m not so hopeful, honestly, but eh... we just have to wait and see.
💌 before we wrap this up, i couldn’t forget to say that the most [probably only] enjoyable thing about this book is that i had the opportunity of buddy reading it with one of my best friends, ivy, and she made the experience less unbearable and slightly more fun. love you, veve! thanks for coming on this journey with me. ♡
⤿ make sure to check out her review as well.
three perfect words to describe The Striker: tedious, underwhelming and forgettable.
-ˋˏ ── this review will contain a few spoilers. don’t keep reading it if you haven’t read the book yet or follow at your own risk.
this book was genuinely such a waste of my time. i won’t even lie and say that it had potential because i didn’t even think that before going into it; i expected nothing and guess what she delivered? that’s right, nothing! a whole bunch of nothing.
Ana Huang’s lastest books disappointed me a lot, so deep down i had a feeling that this one would be another disappointment to add to the list which is the reason why i wasn’t expecting much — but even so, i decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and check out her newest novel to see if she had made any improvements. spoiler alert: she did not. there’s nothing new under the sun, this is as disappointing as her most recent books. am i frustrated? well, yes. surprised? not really.
there’s so many things that i disliked here that i honestly don’t even know where to start, so apologies in advance if this gets all over the place. but let’s get into it, shall we?
one of my biggest issues with The Striker was its length. why is it so freaking long? i really don’t get it, nor did i like it. just to be clear, i’m not saying this only because i didn’t like the book; even if i had liked it, i’d still complain about the length because i’m a firm defender that contemporary romances shouldn’t be over 500 pages. it’s just unnecessary and pointless to me. sure, there are a few exceptions out there and at times i can see why some romances have to be lengthy because they have so much to unpack in terms of plot and they actually have an interesting story to tell. however, that was definitely not the case here. i can guarantee you. there wasn’t really a lot of [relevant] stuff to unpack and the plot overall was weak, clunky and shallow. it seemed like the author didn’t even make an effort to come up with an engaging and well thought out plot. needless to say, it was not something that needed to be developed through +600 pages given the fact that it lacked the substance (among other million things) for that.
and, on top of all that, the pacing was off. it was all over the place and i wasn’t a fan of it. sometimes it was way too fast and sometimes it was way too slow, no in between. also, there was so much happening and nothing happening at the same time. we would get a bunch of pages filled with basically ✨ nothingness ✨ and then all of sudden we would get whiplashed with random drama coming out of nowhere (not the good kind of drama, i must point out, so it wasn’t even worth it).
as for the main characters, Scarlett DuBois & Asher Donovan, they were... um... okay? i guess? i won’t bother to write two separated and detailed sections to describe my thoughts about them because i frankly don’t have a lot to say. if you asked me to talk about their personalities or something like that, you’d hear crickets chirping as i wouldn’t be able to come up with anything. all i can tell you is that i didn’t connect with them and i found them both unremarkable, insignificant and bland. that’s it. and while there were times where i found myself getting annoyed at Scarlett and/or Asher, i didn’t particularly feel exactly hatred towards them. the thing is that these two just didn’t captivate me and i couldn’t care less about each one of them. they were not memorable in the slightest.
and what i’m going to say might seem a little obvious, but i couldn’t care less about their romance either. i actually hated it. let me explain it to you why.
↳ firstly, they literally had no chemistry together whatsoever, throughout the story i’d often think “is the chemistry in the room even with us right now? i can’t feel it.” not ironically, i think Asher had more chemistry with Scarlett’s brother [aka his nemesis] than with her, which is... very telling.
↳ secondly, there was nothing exciting about their relationship. i adore forbidden romance, forced proximity, secret relationship and brother’s rival, but the execution of those tropes here was bad, to put it mildly. i’m a bit shocked that Ana Huang managed to fumble some of the best romance tropes out there, she had the formula right there and yet she couldn’t do it justice. Scarlett and Asher’s story didn’t make me feel any spark, didn’t make me swoon, didn’t even make me root for it — i just felt nothing. i kept waiting for that to change so i could see them in a different light, but unfortunately, they never won me over.
↳ thirdly, i think their relationship progressed a little too quickly for my liking. what’s the point of writing a long romance book if you’re going to make the main characters get all over each other so early in the story? please, ms. Huang, explain to me like i’m five because that doesn’t make sense to me. Asher and Scarlett were lusting over each other from the get go — no surprises here as the author is always pulling that — then they had their first kiss not even 30% in (in a +600 pages long book, bear in mind) and not so shortly after they were having sex. what’s even the fun on that? why not develop their relationship a little more slowly and give us more to look forward to? why not deliver a great build-up? there was absolutely no need to rush things. if we’ve had a good slow burn and lots of tension and pining and angst, i guess this book would’ve turned out somewhat decent at least; but sadly, those four things were basically non-existent here.
↳ and fourthly, everything was so predictable. i mean, yeah, this is a contemporary romance novel so it’s not exactly hard to guess what will happen, i know that! but still, it was so annoying here because even the conflicts between them were easy to predict. the third act breakup was the easiest one — you could literally see it coming from a mile away, i’m not exaggerating. and it was absolutely annoying, by the way... i loathe third act breakups, especially stupid third act breakups. why can’t authors just ban them for once and for all? it’s getting old, folks.
so, to conclude this review, let’s state the obvious: The Striker was not worth my time and i disliked every second of it. it’s not the worst book i’ve ever read (trust me, i’ve read worse) but it’s a book that i regret reading.
i thoroughly enjoyed Ana Huang’s work in the past, the Twisted series was good, but all of her books after that have been lackluster and disappointing. i think that maybe it’s time for me to stop reading her work since i feel like i’m not exactly the target audience for it anymore. i’m officially saying goodbye to this author. for now, at least; perhaps in the future i can change my mind about that, who knows? i’m not so hopeful, honestly, but eh... we just have to wait and see.
💌 before we wrap this up, i couldn’t forget to say that the most [probably only] enjoyable thing about this book is that i had the opportunity of buddy reading it with one of my best friends, ivy, and she made the experience less unbearable and slightly more fun. love you, veve! thanks for coming on this journey with me. ♡
⤿ make sure to check out her review as well.
October 28, 2024
This book made me feel ✨Nothing✨
Look I enjoy Ana's books a lot, twisted was one of the series that helped me get into reading romance novels because they were fun, cute, easy to read and short!! Her series Kings of sins has been okay so far but they were all being recycled so I was so happy when I found out that she was writing a sports romance INSTEAD of another billionaire romance but 👹
BRING BACK 300-400 PAGED ROMANCE BOOKS 🙏🏼
This had no reason to be 700 pages long?? like its was literally so long and I thought that maybe there would be something fun that she had planned because she was hyping it so much but there was ✨nothing✨ it was all yap no slap. The writing style was so weird?? like the more books that I read from hers the more distant I feel...this is not the writing that I was a fan of 😔 Its sad because she was one of my auto buy authors and four consecutive disappointing releases aren't helping her.
Now onto the main problems:
. Literally nothing of substance happening in 700 pages like there were cute moments but when the book is feeling sloppy getting long even the cute scenes feel boring like I dont skim but there was a point where I started skimming because it was just getting to annoying. What happened to planning? what happened to editing?
. The characters, now they might be the ones that made the book bearable for me but if you honestly look at it they only had a few (emphasis on few) cute scenes and worked somewhat well together (which they were for a significant amount of time) but if you separate them from each other and see them as individual characters you will see nothing because there was nothing to see!! character development was found dead 😒 you're telling me that there's zero development in 700 pages?? the character were the same at the end as they were on page 1, they were so one dimensional ISTG like I need good characters. Asher was a good MMC but he was just good not great or anything extra ordinary, I liked the gestures that he did tho and Scarlett ??? thats all I can say because ????
. This book was so damn predictable and like you would say Clace this is a romance novel and I KNOWWW but still its like?? I know whats gonna happen from the first page why should I bother reading it?? its not like there's anything fun or cute happening. Like I love reading cliche 2000's romcoms because at least they're fun to read and they're short with thing that actually enjoy this was the exact opposite of that. It had everything to be honest brothers rival, forbidden romance, sports, training coach but failing to deliver at those tropes is embarrassing
. The romance, Where??? where was it?? sorry for being repetitive but they have sex on page 200 out of a 700 paged book and it was so mid like it made me feel bored and I skimmed it because there was insta lust, the classic I just met him why am I already hard/wet for him/her and then them fucking but they had like zero chemistry, zero tension, zero angst, zero pining, zero banter so the romance was overall zero like spicy scenes are Ana's strong suit but they were all so mid. I think there are four- five scenes and only one ( the mirror scene) was fun to read the other were pfft 👎🏻 Vincent (scarletts brother) had more chemistry than her and Asher.
. The plot, 😂😂😂😂 WHERE???
. The third act break up 😭😭 it was so dumb and unnecessary, it made no sense and it was so messy the whole overall conflict of this book was dumb and messy like please dont write about things if you dont actually feel about it and everything about it was so inconsistent like Asher racing plot line and even scarletts crash one. Also talk about being forgiveness 😍 like what the fuck was that scarlett?? if that is all it takes for her to forgive Asher, he'll be getting out of many thing.
. The side characters, Vincent was the only one I liked. Brooklyn and Carina were so mid even Adil and the other guy LIKE why is it so hard for you guys to write about fun, enjoyable side characters???
This was easily Ana's most dumbest, snooziest, boring, frustrating book to date. I have never been this disappointed in her like WHYYY and I was so excited that the next book was vincents...but my expectations are on the floor.
___
I have never read a football romance so I'm SUPER EXCITED 🤭 also wanted Ana to venture of into something new 🙂↕️
___
Brother's rival is such a goated trope!! Ana you must ace it 😤
___
The way Ana's serving with all the Asher scenes in king of sloth 😌
___
Ana Huang writing a football romance wasn't on my 2023 radar but I'll gladly add it 🫡
----> Fall 2024 will be my time 🤭
Look I enjoy Ana's books a lot, twisted was one of the series that helped me get into reading romance novels because they were fun, cute, easy to read and short!! Her series Kings of sins has been okay so far but they were all being recycled so I was so happy when I found out that she was writing a sports romance INSTEAD of another billionaire romance but 👹
BRING BACK 300-400 PAGED ROMANCE BOOKS 🙏🏼
This had no reason to be 700 pages long?? like its was literally so long and I thought that maybe there would be something fun that she had planned because she was hyping it so much but there was ✨nothing✨ it was all yap no slap. The writing style was so weird?? like the more books that I read from hers the more distant I feel...this is not the writing that I was a fan of 😔 Its sad because she was one of my auto buy authors and four consecutive disappointing releases aren't helping her.
Now onto the main problems:
. Literally nothing of substance happening in 700 pages like there were cute moments but when the book is feeling sloppy getting long even the cute scenes feel boring like I dont skim but there was a point where I started skimming because it was just getting to annoying. What happened to planning? what happened to editing?
. The characters, now they might be the ones that made the book bearable for me but if you honestly look at it they only had a few (emphasis on few) cute scenes and worked somewhat well together (which they were for a significant amount of time) but if you separate them from each other and see them as individual characters you will see nothing because there was nothing to see!! character development was found dead 😒 you're telling me that there's zero development in 700 pages?? the character were the same at the end as they were on page 1, they were so one dimensional ISTG like I need good characters. Asher was a good MMC but he was just good not great or anything extra ordinary, I liked the gestures that he did tho and Scarlett ??? thats all I can say because ????
. This book was so damn predictable and like you would say Clace this is a romance novel and I KNOWWW but still its like?? I know whats gonna happen from the first page why should I bother reading it?? its not like there's anything fun or cute happening. Like I love reading cliche 2000's romcoms because at least they're fun to read and they're short with thing that actually enjoy this was the exact opposite of that. It had everything to be honest brothers rival, forbidden romance, sports, training coach but failing to deliver at those tropes is embarrassing
. The romance, Where??? where was it?? sorry for being repetitive but they have sex on page 200 out of a 700 paged book and it was so mid like it made me feel bored and I skimmed it because there was insta lust, the classic I just met him why am I already hard/wet for him/her and then them fucking but they had like zero chemistry, zero tension, zero angst, zero pining, zero banter so the romance was overall zero like spicy scenes are Ana's strong suit but they were all so mid. I think there are four- five scenes and only one ( the mirror scene) was fun to read the other were pfft 👎🏻 Vincent (scarletts brother) had more chemistry than her and Asher.
. The plot, 😂😂😂😂 WHERE???
. The third act break up 😭😭 it was so dumb and unnecessary, it made no sense and it was so messy the whole overall conflict of this book was dumb and messy like please dont write about things if you dont actually feel about it and everything about it was so inconsistent like Asher racing plot line and even scarletts crash one. Also talk about being forgiveness 😍 like what the fuck was that scarlett?? if that is all it takes for her to forgive Asher, he'll be getting out of many thing.
. The side characters, Vincent was the only one I liked. Brooklyn and Carina were so mid even Adil and the other guy LIKE why is it so hard for you guys to write about fun, enjoyable side characters???
This was easily Ana's most dumbest, snooziest, boring, frustrating book to date. I have never been this disappointed in her like WHYYY and I was so excited that the next book was vincents...but my expectations are on the floor.
___
I have never read a football romance so I'm SUPER EXCITED 🤭 also wanted Ana to venture of into something new 🙂↕️
___
Brother's rival is such a goated trope!! Ana you must ace it 😤
___
The way Ana's serving with all the Asher scenes in king of sloth 😌
___
Ana Huang writing a football romance wasn't on my 2023 radar but I'll gladly add it 🫡
----> Fall 2024 will be my time 🤭
October 22, 2024
vincent and asher had more chemistry. i said what i said.
October 28, 2024
This could’ve been an email
December 5, 2024
what happened to the original plot of the movie?
November 3, 2025
At first I like 600 pages is A LOOT, but the last half of the book was kidna worth it tbh. Either way I will EAT IP EVERYTHING THIS WOMAN WRITES
Read
November 3, 2024it’s with a heavy heart i announce that i am dnf’ing this 😭
i’m so sorry 😭😭😭😭😭
i’m so sorry 😭😭😭😭😭
February 28, 2025
i do in fact have more chemistry with my toilet.
upcoming-releases
May 17, 2024Brother's rival 😋 ??!!? She better not disappoint me like she did in kos series!
SOCCER ROMANCE???? ANA HUANG??? FALL 2024???? SHUT UP YOU ALLL WE ARE GETTING ASHER DONAVAN'S BOOK!!!!!!!! FINALYYYYYY
SOCCER ROMANCE???? ANA HUANG??? FALL 2024???? SHUT UP YOU ALLL WE ARE GETTING ASHER DONAVAN'S BOOK!!!!!!!! FINALYYYYYY
October 25, 2024
boring.
October 31, 2025
So painfully mid.
March 19, 2025
1.5 stars
this review will contain no spoilers! please remember, this is my opinion. i'll never judge you for liking something that i didn't, so i'd like the same for me <3
tropes
➳ sports romance
➳ brother's rival
➳ forced proximity
⚽┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 the striker follows asher donovan and scarlett dubois as trainee and trainer, respectively. asher is a famous football star and scarlett is an ex-prima ballerina. scarlett's brother vincent and asher hate each other, which proves to be a big problem throughout this book. anyways.. the way i was yawning while reading this needs to be studied. because what was this?!? ana, you had the chance to do something totally different, and yet to chose to follow the same basic format and make the book 600 pages long. this book had no reason to be this long, especially when all the "plot twists" were extremely predictable and unexciting. like, i promise, you can guess the third act breakup 300 pages before it happens 😭.
🚗┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 asher donovan was the most immature and spoiled nepo baby ever. he doesn't care about anyone's opinions, he just did dumb things to have fun and didn't care about any of his loved one's feelings. he was just honestly so bland. i have nothing else to say because ana didn't give me anything else to say.
🩰┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 scarlett dubois.. yawn. she was a strong character in the first 80% of the book like most ana huang women are, but of course, after the third act breakup, she forgave him after 3 pages and became a doormat. i guess her ballerina redemption arc was .. okay .. but it was just a tiny little thing that i think ana added to make the story more interesting.
❌┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 my problems with this book:
- the LENGTH?!? this had zero reason to be even 400 pages. this honestly could've been a novella .. most of the book was hiding from scarlett's brother
- the dumb third act breakup. i saw it coming miles away, hoped that wasn't it, and it happened. it's genuinely SO dumb.
- the boring, bland characters
🟣┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃some quotes:
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ “does she know what an idiot she’s dating?” “yes, sir, and she loves me anyway.” scarlett please run away when you get the chance bby
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ “now i found out the girl i couldn’t stop thinking about was related to my biggest rival. the universe had a sick sense of humor.” one of the most annoying tropes tbh
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ “asher laughed. “scarlett, this is jules, an old friend of mine.” “And this is josh, my boyfriend,” jules added, gesturing at the man beside her.” the joshjules appearance was the highlight of this book 🥹💓🥹💓
thank you so so much to bru for br with me, love you to the moon and to saturn bbg 💜
this review will contain no spoilers! please remember, this is my opinion. i'll never judge you for liking something that i didn't, so i'd like the same for me <3
tropes
➳ sports romance
➳ brother's rival
➳ forced proximity
⚽┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 the striker follows asher donovan and scarlett dubois as trainee and trainer, respectively. asher is a famous football star and scarlett is an ex-prima ballerina. scarlett's brother vincent and asher hate each other, which proves to be a big problem throughout this book. anyways.. the way i was yawning while reading this needs to be studied. because what was this?!? ana, you had the chance to do something totally different, and yet to chose to follow the same basic format and make the book 600 pages long. this book had no reason to be this long, especially when all the "plot twists" were extremely predictable and unexciting. like, i promise, you can guess the third act breakup 300 pages before it happens 😭.
🚗┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 asher donovan was the most immature and spoiled nepo baby ever. he doesn't care about anyone's opinions, he just did dumb things to have fun and didn't care about any of his loved one's feelings. he was just honestly so bland. i have nothing else to say because ana didn't give me anything else to say.
🩰┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 scarlett dubois.. yawn. she was a strong character in the first 80% of the book like most ana huang women are, but of course, after the third act breakup, she forgave him after 3 pages and became a doormat. i guess her ballerina redemption arc was .. okay .. but it was just a tiny little thing that i think ana added to make the story more interesting.
❌┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 my problems with this book:
- the LENGTH?!? this had zero reason to be even 400 pages. this honestly could've been a novella .. most of the book was hiding from scarlett's brother
- the dumb third act breakup. i saw it coming miles away, hoped that wasn't it, and it happened. it's genuinely SO dumb.
- the boring, bland characters
🟣┊𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃some quotes:
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ “does she know what an idiot she’s dating?” “yes, sir, and she loves me anyway.” scarlett please run away when you get the chance bby
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ “now i found out the girl i couldn’t stop thinking about was related to my biggest rival. the universe had a sick sense of humor.” one of the most annoying tropes tbh
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ “asher laughed. “scarlett, this is jules, an old friend of mine.” “And this is josh, my boyfriend,” jules added, gesturing at the man beside her.” the joshjules appearance was the highlight of this book 🥹💓🥹💓
thank you so so much to bru for br with me, love you to the moon and to saturn bbg 💜
January 23, 2025
I give this book 1 star pluto,darling😙Scarlett would be happy to read this review lol
Y'all I'm soooo happy BCZ THIS BOOK FINALLY ENDED(without any storyline is silent)
INNA LILLAHI WA INNA ILAYHI RAJI'UN
Buried this book before it would've resulted in my burial...
God knows how i read the laaaaast "65%" of the book YEAHHH🙂
Disclaimer like always don't take my review to🫀🫁🧠
This book literally had potential until 35% idk what happened after that(i do know we'll come to it later) it was going so good in the beginning like the ups and downs in their career, good writing, cute meetup, her being his trainer, fmc giving mmc hard time, the tension even tho it was insta love it should have been like that...but NAHHH they literally went all the way at almost near 38% like are you f*cking kidding me what I'm supposed to do now I WOULD LITERALLY HAVE NO PROBLEM EVEN IF THEY HAD DONE IT AT FIRST PAGE BUT AT LEAST GIVE ME SMTH AFTER THAT...IT FELT LIKE I WAS READING AN EPILOGUE from 38℅ to so on like if nothing else she could have extended that clive or rafael sh*t but nope...
And DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW THEY BOTH WERE PUTTING EVERY SINGLE THING ON TOMORROW...tomorrow mah a$$...MAJOR REASON THIS BOOK WAS SO LONG...
tho they didn't leave anything which they didn't put on tomorrow but I literally wanted to beat asher and scarlett up(if she wasn't in hospital obv) alongside Vincent cuz bro WHO DELAYS THAT MUCH...WHY DELAY THAT MUCH...HOW DELAY THAT MUCH...WHAT DELAY THAT MUCH...?!?!
And EXCUSE MEEEEEE the AUDACITY of Asher to break that promise I LITERALLY THROWED MY PHONE(ON BED OFC🙂) AND if i was his coach i would've kicked him out and took the money of transfer from him too...HE'S NOT MY TYPE PASS NEXT👽
The length was also making me forget stuff like who was the captain, why her parents weren't together, and other stuff and names like pLeeeaaZe🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Now the TEDDY stuff i wanted to cry so bad bcz that scenario always gets me but i didn't idky...her writing didn't let me...
And what's with asher and clive meeting her everywhere she goes and ik it's not just this novel it happens in every f*cking one like bro the world isn't that small i find it difficult to relate when i haven't even met my classmates outside of school ever (um well maybe 2 times IN 14 YEARS)
The spice was 2.5-3/5
----･༓☾🏎️⚽ 🥅🩰🎼🪐📸📚🦖💬🍻🚁☽༓･----
Gave 1 star bcz of
●the good start
●Bromance
●Dates
Deducted 4 stars bcz of
●Unnecessary length(my biology book is laughing at me rn)
●No plot or story line (I'm fine with a novel having no plot but at least give me good romance)
●No good quotes (i got no butterflies after ⅓ of this book)
●No tension at all after YOU KNOW NOW
ASHER x VINCENT HAD MORE TENSION THAN THEM hell even her dad and his nurse had more tension y'all I'm sorry all that forbidden recs is making me say that sh*t🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
●the writing got mediocre in the mid and what was with that ELEPHANT TENSION SHIT
Side characters
#1 fav ℕ𝕆𝔸ℍ 𝕎𝕀𝕃𝕊𝕆ℕ (grumpy single dad💳💥💳💥) he's goalie btw and iii thiiiink it's gonna be noah x nanny (tho don't quote me on that)
#2 fav 𝕍𝕌𝕂 𝕄𝔸ℝ𝕂𝕆𝕍𝕀ℂ i don't think he'll get a book as he is the owner of the team...tho I'll be happy my imagination is better🙂🤚🏻
#3 fav 𝔸𝔻𝕀𝕃 (Reads erotica, president of book club, has good sense of humour and he also doesn't drink what a gentleman) Their GC was the best thing in the book F*** ROMANCE WHEN YOU HAVE BROMANCE
#4 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕝𝕪𝕟 Baddie
#5 𝕍𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕟𝕥 (he has buzz cut yall🥵)
#6 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕒
And I AM EXCITED FOR VINCENT X BROOKLYN bcz when i was such a football fan i had this fantasy like footballer x staff worker i just hope she doesn't destroy it like that and the way she had shown here HOW BROOKLYN IS A HARD NUT TO CRACK it remains that way like plz don't let her give in so easily as was the case in this book...
I'm gonna add some of my updates here(so that you can see my sentiments/frustation all along) if u don't mind...
At 31℅ All things aside why is it too long like almost 600 PAGES😵💫 You'll find me here🪦soon...
She didn't need to tell us after every para that how does it feel to have tingles whenever you see ur fav person👽
___________________
At 44% I'm jealous they are gonna read Triceratops and Threesomes(some dino erotica💀) and I'm stuck with their already finished love story 👽 it's not fair😤
__________________
At 62℅ "There’s Shibuya,..."
Domain Expansion Malevolent Shrine🙏🏻~Sukuna
TATA BYE BYE👋🏻😤
(Hint: only jjk fans can understand)
__________________
At 80% "You want to race? Fine. Let’s race right now.”
Where's my chappal/slipper ?!?!?! 🙂=🤬
__________________
Some motivation for y'all😇I'M SERIOUS🙂🫵
➷To loving every version of yourself, even the ones you want to leave behind.
➷"the practices wouldn’t be for anyone else. They would be for you."
➷“We all have ugly feelings sometimes. It’s a part of human nature. But it’s what we do with them that counts."
➷"If we think we’re perfect and there’s nothing we can improve on, we’ll never grow."
__________________
In Short,throughout The Whole Book I Was Waiting For Smth To Happen And Guess What???
It Didn't🤡 anddd ohhhh i forgot one thing likeee excuse me SHE DIDN'T EVEN SHOW US HER PERFORMANCE FROM HIS POV.. Ana succeeded in playing a PRANK on me😇
And lastly I wanna say if i was in a book slump before idk what I'm in now after reading this💀
__________________
Pre-read :I haven't read the King of Sin series yet...but here I am🙃
Y'all I'm soooo happy BCZ THIS BOOK FINALLY ENDED(without any storyline is silent)
INNA LILLAHI WA INNA ILAYHI RAJI'UN
God knows how i read the laaaaast "65%" of the book YEAHHH🙂
Disclaimer like always don't take my review to🫀🫁🧠
This book literally had potential until 35% idk what happened after that(i do know we'll come to it later) it was going so good in the beginning like the ups and downs in their career, good writing, cute meetup, her being his trainer, fmc giving mmc hard time, the tension even tho it was insta love it should have been like that...but NAHHH they literally went all the way at almost near 38% like are you f*cking kidding me what I'm supposed to do now I WOULD LITERALLY HAVE NO PROBLEM EVEN IF THEY HAD DONE IT AT FIRST PAGE BUT AT LEAST GIVE ME SMTH AFTER THAT...IT FELT LIKE I WAS READING AN EPILOGUE from 38℅ to so on like if nothing else she could have extended that clive or rafael sh*t but nope...
And DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW THEY BOTH WERE PUTTING EVERY SINGLE THING ON TOMORROW...
tho they didn't leave anything which they didn't put on tomorrow but I literally wanted to beat asher and scarlett up(if she wasn't in hospital obv) alongside Vincent cuz bro WHO DELAYS THAT MUCH...WHY DELAY THAT MUCH...HOW DELAY THAT MUCH...WHAT DELAY THAT MUCH...?!?!
And EXCUSE MEEEEEE the AUDACITY of Asher to break that promise I LITERALLY THROWED MY PHONE(ON BED OFC🙂) AND if i was his coach i would've kicked him out and took the money of transfer from him too...HE'S NOT MY TYPE PASS NEXT👽
The length was also making me forget stuff like who was the captain, why her parents weren't together, and other stuff and names like pLeeeaaZe🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Now the TEDDY stuff i wanted to cry so bad bcz that scenario always gets me but i didn't idky...her writing didn't let me...
And what's with asher and clive meeting her everywhere she goes and ik it's not just this novel it happens in every f*cking one like bro the world isn't that small i find it difficult to relate when i haven't even met my classmates outside of school ever (um well maybe 2 times IN 14 YEARS)
The spice was 2.5-3/5
----･༓☾🏎️⚽ 🥅🩰🎼🪐📸📚🦖💬🍻🚁☽༓･----
Gave 1 star bcz of
●the good start
●Bromance
●Dates
Deducted 4 stars bcz of
●Unnecessary length(my biology book is laughing at me rn)
●No plot or story line (I'm fine with a novel having no plot but at least give me good romance)
●No good quotes (i got no butterflies after ⅓ of this book)
●No tension at all after YOU KNOW NOW
ASHER x VINCENT HAD MORE TENSION THAN THEM hell even her dad and his nurse had more tension y'all I'm sorry all that forbidden recs is making me say that sh*t🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
●the writing got mediocre in the mid and what was with that ELEPHANT TENSION SHIT
Side characters
#1 fav ℕ𝕆𝔸ℍ 𝕎𝕀𝕃𝕊𝕆ℕ (grumpy single dad💳💥💳💥) he's goalie btw and iii thiiiink it's gonna be noah x nanny (tho don't quote me on that)
#2 fav 𝕍𝕌𝕂 𝕄𝔸ℝ𝕂𝕆𝕍𝕀ℂ i don't think he'll get a book as he is the owner of the team...tho I'll be happy my imagination is better🙂🤚🏻
#3 fav 𝔸𝔻𝕀𝕃 (Reads erotica, president of book club, has good sense of humour and he also doesn't drink what a gentleman) Their GC was the best thing in the book F*** ROMANCE WHEN YOU HAVE BROMANCE
#4 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕝𝕪𝕟 Baddie
#5 𝕍𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕟𝕥 (he has buzz cut yall🥵)
#6 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕒
And I AM EXCITED FOR VINCENT X BROOKLYN bcz when i was such a football fan i had this fantasy like footballer x staff worker i just hope she doesn't destroy it like that and the way she had shown here HOW BROOKLYN IS A HARD NUT TO CRACK it remains that way like plz don't let her give in so easily as was the case in this book...
I'm gonna add some of my updates here(so that you can see my sentiments/frustation all along) if u don't mind...
At 31℅ All things aside why is it too long like almost 600 PAGES😵💫 You'll find me here🪦soon...
She didn't need to tell us after every para that how does it feel to have tingles whenever you see ur fav person👽
___________________
At 44% I'm jealous they are gonna read Triceratops and Threesomes(some dino erotica💀) and I'm stuck with their already finished love story 👽 it's not fair😤
__________________
At 62℅ "There’s Shibuya,..."
Domain Expansion Malevolent Shrine🙏🏻~Sukuna
TATA BYE BYE👋🏻😤
(Hint: only jjk fans can understand)
__________________
At 80% "You want to race? Fine. Let’s race right now.”
Where's my chappal/slipper ?!?!?! 🙂=🤬
__________________
Some motivation for y'all😇I'M SERIOUS🙂🫵
➷To loving every version of yourself, even the ones you want to leave behind.
➷"the practices wouldn’t be for anyone else. They would be for you."
➷“We all have ugly feelings sometimes. It’s a part of human nature. But it’s what we do with them that counts."
➷"If we think we’re perfect and there’s nothing we can improve on, we’ll never grow."
__________________
In Short,throughout The Whole Book I Was Waiting For Smth To Happen And Guess What???
It Didn't🤡 anddd ohhhh i forgot one thing likeee excuse me SHE DIDN'T EVEN SHOW US HER PERFORMANCE FROM HIS POV.. Ana succeeded in playing a PRANK on me😇
And lastly I wanna say if i was in a book slump before idk what I'm in now after reading this💀
__________________
Pre-read :I haven't read the King of Sin series yet...but here I am🙃
Want to read
October 29, 2024I knew we'd get JoshJules cameo ehhehe 🤭🤭
“Asher laughed. “Scarlett, this is Jules, an old friend of mine.”
“And this is Josh, my boyfriend,” Jules added, gesturing at the man beside her.
“It’s great to meet you.” Josh gave me a warm smile that revealed a devastating set of dimples. However, his smile visibly cooled when he glanced at Asher. “Donovan.”
Asher looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Josh. Always a pleasure.”
“We were on our way to our seats when I spotted you. I told him it was you, but he insisted it wasn’t. See?” Jules elbowed Josh in the side. “I was right.”
“You were.” He didn’t sound particularly thrilled.
Josh slid an arm around Jules’s waist and glared at Asher while we chatted during our wait for curtains up.
It turned out the American couple was on holiday from D.C. Asher met them at Queen Bridget’s wedding a couple of years ago (I still couldn’t believe he’d been a guest at the royal wedding of the century), and they’d kept in touch since.
Well, he and Jules kept in touch. I could tell by Josh’s scowl that he was not an Asher fan.”
****
I think this might be the longest book Ana has written after twisted lies because !!! 535 pages !!! and the way she hyped it sm, i guess it's her favourite too 🤷🏻♀️🤭
I knew that after Asher, it's gonna be Vincent Dubois' book and yayaya i was right! I really want to read this one, but i'm on a slump and no matter what, i can't get out of it 😢
“Asher laughed. “Scarlett, this is Jules, an old friend of mine.”
“And this is Josh, my boyfriend,” Jules added, gesturing at the man beside her.
“It’s great to meet you.” Josh gave me a warm smile that revealed a devastating set of dimples. However, his smile visibly cooled when he glanced at Asher. “Donovan.”
Asher looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Josh. Always a pleasure.”
“We were on our way to our seats when I spotted you. I told him it was you, but he insisted it wasn’t. See?” Jules elbowed Josh in the side. “I was right.”
“You were.” He didn’t sound particularly thrilled.
Josh slid an arm around Jules’s waist and glared at Asher while we chatted during our wait for curtains up.
It turned out the American couple was on holiday from D.C. Asher met them at Queen Bridget’s wedding a couple of years ago (I still couldn’t believe he’d been a guest at the royal wedding of the century), and they’d kept in touch since.
Well, he and Jules kept in touch. I could tell by Josh’s scowl that he was not an Asher fan.”
****
I think this might be the longest book Ana has written after twisted lies because !!! 535 pages !!! and the way she hyped it sm, i guess it's her favourite too 🤷🏻♀️🤭
I knew that after Asher, it's gonna be Vincent Dubois' book and yayaya i was right! I really want to read this one, but i'm on a slump and no matter what, i can't get out of it 😢
October 26, 2024
“𝑷𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈,” 𝑰 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒅. 𝑴𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒂𝒓. “𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕.”
YES. YES. YES. And just for good measure YES. Asher Donovan is a MAN! 😍
This book might be thick, but if you love tension, sports romance, and a flirty MMC, you'll be all over this!! The 5 star rating? Fully earned duh not only for introducing a new sports romance series after the author has been slaying in contemporary romance but because this love story (besides being utterly adorable) has depth. It talks about trauma, self-worth and communication freaking loved it all.
You have Asher Donovan transferring to Blackcastle mid-season, and after butting heads too much with his teammate and rival Vincent, the coach gives them one solution during the off-season: they must get along, or ELSE. What better way to bond than training with the Royal Ballet Academy, where their trainer just so happens to be Vincent's sister, Scarlett? 🩰⚽ I wonder what could happen if Asher and Scarlett end up alone... without Vincent... hehehehe. 👀
The flirting, the tension, the chemistry you can see it ALL!!! AGHHH. It’s making me want to do a reread like right now!
“𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄?”
“𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄.” 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒓’𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏. “𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇����𝒆𝒍 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖?”
“𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕.”
“𝑵𝒐,” 𝑰 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅. “𝑰𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕.”
things I likedˏˋ°•*⁀➷
the ballerina + soccer crossover
the bathtub scene 💦
"hold on tight." 🫠
when he can’t stop thinking about her 🥹
their first kiss 🔥
I hope these little breadcrumbs tempt you to read the book. Oh, and speaking of breadcrumbs..if you love her other books, let's just say the author knows how to sneak in pop culture references. But it’s "her" pop culture, iykyk.
tropes:
💜sports romance
💜secret relationship (semi)
💜banter and steamy
💜brother's rival
💜taboo-ish romance
Thank you Ana Huang for giving me a gifted copy!
⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.
𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅DON’T ASK ME HOW I HAVE AN ARC BUT I HAVE AND IM DROPPING EVERYTHING TO START THIS SCREAMS
i need this book in my hands now.
YES. YES. YES. And just for good measure YES. Asher Donovan is a MAN! 😍
This book might be thick, but if you love tension, sports romance, and a flirty MMC, you'll be all over this!! The 5 star rating? Fully earned duh not only for introducing a new sports romance series after the author has been slaying in contemporary romance but because this love story (besides being utterly adorable) has depth. It talks about trauma, self-worth and communication freaking loved it all.
You have Asher Donovan transferring to Blackcastle mid-season, and after butting heads too much with his teammate and rival Vincent, the coach gives them one solution during the off-season: they must get along, or ELSE. What better way to bond than training with the Royal Ballet Academy, where their trainer just so happens to be Vincent's sister, Scarlett? 🩰⚽ I wonder what could happen if Asher and Scarlett end up alone... without Vincent... hehehehe. 👀
The flirting, the tension, the chemistry you can see it ALL!!! AGHHH. It’s making me want to do a reread like right now!
“𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄?”
“𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄.” 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒓’𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏. “𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇����𝒆𝒍 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖?”
“𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕.”
“𝑵𝒐,” 𝑰 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅. “𝑰𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕.”
things I likedˏˋ°•*⁀➷
the ballerina + soccer crossover
the bathtub scene 💦
"hold on tight." 🫠
when he can’t stop thinking about her 🥹
their first kiss 🔥
I hope these little breadcrumbs tempt you to read the book. Oh, and speaking of breadcrumbs..if you love her other books, let's just say the author knows how to sneak in pop culture references. But it’s "her" pop culture, iykyk.
tropes:
💜sports romance
💜secret relationship (semi)
💜banter and steamy
💜brother's rival
💜taboo-ish romance
Thank you Ana Huang for giving me a gifted copy!
⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.
𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅DON’T ASK ME HOW I HAVE AN ARC BUT I HAVE AND IM DROPPING EVERYTHING TO START THIS SCREAMS
i need this book in my hands now.
November 4, 2024
the trouble with reading 3 romances in a particular subgenre back to back is that you see what works and what doesn't. and this one was kind of a goldilocks but not in a good way.
it wasn't void of depth or emotion. but it didn't go to places i thought were special. it wasn't super serious but it also wasn't light hearted and fun.
and i think therein lies the problem for me as a reader. i want something easy breezy or i want the melodrama, the hand flexing angst. and i didn't get either here. which does not make a book BAD. there weren't any glaring writing or plot or character issues. i just wasn't obsessed like i wanted to be.
it wasn't void of depth or emotion. but it didn't go to places i thought were special. it wasn't super serious but it also wasn't light hearted and fun.
and i think therein lies the problem for me as a reader. i want something easy breezy or i want the melodrama, the hand flexing angst. and i didn't get either here. which does not make a book BAD. there weren't any glaring writing or plot or character issues. i just wasn't obsessed like i wanted to be.
October 23, 2024
thank god british people aren’t real
November 7, 2025
“I’ve been here since day one, darling. I was simply waiting for you to join me.”
ৎ⋆｡‧📖‧ 6.0★
𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴:
"(break my heart - dua lipa)"
0:09 ━●────────── 3:41
ㅤ ㅤ◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ ㅤ
full playlist:
─ spoiler review
⋆˙⟡ my thoughts
This book is perfection to me. Both characters are extremely lovable
⋆˙⟡ characters
SCARLETT🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
⤿ greenlight - tate mcrae
I don't know how to explain this because she is literally a BOOK character but she gives off black swan energy. Her story also hurt so bad, the way asher made a promise to her that he wouldn't race anymore BECAUSE SHE GOT IN A CAR CRASH AND GOT CHRONIC PAIN AND SHE DIDN'T CHOOSE FOR THAT BUT BY RACING ASHER PUT HIMSELF IN DANGER ON PURPOSE AND SHE SCARED SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN TO HIM, no thank you I still want to have my heart not in broken pieces😊.
“Do you remember the favor you owe me? Please go.”
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
ASHER😩😩😩😩
⤿ wonder - shawn mendes
No because HE IS MY MAN. I want him, like everyday, every hour. The song I would play while we
“I hate to interrupt your ogling, but can you please get up? As much as I love having you on top of me, this tile wasn't designed fot comfort.”
I am exaclty where I want to be so no thank you.
Okay this review is so unserious but I think yall can understand why I act that way 😋😋
⋆˙⟡ do I recommend this book?
YESSSSS PERFECT SPORTS ROMANCE AND PERFECT COUPLE
─ ·✶pre-read 01-11-2025
I am in the biggest reading slump ever, so I am rereading this book because
October 23, 2024
To say I am disappointed, it’s like to say nothing at all. Ana Huang was to me an auto-read author, but given the recent downgrade of her works, I am not sure. (Don’t make me hate-read the new books.)
That being said, let’s dissect the Striker.
ASHER:
We have already seen snippets of him in the twisted series, and I was excited because this man had potential… that was completely wasted. The book is like 600 pages long and what do we really know about him? He’s a player (allegedly, not even a little bit in the book though), he’s a footballer, he likes to race cars, has daddy issues, and that’s probably all to him. For a book this long, his character seemed half-dimensional. Does he really grow throughout the book? Barely.
SCARLETT:
She’s a new character in Anaverse, but we quickly learn she’s Asher’s “nemesis”’s sister who did professional ballet but due to a car accident and a nerve injury she’s more of a teacher. In the beginning of the book, Asher tells her in a two second speech “the injury doesn’t define you”, but I have to disagree. All we know about her as a character is an aftermath of the car accident she suffered five years ago or a break up (which is also caused by the car accident.) We do love a I-will-myself-a-victim-in-every-situation heroine! 😍 (I wish I was exaggerating but I am not.)
THE RELATIONSHIP:
Honestly, Asher had better chemistry with Scarlett’s brother Vincent. I don’t think I’m alone in this sentiment, but instead we got a very low stakes forbidden romance LOTS of forced proximity childish bullshit. This book would’ve been a 70 pages novella if they acted their age.
He’s the playboy that didn’t fuck around since chapter one and was obsessed with the fmc since chapter two. Boring!
She doesn’t want to act on her feelings (or rather a need to fuck) because she’s still coping from a breakup that happened FIVE YEARS AGO and told herself she would never date a football player, but if I’m being frank the breakup didn’t have anything to do with the sport, so I’m assuming plot armour (LOTS of it).
Sneaking around and lying to everyone (especially the overprotective brother/enemy) also felt flat when Vincent literally went to France like five chapters in.
Unfortunately the further in the book, the worse. What’s a book without conflict, right? But this conflict didn’t make any sense!!! Scarlett, after the car accident, feared more the place she was going to (some dance hall) than the place the car accident actually took place (some crossroad, a vehicle). She would break in hives whenever she thought of the dance hall, and maybe felt slight discomfort in vehicles. But to top it off, somewhere in the middle of the book, Scarlett starts to blow Asher’s racing WAY OUT OF PROPORTION. At first, it’s established he races from time to time to take the edge off after especially stressful matches only to make it seem like he’s an adrenaline junkie and risks his life every second he takes. No, if you want to change the plot, be consequential in your writing, readers aren’t stupid.
This stupid drama actually causes everyone’s favourite thing, namely a third act breakup 😍😍😍. But don’t worry, he has a single heart to heart conversation with his dad and his daddy and adrenaline (?) issues are solved! 🥰 And then he makes a single grand gesture (giving his sports cars away to his teammates) and she forgives him. All good.
SMUT/SPICE/PORN:
Whatever you call it. Ana Huang can write a good sex scene. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t deliver the quality nor quantity. 3.5 spicy scenes are all are mid at best. Usually there’s one scene that is iconic for the book (I still haven’t forgotten about the shoe in King of Sloth), but here it’s none. And Scarlett describes it as the best sex of her life? Or her sex life will be ruined because nothing ever will compare? Laughable. I am utterly disappointed on this front.
SIDE CHARACTERS:
Carina and Brooklyn are terrible friends. What’s up with romance authors thinking that “you better blow him or I will” is the best praise you can give! That’s disrespectful to female friendship and inherently rooted in misogyny. All they talk about is Asher and his relationship with Scarlett. Carina and Brooklyn must really have a fucking terrible lives if they both said another awful line “I live vicariously through you”. Insane statement to say to your friend!
OTHER COMPLAINTS:
Sorry Ana, but if you know nothing about football (soccer), don’t write books about it. Literally, football looks nothing like you described it. I saw in the author’s notes you had people helping you with it, but I don’t think they’re knowledgeable enough to give out expertise because it’s wrong.
Same goes for geography of London/England. People who helped you obviously tried to sabotaged you. While Scarlett is a born Londoner, it looks like more Emily in Paris: London spin-off. People say all the time don’t write books about locations you know nothing about, yet here we are. Yet here we are.
Another thing. British English. The speech is a mess. Once there’s dollars, once there’s pounds. Which one is it? Sprinkling typically British-English words like loo, knickers, arse, wanker, bloody, etc doesn’t make the whole thing British. American speed and overall American mindset was more than evident throughout the entire story.
Grammar. Besides obvious grammar and punctuation errors, the book is filled with metaphors and comparisons that don’t make sense — grammatically nor logically. Where is the editor??? Fire them and get a new one because they’re scamming you for money.
This whole random Pluto is a planet to me rant in the middle of the book? That’s been mentioned a few times? What’s up with that? I’m sensing Ali Hazelwood put you up for this. That was cringe and lame and corny in a very bad way.
Speaking of cringe, lame, and corny things, I thought we already exhausted the topic of dinosaur porn books in King of Pride already. It wasn’t quirky then, and it wasn’t quirky now. (But lowkey, I expected Asher to arrange a meeting with the dino porn author for their anniversary gift. Unfortunately, I got fuckass Isabella. Release me.) I hoped it was mentioned so many times because Velma something and Nate Raynolds (Jacob Elordi of Anaverse) will be the main characters of the King of Lust book.
Do you realise that Disneyland in Shanghai was opened in 2016, and if you wrote that Scarlett was there with her parents before they divorced when she was a child that would mean she was born around 2010. Tough math, I know.
PAPARAZZI. Everything about them was just so wrong and unrealistic. What you mean they stake out in front of Scarlett’s coffee shop (although she never went to one), but they never show up at the pub all the characters frequent every five chapters? What do you mean they were in the hospital when she/he was admitted to but never covered the charity match they played? What do you mean they went through some nobody’s mother’s trashcan?
FINAL POINTS/MY HOPES AND DREAMS:
I don’t think I found anything redeemable about this book. It was the longest, the most boring, the most frustrating one so far. Isabella was my least favourite anaverse heroine but she handed the crown to Scarlett. Same goes for Christian; I can’t believe this book made me like a stalker more than a arrogant footballer. The world must be ending.
I don’t know much about ballet, but I hope it was better researched than all I pointed out so far.
I didn’t take notes as i was reading, but maybe I should. Ana and her team didn’t proofread the book, so I won’t proofread my review.
This book made me wonder if we ever got any token gay/lesbian representation, and I don’t think we have. Would be interesting, maybe Asher and Scarlett can break up, and he finds happiness in Vincent’s arms? That would be messy, and I would defend their relationship.
The only good thing about this is that I had fun ranting about this to my friends. I love you, Sammie, Anna, Nat, and Cillian. 🩷🫶
Do better next time, Ana.
That being said, let’s dissect the Striker.
ASHER:
We have already seen snippets of him in the twisted series, and I was excited because this man had potential… that was completely wasted. The book is like 600 pages long and what do we really know about him? He’s a player (allegedly, not even a little bit in the book though), he’s a footballer, he likes to race cars, has daddy issues, and that’s probably all to him. For a book this long, his character seemed half-dimensional. Does he really grow throughout the book? Barely.
SCARLETT:
She’s a new character in Anaverse, but we quickly learn she’s Asher’s “nemesis”’s sister who did professional ballet but due to a car accident and a nerve injury she’s more of a teacher. In the beginning of the book, Asher tells her in a two second speech “the injury doesn’t define you”, but I have to disagree. All we know about her as a character is an aftermath of the car accident she suffered five years ago or a break up (which is also caused by the car accident.) We do love a I-will-myself-a-victim-in-every-situation heroine! 😍 (I wish I was exaggerating but I am not.)
THE RELATIONSHIP:
Honestly, Asher had better chemistry with Scarlett’s brother Vincent. I don’t think I’m alone in this sentiment, but instead we got a very low stakes forbidden romance LOTS of forced proximity childish bullshit. This book would’ve been a 70 pages novella if they acted their age.
He’s the playboy that didn’t fuck around since chapter one and was obsessed with the fmc since chapter two. Boring!
She doesn’t want to act on her feelings (or rather a need to fuck) because she’s still coping from a breakup that happened FIVE YEARS AGO and told herself she would never date a football player, but if I’m being frank the breakup didn’t have anything to do with the sport, so I’m assuming plot armour (LOTS of it).
Sneaking around and lying to everyone (especially the overprotective brother/enemy) also felt flat when Vincent literally went to France like five chapters in.
Unfortunately the further in the book, the worse. What’s a book without conflict, right? But this conflict didn’t make any sense!!! Scarlett, after the car accident, feared more the place she was going to (some dance hall) than the place the car accident actually took place (some crossroad, a vehicle). She would break in hives whenever she thought of the dance hall, and maybe felt slight discomfort in vehicles. But to top it off, somewhere in the middle of the book, Scarlett starts to blow Asher’s racing WAY OUT OF PROPORTION. At first, it’s established he races from time to time to take the edge off after especially stressful matches only to make it seem like he’s an adrenaline junkie and risks his life every second he takes. No, if you want to change the plot, be consequential in your writing, readers aren’t stupid.
This stupid drama actually causes everyone’s favourite thing, namely a third act breakup 😍😍😍. But don’t worry, he has a single heart to heart conversation with his dad and his daddy and adrenaline (?) issues are solved! 🥰 And then he makes a single grand gesture (giving his sports cars away to his teammates) and she forgives him. All good.
SMUT/SPICE/PORN:
Whatever you call it. Ana Huang can write a good sex scene. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t deliver the quality nor quantity. 3.5 spicy scenes are all are mid at best. Usually there’s one scene that is iconic for the book (I still haven’t forgotten about the shoe in King of Sloth), but here it’s none. And Scarlett describes it as the best sex of her life? Or her sex life will be ruined because nothing ever will compare? Laughable. I am utterly disappointed on this front.
SIDE CHARACTERS:
Carina and Brooklyn are terrible friends. What’s up with romance authors thinking that “you better blow him or I will” is the best praise you can give! That’s disrespectful to female friendship and inherently rooted in misogyny. All they talk about is Asher and his relationship with Scarlett. Carina and Brooklyn must really have a fucking terrible lives if they both said another awful line “I live vicariously through you”. Insane statement to say to your friend!
OTHER COMPLAINTS:
Sorry Ana, but if you know nothing about football (soccer), don’t write books about it. Literally, football looks nothing like you described it. I saw in the author’s notes you had people helping you with it, but I don’t think they’re knowledgeable enough to give out expertise because it’s wrong.
Same goes for geography of London/England. People who helped you obviously tried to sabotaged you. While Scarlett is a born Londoner, it looks like more Emily in Paris: London spin-off. People say all the time don’t write books about locations you know nothing about, yet here we are. Yet here we are.
Another thing. British English. The speech is a mess. Once there’s dollars, once there’s pounds. Which one is it? Sprinkling typically British-English words like loo, knickers, arse, wanker, bloody, etc doesn’t make the whole thing British. American speed and overall American mindset was more than evident throughout the entire story.
Grammar. Besides obvious grammar and punctuation errors, the book is filled with metaphors and comparisons that don’t make sense — grammatically nor logically. Where is the editor??? Fire them and get a new one because they’re scamming you for money.
This whole random Pluto is a planet to me rant in the middle of the book? That’s been mentioned a few times? What’s up with that? I’m sensing Ali Hazelwood put you up for this. That was cringe and lame and corny in a very bad way.
Speaking of cringe, lame, and corny things, I thought we already exhausted the topic of dinosaur porn books in King of Pride already. It wasn’t quirky then, and it wasn’t quirky now. (But lowkey, I expected Asher to arrange a meeting with the dino porn author for their anniversary gift. Unfortunately, I got fuckass Isabella. Release me.) I hoped it was mentioned so many times because Velma something and Nate Raynolds (Jacob Elordi of Anaverse) will be the main characters of the King of Lust book.
Do you realise that Disneyland in Shanghai was opened in 2016, and if you wrote that Scarlett was there with her parents before they divorced when she was a child that would mean she was born around 2010. Tough math, I know.
PAPARAZZI. Everything about them was just so wrong and unrealistic. What you mean they stake out in front of Scarlett’s coffee shop (although she never went to one), but they never show up at the pub all the characters frequent every five chapters? What do you mean they were in the hospital when she/he was admitted to but never covered the charity match they played? What do you mean they went through some nobody’s mother’s trashcan?
FINAL POINTS/MY HOPES AND DREAMS:
I don’t think I found anything redeemable about this book. It was the longest, the most boring, the most frustrating one so far. Isabella was my least favourite anaverse heroine but she handed the crown to Scarlett. Same goes for Christian; I can’t believe this book made me like a stalker more than a arrogant footballer. The world must be ending.
I don’t know much about ballet, but I hope it was better researched than all I pointed out so far.
I didn’t take notes as i was reading, but maybe I should. Ana and her team didn’t proofread the book, so I won’t proofread my review.
This book made me wonder if we ever got any token gay/lesbian representation, and I don’t think we have. Would be interesting, maybe Asher and Scarlett can break up, and he finds happiness in Vincent’s arms? That would be messy, and I would defend their relationship.
The only good thing about this is that I had fun ranting about this to my friends. I love you, Sammie, Anna, Nat, and Cillian. 🩷🫶
Do better next time, Ana.
October 24, 2024
i don’t know why but i didn’t love this book as much as i thought it would? i love ana huang and i reallyyyy wanted to love this book, but it was just okay? maybe it just wasn’t for me
May 7, 2025
I actually have no words so ur just gonna have to wait for my review...but one thing I can say is..
I SURVIVED!! I COMPLETED AN UNNECESSARILY LONG 500+ ROMANCE BOOK
(P.S. tysm palakkk for br with me, I can't wait for ur review)
The Striker = overly dramatic, predictably cliché, & excessively romantic.
(minor spoilers)
-The Striker by Ana Huang is one of those books that had me rolling my eyes so hard I thought I might sprain something. The plot, oh boy, where do I even start? It’s like Ana took a bunch of cliché tropes, threw them in a blender, and hit start.
We’ve got the classic " enemies-to-lovers setup, " but it feels more like a forced match than a thrilling journey. The story revolves around a soccer star- Asher Donovan and a ballerina- Scarlett DuBois who’s supposed to be his rival and trainer, but honestly, the stakes felt so low that I could barely muster any excitement.
The pacing was all over the place, with some scenes dragging on forever while others zipped by without any real substance. I kept waiting for something to happen, but it was like watching paint dry—just a whole lot of nothing.
The Characters or should I say the lack of depth:
-I'm actually not even gonna bother giving each a detailed section, bc they don't deserve it.
Vincent and Asher had more chemistry than these 2 bc what was that?? Their breakup was so unnecessary asw like the way Asher asked for forgiveness and Scarlett forgave him so fast- damn, if this happens all the time, Asher would be forgiven for everything.
The protagonist is your typical strong-willed girl who’s supposed to be relatable, but instead, she comes off as a bit of a cardboard cut out. And the mmc? Ugh, he’s the quintessential brooding jock with a heart of gold, but honestly, I found him more annoying than charming.
Their chemistry felt forced, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at their constant bickering that was supposed to be flirty but just came off as juvenile. It’s like Ana wanted to create this epic romance, but instead, I was left feeling like I was watching a bad teen drama where the characters just didn’t click.
-As for the quotes, let’s just say I wasn’t exactly jotting down any lines to remember. The dialogue was cringeworthy at best, with characters spouting off lines that felt more like they were trying too hard to be witty rather than actually being clever. I mean, who talks like that in real life? It was all so over-the-top that I found myself laughing at moments that were clearly meant to be serious.
-This book is worthy of no stars, but unfortunately Goodreads doesn't allow that. So unfortunately, 1 star, and that's only because of JoshJules and KaiIsabelle cameos.
Overall, I can’t say I was impressed with The Striker. It felt like a missed opportunity to create something fresh and exciting in the romance genre. Instead, it was a predictable ride filled with eye-roll-inducing moments and characters that I just couldn’t connect with.
I'm still really excited to read The Defender, bc it's Vincent's story, so let's just HOPE that Ana writes it properly.
I SURVIVED!! I COMPLETED AN UNNECESSARILY LONG 500+ ROMANCE BOOK
(P.S. tysm palakkk for br with me, I can't wait for ur review)
The Striker = overly dramatic, predictably cliché, & excessively romantic.
(minor spoilers)
-The Striker by Ana Huang is one of those books that had me rolling my eyes so hard I thought I might sprain something. The plot, oh boy, where do I even start? It’s like Ana took a bunch of cliché tropes, threw them in a blender, and hit start.
We’ve got the classic " enemies-to-lovers setup, " but it feels more like a forced match than a thrilling journey. The story revolves around a soccer star- Asher Donovan and a ballerina- Scarlett DuBois who’s supposed to be his rival and trainer, but honestly, the stakes felt so low that I could barely muster any excitement.
The pacing was all over the place, with some scenes dragging on forever while others zipped by without any real substance. I kept waiting for something to happen, but it was like
The Characters
-I'm actually not even gonna bother giving each a detailed section, bc they don't deserve it.
Vincent and Asher had more chemistry than these 2 bc what was that?? Their breakup was so unnecessary asw like the way Asher asked for forgiveness and Scarlett forgave him so fast- damn, if this happens all the time, Asher would be forgiven for everything.
The protagonist is your typical strong-willed girl who’s supposed to be relatable, but instead, she comes off as a bit of a cardboard cut out. And the mmc? Ugh, he’s the quintessential brooding jock with a heart of gold, but honestly, I found him more annoying than charming.
Their chemistry felt forced, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at their constant bickering that was supposed to be flirty but just came off as juvenile. It’s like Ana wanted to create this epic romance, but instead, I was left feeling like I was watching a bad teen drama where the characters just didn’t click.
-As for the quotes, let’s just say I wasn’t exactly jotting down any lines to remember. The dialogue was cringeworthy at best, with characters spouting off lines that felt more like they were trying too hard to be witty rather than actually being clever. I mean, who talks like that in real life? It was all so over-the-top that I found myself laughing at moments that were clearly meant to be serious.
-This book is worthy of no stars, but unfortunately Goodreads doesn't allow that. So unfortunately, 1 star, and that's only because of JoshJules and KaiIsabelle cameos.
Overall, I can’t say I was impressed with The Striker. It felt like a missed opportunity to create something fresh and exciting in the romance genre. Instead, it was a predictable ride filled with eye-roll-inducing moments and characters that I just couldn’t connect with.
I'm still really excited to read The Defender, bc it's Vincent's story, so let's just HOPE that Ana writes it properly.
April 4, 2025
this book was
such a waste
of my time. i didn’t go into it with high hopes, but even then, it managed to give me less than nothing. i kept waiting for the plot to kick in or for something to actually grab me and it never did. i was just
bored the entire time
, flipping pages hoping something would finally happen and it never did.
it also had no business being this long. over 600 pages for what? it felt like it was trying to stretch a basic, underdeveloped plot into something deep when it wasn’t. nothing about it felt necessary. the pacing was weird. some parts dragged, others felt rushed, and most of it was just filler that didn’t add anything to the story.
scarlett and asher didn’t leave an impression on me. i didn’t hate them, but i didn’t care about them either. they were bland, their relationship had no chemistry , and the tropes used just weren’t done well. it all felt surface-level, like their romance was just there because it had to be. no tension, no buildup, no spark.
i genuinely regret spending time on this one. it didn’t entertain me, didn’t make me feel anything, and by the end i was just glad to be done.
₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊
𐙚⋆°｡⋆♡ pre-read ♡⋆°｡⋆𐙚
⤷ WHY IS THIS ALMOST 600 PAGES?!?! i think i must hate myself because for some reason i picked up the book that sooo many people hated. let’s see how this goes... 🙁
it also had no business being this long. over 600 pages for what? it felt like it was trying to stretch a basic, underdeveloped plot into something deep when it wasn’t. nothing about it felt necessary. the pacing was weird. some parts dragged, others felt rushed, and most of it was just filler that didn’t add anything to the story.
scarlett and asher didn’t leave an impression on me. i didn’t hate them, but i didn’t care about them either. they were bland, their relationship had no chemistry , and the tropes used just weren’t done well. it all felt surface-level, like their romance was just there because it had to be. no tension, no buildup, no spark.
i genuinely regret spending time on this one. it didn’t entertain me, didn’t make me feel anything, and by the end i was just glad to be done.
₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊
𐙚⋆°｡⋆♡ pre-read ♡⋆°｡⋆𐙚
⤷ WHY IS THIS ALMOST 600 PAGES?!?! i think i must hate myself because for some reason i picked up the book that sooo many people hated. let’s see how this goes... 🙁
intrigued
October 22, 2024Why on earth does this have 595 pages??? 🥲
December 9, 2025
❝ “i've been here since day one, darling. i was simply waiting for you to join me.” ❞
ah yes, the striker by ana huang. a sports romance that could have been SO SUCCESSFUL, but reading it felt like watching a football match where the players keep missing the goal, the referee's face-down on the field, and you're just sitting there, cold and dead inside, begging for someone, anyone, to score so you can go home and cry.
₊˚꒰ 𖧷 ꒱ ⊹ i. plot and characters. ₊˚⊹ ꒱
starting off with the premier league's golden boy, asher donovan, who's just transferred to a new team, which creates absolutely earth-shattering tension with his rival, vincent dubois.
enter scarlett dubois, vincent's sister and the story's walking billboard for "tragic ballerina energy." she was once at the top of her game until an accident ended her career. now, she teaches little kids ballet, keeps thinking about her broken dreams, and suffers under the heavy weight of vincent's overprotectiveness. naturally, her life becomes even more complicated when her boss asks her to train her brother and his rival.
cue the romantic tension! asher's too confident, scarlett's kinda uptight, and she keeps telling herself that falling for asher would be absolutely catastrophic because of reasons, and of course, the SECOND they have a private moment, scarlett's resolve crumbles faster than the cookies rotting away in my pantry. the romance escalates quickly, quicker than the flash can run at this point, through secret glances, forced proximity, and angsty monologues about how asher is "different than all the others" and scarlett is "unique and oh so special."
scarlett's entire arc revolves around her being sad about ballet and falling in love with asher. that's it. scarlett's supposed to be passionate, strong, and resilient, but do we see these traits in action? BARELY. imagine the beauty of this book if the readers see scarlett grappling with the loss of her identity, rebuilding her confidence, and then falling in love with asher along the way. instead, we see no character growth, and then asher swooping in and magically becoming the human band-aid for all her problems.
meanwhile, asher, sweet and beautiful asher, just exists. bless his precious heart. bro's so aggressively forgettable that i'm not convinced he's even real. i guess he plays football sometimes? honestly, i couldn't tell you a single defining thing about him besides the fact he likes scarlett and occasionally touches a ball.
₊˚꒰ 𖧷 ꒱ ⊹ ii. conclusion. ₊˚⊹ ꒱
overall, the striker isn't a bad book. it's just aggressively mediocre. if you're a die-hard ana huang fan, you'll probably enjoy the book for the vibes and tropes. for me? it was extremely underwhelming.
— 2 stars. ⋆˚☆˖°.ᐟ
.° ༘🎧ྀི⋆ favourite quotes 🖇₊˚ෆ
“the past was the past, and the future was unpredictable. but the present? it belonged to us, and i wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“even if there were seven hundred thousand instead of seventy thousand people here, i would’ve found her just as easily because a part of me would always be connected to a part of her.”
“i looked at her, this beautiful, incredible woman whom i never would’ve expected would turn my world upside down, and marveled that she was mine.”
“if her smile was a burglar, her laugh was a fucking thief because i was pretty sure she just stole a piece of my heart from right out under me.”
── ⟡ ˙ 🪻༘ ₊ main tropes.
⟢ sports romance
⟢ brother's rival
⟢ forced proximity
⟢ forbidden love
⌗ started: 10.22.24 ⌝
⌞ finished: 12.21.24 ✦
₊˚꒰ 𖧷 ꒱ ⊹ pre-review: i rather pull a scarlett and get hit by a car to feel something at this point 😭😭
₊˚⊹ ᰔ pre-read: don’t like football players in romance, but there’s just something about ana huang men 😩
October 25, 2024
₊‧.°.⋆ 4 stars ⋆.°.‧₊
➴ possible spoilers ahead!
i was so excited to dive back into ana huang’s world, and it was amazing to be in her universe again. this book was such a joy to read. scarlett and asher’s characters really stood out to me—they both had such unique qualities that made them a perfect match. of course, ana delivered her signature swoon-worthy romance, but what really hit me was scarlett’s emotional journey and the way living with chronic pain was portrayed so authentically.
⋆౨ৎ˚ scarlett dubois.
scarlett is such an inspiration. watching her grow more confident in ballet was so heartwarming, especially because it’s something she loves so deeply. even though she deals with chronic pain, she never lets it define her, and that’s something i really admire. she reminds everyone around her that it’s part of her life but not who she is.
⋆౨ৎ˚ asher donovan.
asher is such a flirt, but in the best way. he’s charming, funny, and always has you giggling or swooning. i appreciated his personal journey too, especially when it comes to mental health. it was great to see how his support system helped him realize its importance. and the way he paid attention to scarlett’s chronic pain, knowing what made her feel better during flare-ups—that really melted my heart.
⋆౨ৎ˚ asher and scarlett.
i loved how both scarlett and asher had their own personal journeys, but their growth was tied together in such a natural way. it made their relationship feel even stronger. i really enjoy stories that show how relationships can evolve alongside personal growth. despite all the obstacles they faced, scarlett and asher came out stronger, not just individually but as a couple. the way they fought their chemistry was hilarious, and the tension was so good—typical ana huang!
⋆౨ৎ˚ other characters.
asher’s teammates were hilarious, especially adil. i couldn’t stop laughing whenever he popped up. i also loved how asher and vincent finally reconciled, and the way the team supported asher in winning scarlett back was just adorable. adil’s book club was such a funny touch, and i was so excited to see cameos from jules, josh, kai, and isa! rhys and bridget’s mention made me super emotional; i miss my royal couple so much.
ᡣ𐭩 .ᐟ all in all, i absolutely loved this book! this is ana’s first time writing a sports romance, and i’m beyond excited for what’s next in the series.
——— ˗ˋ ୨ 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 ୧ ˊ˗ ———
❥ “but at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what you’d regret more—trying and failing, or not trying at all?”
❥ “i’ve been here since day one, darling. i was simply waiting for you to join me.”
❥ “we all have ugly feelings sometimes. it’s a part of human nature. but it’s what we do with them that counts.”
❥ “most of all, i don't want to ruin my chances of spending as many days with you as possible because i love you. more than football, more than racing, more than anything else in this universe—pluto included.”
❥ “we couldn't change the past. we could only shape the future, and i wanted a future with him. together.”
❥ “even if there were seven hundred thousand instead of seventy thousand people here, i would've found her just as easily because a part of me would always be connected to a part of her.”
₊⊹⁀➴pre-read
been looking forward to this! hope it doesn't let me down💜
➴ possible spoilers ahead!
i was so excited to dive back into ana huang’s world, and it was amazing to be in her universe again. this book was such a joy to read. scarlett and asher’s characters really stood out to me—they both had such unique qualities that made them a perfect match. of course, ana delivered her signature swoon-worthy romance, but what really hit me was scarlett’s emotional journey and the way living with chronic pain was portrayed so authentically.
⋆౨ৎ˚ scarlett dubois.
scarlett is such an inspiration. watching her grow more confident in ballet was so heartwarming, especially because it’s something she loves so deeply. even though she deals with chronic pain, she never lets it define her, and that’s something i really admire. she reminds everyone around her that it’s part of her life but not who she is.
⋆౨ৎ˚ asher donovan.
asher is such a flirt, but in the best way. he’s charming, funny, and always has you giggling or swooning. i appreciated his personal journey too, especially when it comes to mental health. it was great to see how his support system helped him realize its importance. and the way he paid attention to scarlett’s chronic pain, knowing what made her feel better during flare-ups—that really melted my heart.
⋆౨ৎ˚ asher and scarlett.
i loved how both scarlett and asher had their own personal journeys, but their growth was tied together in such a natural way. it made their relationship feel even stronger. i really enjoy stories that show how relationships can evolve alongside personal growth. despite all the obstacles they faced, scarlett and asher came out stronger, not just individually but as a couple. the way they fought their chemistry was hilarious, and the tension was so good—typical ana huang!
⋆౨ৎ˚ other characters.
asher’s teammates were hilarious, especially adil. i couldn’t stop laughing whenever he popped up. i also loved how asher and vincent finally reconciled, and the way the team supported asher in winning scarlett back was just adorable. adil’s book club was such a funny touch, and i was so excited to see cameos from jules, josh, kai, and isa! rhys and bridget’s mention made me super emotional; i miss my royal couple so much.
ᡣ𐭩 .ᐟ all in all, i absolutely loved this book! this is ana’s first time writing a sports romance, and i’m beyond excited for what’s next in the series.
——— ˗ˋ ୨ 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 ୧ ˊ˗ ———
❥ “but at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what you’d regret more—trying and failing, or not trying at all?”
❥ “i’ve been here since day one, darling. i was simply waiting for you to join me.”
❥ “we all have ugly feelings sometimes. it’s a part of human nature. but it’s what we do with them that counts.”
❥ “most of all, i don't want to ruin my chances of spending as many days with you as possible because i love you. more than football, more than racing, more than anything else in this universe—pluto included.”
❥ “we couldn't change the past. we could only shape the future, and i wanted a future with him. together.”
❥ “even if there were seven hundred thousand instead of seventy thousand people here, i would've found her just as easily because a part of me would always be connected to a part of her.”
₊⊹⁀➴pre-read
been looking forward to this! hope it doesn't let me down💜
November 8, 2025
જ⁀➴ 𝟒.𝟎𝟎₊˚⊹⚽️ 𝟙𝟙/𝟘𝟛/𝟚𝟝—𝟙𝟙/𝟘𝟠/𝟚𝟝
okayy this was fun!! not anything special but classic ana haung 👀 ballet x soccer… RTC
𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝟒.𝟎𝟎
𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕: 𝟒.𝟎𝟎 🩰
╰┈➤ what to expect!!!
⚽️ brothers rival
🩰 forbidden romance
⚽️ soccer x ballerina
🩰 sports romance
⚽️ UK setting
🩰 he falls first
₊˚⊹ ᰔ 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝:
is reading a 500+ page romance book good for my reading slump? probably not. but it’s ana haung and she’s RARELY disappointed me before, so i’m hoping this can get me out of my reading slump!! 😭😭✨!!
i’ve heard people complaining it’s not accurate to soccer (i believe that’s the sport) or ballet, but i don’t know much about those sports anyways so we should be good ✨
okayy this was fun!! not anything special but classic ana haung 👀 ballet x soccer… RTC
𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝟒.𝟎𝟎
𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕: 𝟒.𝟎𝟎 🩰
╰┈➤ what to expect!!!
⚽️ brothers rival
🩰 forbidden romance
⚽️ soccer x ballerina
🩰 sports romance
⚽️ UK setting
🩰 he falls first
₊˚⊹ ᰔ 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝:
is reading a 500+ page romance book good for my reading slump? probably not. but it’s ana haung and she’s RARELY disappointed me before, so i’m hoping this can get me out of my reading slump!! 😭😭✨!!
i’ve heard people complaining it’s not accurate to soccer (i believe that’s the sport) or ballet, but i don’t know much about those sports anyways so we should be good ✨
Read
October 26, 2024DNF@20%
This is the first time in almost 4 years that I'm DNFing an Ana Huang book. And that makes me sad because I've loved her writing for so long but this just wasn't it for me. Ana's books are usually pretty safe but I found myself getting really annoyed by the unnecessary drama and the MCs' juvenile and childish behavior like WHYYYYY???? I'm just not invested enough to read a 600 page book ig. I tried to push through but I'm really not in the mood to rage read so DNF it is. I'm truly and deeply disappointed. I feel like Ana really peaked at Twisted Games, Twisted Hate and King of Wrath - I'm sorry but nothing will ever beat those 3 books. I'm hoping that her next books are better though (Vincent's book is next in this series, presumably). Also, I'm getting FOMO after seeing people talk about the next books in this series and I'm completely lost because I didn't finish this and have no idea what the tropes are gonna be lolz
safety squad:
- no major OW/OM drama (at 23% H's ex kisses him, h runs away before she can see the H push OW away. H and h provoke each other and decide to go on a double date as a challenge, their dates happened to have been in a relationship before and leave the double date early so H and h are alone tg basically. idk if there's any more drama after that because idc to know more. update: the H had a threesome the previous year in Ibiza and the h asks him about it + him being celibate but he doesn't answer the question and changes the topic - this btw happens when the H is jealous over the OM asking out/flirting with the h)
- no cheating/sharing
- football player x (former) prima ballerina
- brother's rival
- sports romance
- forced proximity
This is the first time in almost 4 years that I'm DNFing an Ana Huang book. And that makes me sad because I've loved her writing for so long but this just wasn't it for me. Ana's books are usually pretty safe but I found myself getting really annoyed by the unnecessary drama and the MCs' juvenile and childish behavior like WHYYYYY???? I'm just not invested enough to read a 600 page book ig. I tried to push through but I'm really not in the mood to rage read so DNF it is. I'm truly and deeply disappointed. I feel like Ana really peaked at Twisted Games, Twisted Hate and King of Wrath - I'm sorry but nothing will ever beat those 3 books. I'm hoping that her next books are better though (Vincent's book is next in this series, presumably). Also, I'm getting FOMO after seeing people talk about the next books in this series and I'm completely lost because I didn't finish this and have no idea what the tropes are gonna be lolz
safety squad:
- no major OW/OM drama (at 23% H's ex kisses him, h runs away before she can see the H push OW away. H and h provoke each other and decide to go on a double date as a challenge, their dates happened to have been in a relationship before and leave the double date early so H and h are alone tg basically. idk if there's any more drama after that because idc to know more. update: the H had a threesome the previous year in Ibiza and the h asks him about it + him being celibate but he doesn't answer the question and changes the topic - this btw happens when the H is jealous over the OM asking out/flirting with the h)
- no cheating/sharing
- football player x (former) prima ballerina
- brother's rival
- sports romance
- forced proximity
November 10, 2024
WHEN WILL I FINISH READING THIS BOOK 😭?
STAY TUNED
🕸️📌𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬
🌩️𝘿𝙄𝘿 𝙄 𝙇𝙄𝙆𝙀 𝙄𝙏 ? 𝘼𝘽𝙎𝙊𝙇𝙐𝙏𝙀𝙇𝙔 𝙔𝙀𝙎
⛈️𝙄 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙈𝙀𝙉𝘿 𝙄𝙏 ? 𝙔𝙀𝙎 ,𝘽𝙐𝙏 𝙄𝙁 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙍𝙂𝙄𝘾 𝙏𝙊 𝙇𝙊𝙉𝙂 𝙍𝙊𝙈𝙈𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙆𝙎 𝙋𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙎𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙔 𝘼𝙒𝘼𝙔
🕸️📌𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝘿𝙊𝙉𝘼𝙑𝘼𝙉 is a charming man,the best soccer world's star ,after his switch to holchester team ,he finds himself cost off by the old team blackcastle and playing whis his rival vinicent ,falling for Scarlett is a bingo card,who is the hell the snagging girl that deserve giving his career for ???
🕸️📌𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙏 𝘿𝙐𝘽𝙊𝙄𝙎 is a gorgeous ballerina trying to escape her fears until she stuck in love with the striker Donavan who made her face them ,push her forward to stand onstage again after five years since her accident and the terrible broke up.
𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 & 𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙏: it is hard to describe their relationship ,he falls first _it is great,nahhh?_.
saying it is platonic is big lie 🤮even situationship,in some chapiters the chemestry was surreal and euphoric , especially when Scarlett screwed up during the rehearsals but she find Asher ,her sanctuary standing by her shoulder (chapiter 28).
𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 & 𝙑𝙄𝙉𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙏 :the switch from anemies to friends is a big roll-coster , Vincent the protective brother,one of his biggest misgivings a footballer hitting His sister Scarelet .
𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 & 𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝙁𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍: the words fail me, the father is one of the big fans of blackcastle,He cares about his son _it is fatherhood Ik_,but he was harch and a his son was so reckless 😱.
𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨 𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙:
🕸️Romance sport
🕸️The double date
🕸️The first official date(I was dying to reach the first date chapiter's)
🕸️Enemies to friends
𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙧 🔪🔪🔪
The broke up at the end was unpredectible,I got the urge that Ana Huang trying to bait me then she fixed everything 🥴
🕸️📌𝗣𝗦
This is my first experience with Ana Huang writing,it is interguing,the conversations between the characters are funny, sweet and engaging.
*I loose count of how many time the writer used the word BLOODY
AT THE END I want to share this quote witch I relate with "𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙮 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙥𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮, 𝙣𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙖 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙨."
STAY TUNED
🕸️📌𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬
🌩️𝘿𝙄𝘿 𝙄 𝙇𝙄𝙆𝙀 𝙄𝙏 ? 𝘼𝘽𝙎𝙊𝙇𝙐𝙏𝙀𝙇𝙔 𝙔𝙀𝙎
⛈️𝙄 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙈𝙀𝙉𝘿 𝙄𝙏 ? 𝙔𝙀𝙎 ,𝘽𝙐𝙏 𝙄𝙁 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙍𝙂𝙄𝘾 𝙏𝙊 𝙇𝙊𝙉𝙂 𝙍𝙊𝙈𝙈𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙆𝙎 𝙋𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙎𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙔 𝘼𝙒𝘼𝙔
🕸️📌𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝘿𝙊𝙉𝘼𝙑𝘼𝙉 is a charming man,the best soccer world's star ,after his switch to holchester team ,he finds himself cost off by the old team blackcastle and playing whis his rival vinicent ,falling for Scarlett is a bingo card,who is the hell the snagging girl that deserve giving his career for ???
🕸️📌𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙏 𝘿𝙐𝘽𝙊𝙄𝙎 is a gorgeous ballerina trying to escape her fears until she stuck in love with the striker Donavan who made her face them ,push her forward to stand onstage again after five years since her accident and the terrible broke up.
𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 & 𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙏: it is hard to describe their relationship ,he falls first _it is great,nahhh?_.
saying it is platonic is big lie 🤮even situationship,in some chapiters the chemestry was surreal and euphoric , especially when Scarlett screwed up during the rehearsals but she find Asher ,her sanctuary standing by her shoulder (chapiter 28).
𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 & 𝙑𝙄𝙉𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙏 :the switch from anemies to friends is a big roll-coster , Vincent the protective brother,one of his biggest misgivings a footballer hitting His sister Scarelet .
𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙍 & 𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝙁𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍: the words fail me, the father is one of the big fans of blackcastle,He cares about his son _it is fatherhood Ik_,but he was harch and a his son was so reckless 😱.
𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨 𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙:
🕸️Romance sport
🕸️The double date
🕸️The first official date(I was dying to reach the first date chapiter's)
🕸️Enemies to friends
𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙧 🔪🔪🔪
The broke up at the end was unpredectible,I got the urge that Ana Huang trying to bait me then she fixed everything 🥴
🕸️📌𝗣𝗦
This is my first experience with Ana Huang writing,it is interguing,the conversations between the characters are funny, sweet and engaging.
*I loose count of how many time the writer used the word BLOODY
AT THE END I want to share this quote witch I relate with "𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙮 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙥𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮, 𝙣𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙖 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙨."
October 28, 2024
The Striker made no sense, and the characters were as bland as plain chicken. Ana, please do us all a favor and stop writin’.
Read
November 28, 202467% | dnf
the most disappointing book of this year.
from the moment ana announced her new sport romance, where the mc was british and the other was is a ballerina? i was so down for it. but, it disappointed me more than i could have expected.
the book had no plot, in general. from the beginning, i couldn’t put pieces together and figure out why was she selected to help players? i understand that the whole dancing classes where to help with footwork and developing friendship between guys but why she? she is one of the guys sisters, that’s doesn’t seems fair.
why was this book 600 pages? there was nothing to be written for more than 250 pages, i promise. no tension, no chemistry, no cliffhangers, no character development, nothing.
as characters, i liked both of them. i felt bad for the girl and her injury, but at the time, i hated her character. she had no development throughout the story and there was nothing interesting about her storyline. same with the male character. he was fine and the british accent, but he wasn’t anything special.
i just can’t understand how there are any relationships in this book. i couldn’t feel tension or chemistry between them. their story was at the same point the whole 500 pages. i was tired and bored.
the most disappointing book of this year.
from the moment ana announced her new sport romance, where the mc was british and the other was is a ballerina? i was so down for it. but, it disappointed me more than i could have expected.
the book had no plot, in general. from the beginning, i couldn’t put pieces together and figure out why was she selected to help players? i understand that the whole dancing classes where to help with footwork and developing friendship between guys but why she? she is one of the guys sisters, that’s doesn’t seems fair.
why was this book 600 pages? there was nothing to be written for more than 250 pages, i promise. no tension, no chemistry, no cliffhangers, no character development, nothing.
as characters, i liked both of them. i felt bad for the girl and her injury, but at the time, i hated her character. she had no development throughout the story and there was nothing interesting about her storyline. same with the male character. he was fine and the british accent, but he wasn’t anything special.
i just can’t understand how there are any relationships in this book. i couldn’t feel tension or chemistry between them. their story was at the same point the whole 500 pages. i was tired and bored.
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