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Bump, Set, Sparks

Not yet published
Expected 16 Jun 26
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Two rival volleyball players compete for the championship in this summer romp full of community, crushes, and confidence building from the author of Flirty Dancing.

Jess loves volleyball—she really does. Playing in Southern California Beach Volleyball League with her best friend Tania is a blast, but their recent losing streak has destroyed her confidence. In fact, a lot of what used to bring her joy—stargazing, hanging with friends at Maggie's bar, and her adorable wiener dog, Fleming—just doesn't seem like enough anymore. It doesn't help that Vivienne, one of Jess's rivals in the league, always seems to be around just when she's feeling her worst. Vivienne is everything Jess isn' beautiful, confident, effortlessly charming, and, most infuriatingly, winning.

When Jess is ghosted again, it's another blow to her confidence. Who better to challenge her than the most confident girl she knows? And as Jess gets to know Vivienne, she discovers there's much more to her than just a pretty face (and wicked serve). But even though there's an undeniable connection between them, they're competing for the same spot in the pro leagues. Jess has the opportunity to build self-confidence and a better life, but she'll have to learn to believe in herself, and the people around her, if she doesn't want to lose everything she's gaining. And there's nothing Jess hates more than losing.

352 pages, Paperback

Expected publication June 16, 2026

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About the author

Jennifer Moffatt

9 books112 followers
Jennifer writes warm and fuzzy stories about LGBTQ+ people falling in love and wishes there were more of those stories on bookshelves. Her short fiction appears in several anthologies and literary magazines. Her debut novel A HARD SELL, book #1 in the Falling Hard trilogy, came out March 26, 2024 from Entwined Publishing and book #2, A HARD FIT, followed November 19, 2024. In March 2024, she announced a three book deal with St. Martin's Griffin. The first book, FLIRTY DANCING, a gay romcom inspired by Dirty Dancing, released May 27, 2025. Book #3 in the Falling Hard trilogy, A HARD NOTE, arrived July 29, 2025. Her next book with St. Martin's is a sapphic rivals-to-lovers romcom called BUMP, SET, SPARKS and is expected June 16, 2026. She is represented by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Literary Agency and lives in BC, Canada with her family. Her favourite things, besides reading and writing, are movies, summer, and potato chips.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Profile Image for Sam’s Sapphic Reads.
162 reviews183 followers
January 12, 2026
This is definitely your typical rivals to lovers sports romance. With the two MC’s being in a sand volleyball league, they were part of the same friend group but didn’t get along.

I appreciated the definitions at the start of each chapter because I don’t know much about volleyball and the terms did help understand better.

I will point out that this is a slow burn, a VERY slow burn, so don’t expect things to happen in the first half. The writing was decent, but at times I did feel as though the interactions Jess had with others was awkward, or maybe she was just awkward herself.

Jess had a LOT of confidence issues that she let get to her in both her personal life and on the sand too. While Vivienne was portrayed as a confident “idgaf” manner.

There were times where I felt like things were a bit dramatized or exaggerated such as this clip of the book, “Everything but Vivienne went blurry. The crowd vanished. The heat of the sun faded.” It was a bit too cheesy for me to be honest.

It wasn’t a horrible read, but I felt like there was nothing special about it. I didn’t really connect with the characters or had a love for any as well as I didn’t feel a major connection between the MCs, but at least it was there.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC!
Profile Image for Hannah.
245 reviews6 followers
February 8, 2026
Too many characters. Too much filler. Oddly enough too much volleyball. Overall nothing interesting really happens and I find most of the characters to be bland.

Thanks for the ARC
Profile Image for Demetri.
607 reviews57 followers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 11, 2026
She Thought She Had an Opponent. Unfortunately, She Had a Crush, a Complex, and No Defensive Strategy
“Bump, Set, Sparks” by Jennifer Moffatt is a charmingly sharp novel about volleyball, vanity, longing, and learning to read another woman correctly
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | April 10th, 2026


At dusk and across the net, the book’s real drama comes into focus: not rivalry alone, but the charged distance where envy, desire, and self-misreading begin to turn into recognition.

One of the smartest things in Jennifer Moffatt’s “Bump, Set, Sparks” is that it understands how often desire arrives in the wrong disguise. Jess, a beach volleyball player in Southern California, insists for a good stretch of this novel that she hates her rival Vivienne Morris. She does not hate Vivienne. She studies her. She inventories her. She keeps turning Vivienne’s hair, nails, serve, body, poise, and maddening competence into evidence in an internal case against herself. What Jess calls irritation is really attraction with a clipboard. What she experiences as rivalry is often envy, and what she experiences as envy is really the conviction that someone else’s brightness must mean her own diminishment.

That is a much more interesting engine for a romance than “opposites attract,” and Moffatt knows it. “Bump, Set, Sparks” has all the pleasures its packaging promises: beach heat, locker-room tension, comeback sets, queer bar energy, a beloved dachshund, text spirals, banana bread, wedding chaos, and enough erotic charge to power the boardwalk. But under the fizz is a cleaner, sharper book than its glossy setup first suggests. This is not just a sports romance about rivals discovering chemistry. It is a novel about how a woman mistakes her own longing for hostility because wanting someone already feels too much like losing to them.

Jess is in a bad run when the novel opens. She and her partner Tania are dropping matches, her confidence is crumbling, and everything she once used for comfort has begun to lose its charge. Vivienne, meanwhile, seems to glide through the same world as if the air itself has been ironed on her behalf. She is beautiful, tactically brilliant, seemingly unflappable, and attached to the league’s best team. Jess, who narrates herself as gangly, effortful, too tall, too awkward, and chronically one beat behind the women who look like they belong, turns Vivienne into a verdict. That is the book’s real drama. Before it is a romance, it is a study in self-ranking.

Moffatt is particularly good at showing how private insecurity becomes public behavior. Jess does not merely feel bad about herself in the abstract. She reads every interaction competitively. A flirtation that goes nowhere becomes proof. A losing streak becomes proof. A woman choosing Vivienne across a bar becomes proof. Even success curdles into self-suspicion the second Vivienne is nearby. Jess has so thoroughly installed Vivienne as the embodiment of ease, beauty, and chosen-ness that she cannot encounter her without feeling judged, even when no judgment is actually taking place. She has made Vivienne into the world’s opinion of her.

That misreading would be painful enough in ordinary life. Moffatt’s stroke of structural intelligence is to make it legible through volleyball. The sport is not local color or mere athletic seasoning. It is the novel’s grammar. Jess’s mental life keeps showing up in the wrong read, the late dive, the bad pass, the overcooked swing, the panicked choice at the net. Her game tells on her. Because beach volleyball is a game of exposure, there is nowhere to hide the fact that she is narrating herself into defeat before points are even over. The running chapter headers, with their win-loss records and volleyball definitions, look at first like a cute formal garnish. In practice they are doing heavier work. They keep converting emotion into scorekeeping. Jess’s psyche is always being tallied.


Knee-deep in the Pacific, Jess and Vivienne turn a jar of accumulated losses into a ritual of release, flinging private shame back to the dark water that made it.

The prose serves that design well. Moffatt writes in quick, clean, energetic sentences that know how to land a joke without stepping on a bruise. Her diction is accessible but not mushy, contemporary without flattening everyone into the same voice, and especially good on the comic humiliations of being alive in a body that wants things before the mind has agreed to admit them. Jess’s interiority is funny in exactly the right way: not because Moffatt mocks her, but because self-consciousness is inherently ridiculous once it reaches a certain temperature. The novel understands that embarrassment can be both sincerely painful and structurally comic. That doubleness gives the book a lot of its charm. It never sinks into inert self-pity because Moffatt keeps shame in motion.

She also knows how to handle abundance. This is a novel that likes one more match, one more bar night, one more misunderstanding, one more near miss, one more detour on the route to clarity. That generosity generally works in its favor. The world feels inhabited rather than diagrammed. Tania is more than a trusty best friend, even if she also fills that beloved role. Nelson, the glamorous neighbor and dog-sitter, brings real warmth rather than stock sass. Lee, Chrissy, Shay, George, Veronica Doyle, and the extended orbit of teammates and relatives create a sense of communal life that gives the romance somewhere to happen besides a sealed emotional chamber.

The central relationship benefits from that density because it keeps Jess and Vivienne from feeling isolated into destiny too early. They have to keep colliding in mixed company, on courts, in bars, at practice, at weddings, on road trips, in front of other people. That sociality matters. “Bump, Set, Sparks” is interested not only in desire but in spectacle: women’s sports as performance, public charisma, and local celebrity. Vivienne is not simply attractive to Jess because she is attractive in the abstract. She is attractive because she is watched. She has an audience. She seems to move through the league with the ease of someone already chosen by other people. Jess responds not just to a woman but to a woman in circulation. Moffatt gets a lot of mileage out of that without ever making the novel feel like it is straining for topical relevance.

What gives the book its real lift, though, is the way the romance slowly becomes a mechanism for rereading rather than merely coupling off. Jess does not simply fall for Vivienne. She has to discover that she has been wrong about her. That is a more substantial movement. It is one thing to realize you want someone. It is another to realize you have mistaken polish for contempt, beauty for cruelty, and another woman’s social ease for proof of your own insufficiency. The novel’s romance works because it is inseparable from that correction. Attraction here is not just consummation. It is revision.


On the sand beneath a meteor shower, rivalry softens into candor, and the stars become less backdrop than a language for being seen correctly at last.

Moffatt handles that revision with a nice sense of proportion. Vivienne is not revealed to be secretly meek or miraculously unlike the person Jess has been observing. She is still sharp, disciplined, stylish, confident, and sometimes a little impossible. What changes is Jess’s understanding of what those qualities mean. Vivienne has insecurities of her own, family scripts of success and failure, and her own tendency to convert pressure into performance. The book never entirely abandons the fantasy of Vivienne as dazzling object, and it would be foolish to want it to. Part of the novel’s pleasure is that she really is dazzling. But Moffatt wisely lets that dazzle coexist with a more vulnerable, more human self underneath. Jess does not discover that she was foolish to find Vivienne extraordinary. She discovers that extraordinary people are still people.

The book’s biggest formal gamble comes late, when sexual and competitive tension fully fuse. By the time Jess and Vivienne become partners under high-stakes circumstances, repression has already failed so thoroughly that the public kiss during the championship match ought to feel absurd. In a lesser novel it would feel like the sort of scene that exists because an audience wants to cheer. Here it works because the alternative has become structurally untenable. These women are already unable to think about anything else. Desire has invaded training, tactics, text messages, eye contact, service lines, and pregame routines. The kiss does not interrupt the athletic story. It is the athletic story, suddenly rendered honest. The emotional breakthrough and the competitive breakthrough are the same event viewed from opposite sides of the net.


At center court, victory and disclosure collapse into the same gesture, turning a championship kiss into the novel’s most public form of self-recognition.

That is the novel’s central achievement. It turns what could have been a merely lively queer sports romance into a book about bad self-knowledge and its repair. Jess has spent the season building an image of herself out of losses, ghostings, awkwardness, and comparison. The person who finally helps crack that image open is the very woman she had cast as its author. That is both funny and moving. Moffatt is very good on the mortification of realizing that the person you thought was coolly evaluating you may, in fact, have been flustered, attracted, and failing to flirt competently for months.

The book’s central limitation is that the final movement grows a little more benevolent than the earlier emotional logic quite earns. Several complications begin resolving in sequence: injuries, retirements, substitutions, career invitations, romantic timing, professional logistics. Each development can be defended on its own terms, and none of them is ludicrous, but together they create a softening effect. A novel that has been so perceptive about insecurity and misreading starts clearing obstacles with a hand that is perhaps too kind. Readers who want more drag in the gears, a little more cost carried forward, may feel the last act occasionally choosing satisfaction over abrasion.

Even so, Moffatt earns a surprising amount of that satisfaction because she has done the harder earlier work. She has established what it would actually cost Jess to stand beside Vivienne without shrinking. She has made the team dynamics feel lived in. She has shown how badly both women want not just to win but to be legible to each other. And she has given the sport enough genuine shape that the matches do not feel like generic adrenaline dispensers between romantic beats. This matters. Too many sports romances rely on the emotional storyline to make the games matter. Here the games already matter. The feelings intensify them.

If the novel has contemporary relevance, it emerges organically from that fact. “Bump, Set, Sparks” understands women’s sports not just as competition but as performance, fandom, intimacy, aspiration, and style. It also understands the queer social world around that competition as normal rather than explanatory. Nobody is flattened into a lesson. Nobody is required to deliver a position paper on identity. These women get to be horny, vain, jealous, loyal, scared, funny, dazzling, insecure, and absurd all at once. That breadth of permission is part of the book’s appeal.

I come down at 88/100, which translates to 4 out of 5 Goodreads stars: a high rating for a novel that is consistently winning in voice, emotional readability, and structural intelligence, even if its last act rounds some corners it might more bravely have left jagged. The score reflects a book with real velocity and real insight, one whose pleasures are immediate but not shallow.

What lingers most is the change in sight. Jess begins the novel looking across the net and seeing judgment. She ends it able to stand in the presence of beauty, athletic brilliance, social ease, and another woman’s shine without treating any of that as evidence of her own insufficiency. Moffatt never asks the stars to become symbolic wallpaper. They remain what they were from the start: distant, steady, available to be misread or properly read depending on the eye turned toward them. What changes is Jess’s angle of vision. She finally stops treating brightness as a sentence. She learns, at last, how to stand under it.


Early thumbnail studies test distance, net geometry, horizon, and charged spacing, letting the image begin the same way the novel does: by asking how much feeling can live in open air.


The faint graphite armature establishes court, bodies, and negative space before atmosphere arrives, proving how much tension the image must carry before color is allowed to seduce.


Here the scene starts to breathe: twilight blues, pale sand-light, and the first emotional weather staining the page while the underlying structure still shows through.


The cover-derived palette in working form: sky, surf, dusk, sand, and afterglow reduced to hand-tested decisions before the final watercolor found its exact temperature.


These exploratory border sketches test how stars, shells, wave curls, and net lines can frame the image without crowding it, allowing ornament to serve pressure rather than prettiness.

All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.
Profile Image for Juniper L.H..
1,051 reviews47 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
February 6, 2026
In a nutshell, I thought this novel was fine. Parts of it were entertaining, but other parts just didn’t quite do it for me. I would say its an acceptable read but I probably wouldn’t recommend it. If you like volleyball a lot, then you might enjoy this more than I did.
Ok, lets break it down:

Romance: This is a romance right? Well it was underwhelming. It says its an enemies/rivals-to-lovers situation but it seemed a lot more like a one-sided, “I'm annoyed and whiny” situation instead. The rivals part of the equation was lukewarm at best with a few snippy remarks, and the transition was underwhelming. Now, these two DID have chemistry and there were parts I liked; our protagonist was clearly obsessed with the love interest right from the start which I enjoyed, but they had the emotional intelligence of a pinecone.

Protagonist: 90% of their character traits were “woe is me” and an inferiority complex. It was annoying and frustrating and got repetitive. That said, I did enjoy their character arc towards confidence even if it was a little simplistic.

Love Interest: Honestly I liked her. She was a bit of a black box at times, but I enjoyed this character and the slow process of understanding her better over the course of the novel.

Volleyball: There was too much volleyball for me, and not in a good way. I have read sports romances I liked, and ones I dislikes, and this was closer to the latter. I do not need play by play scenes of their games that span multiple pages, recounting who did a block and who did a spike. I just don’t care that much (maybe I should stop reading books featuring sports?). The emotional aspect I enjoy, along with the competition and their reactions to what takes place. There were some helpful definitions for volleyball terms at the start of each chapter but unfortunately, they were not quite enough for me as they frequently used other terms I didn’t know, hah!

Plotline: ehhhh. They played volleyball I guess?

Side Characters: The side characters I liked. There were several of them and they were as well developed as the main protagonist (which is a mixed review, hah). This felt like a story that took place in a real place with real people, so this aspect was well done.

Side Plots: Honestly better than the main plotline. What’s going on with her partner? Will the guy ever win the grand prize at ring toss? Tell me more about that famous romance author! None of these were huge, but I liked that the novel had multiple things going on (especially considering the main plot was a bit thin).

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

Profile Image for Unpopmary.
331 reviews33 followers
Review of advance copy received from Author
January 8, 2026
2.5 ⭐

Firstly, I’d like to thank the author and her editor for trusting me with this early read.

This is a sports romance centered on Jess and her life as a beach volleyball player. I’ll try to keep this review brief by saying that, unfortunately, I struggled to truly connect with Jess. At times, her behavior felt noticeably immature for her age, to the point where it occasionally reminded me of a YA novel, which personally isn’t my preferred reading experience. Jess also grapples deeply with self-esteem issues and constant self-doubt, and while I was hoping to see more growth in that area, her character arc didn’t feel as developed as I expected by the end.

Another aspect that didn’t fully work for me was the rivals-to-lovers dynamic. Rather than feeling like a mutual rivalry, it came across as more one-sided. We mainly see Jess’s strong dislike toward Vivienne, her love interest, with dialogue that initially makes Vivienne seem genuinely unpleasant. As the story progresses, however, it becomes clear that Vivienne is actually quite sweet, and that Jess’s resentment stems from rather superficial reasons. Because of this, the romantic build-up didn’t feel entirely natural to me. Even during their more intimate moments, I found myself wanting a deeper emotional connection to truly invest in their relationship. I also felt that the frequent repetition of Vivienne’s physical traits leaned a bit too heavily into shallow territory.

Vivienne, on the other hand, was a highlight for me. She felt more intriguing and had the potential to be a really compelling character, but since the story is firmly rooted in Jess’s perspective, we don’t get the chance to explore Vivienne’s character arc as deeply as I would have liked; which felt like a missed opportunity.

Lastly, I was hoping for a stronger focus on the volleyball aspect itself. While we do get some scenes of Jess and her best friend and teammate, Tara, competing and working toward a championship, I would have loved to see more of the challenges, pressure, and intensity that come with being a competitive volleyball player.
45 reviews1 follower
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 1, 2026
A rivals to lovers romance where the competition isn’t just on the court.

Summary

Both Vivienne and Jess play in the SoCal Beach Volleyball league. They are competitors on the court; but could they be more off the court? Not if you ask Jess who has hated Vivienne ever since they started playing against one another, but the more time they spend together Jess thinks maybe she misjudged Vivienne.

My Review

I often find that reading sapphic sports romances that the stories are more romance with a side of sports; but in “Bump, Set, Sparks” the play on the beach volleyball court drives the romantic story line.

The playful game banter continues off the court where the teams meet at the bar to celebrate their wins and drown their losses. The camaraderie of the players is well written and reflects how they keep the battles to the court and after the game is over, they show up for one another.

Each chapter starts off with a definition of a volleyball slang terms; it really helped to set up the reader to understand what was happening on the courts and it makes the sports side easy for anyone who might not have an appreciation for beach volleyball.

The two FMC’s are on rival teams. Jess’ team has not been doing well this year, she has confidence issues with her own play and tends to get in her head. Her lack of confidence extends off the court when it comes to relationships. Vivienne is on the top team in the league and she projects confidence, but maybe what you see isn’t how she actually feels.

If you like a cozy, low spice, slow burn, rivals to lovers story then ‘Bump, Set, Sparks’ will serve you well.

Final Thoughts:

In the spirit of learning beach volleyball slang, here are my final thoughts…

Butter: A perfectly set ball
Campfire: A ball the drops with the players just watching it

Jess and Vivienne circle around one another; neither thinking their feelings might be reciprocated. Luckily, they have friends that provide the “butter” so they don’t “campfire” in this rivals to lovers sports romance.
Profile Image for Caitlyn Stern.
31 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 31, 2026
Jess lives and breathes volleyball for as long as she can remember. But this most recent losing streak has not only destroyed her confidence but has sucked the joy out of so many things in her life. But with help from an unlikely source - rival player Vivienne - her win loss ratio might not be the only thing heating up.

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Level: 🌶️

Oh where to start, this was a sports romance I could really get behind and I’m VERY picky when it comes to sports romances. I felt like this was a very good blend - neither the sport itself or the budding relationship between our love interests outshined the other.

I was EXTRA happy by the fact that you really got to see the relationship grow between the love interests as well, rather than the insta-love trope that this genre falls victim to more often than not. We get a decent chunk of not-quite-enemies to lovers and the relationship gradually grows into one of not just lust but mutual understanding. And the apparent dichotomy between the two doesn’t cause this massive rift between them during the development of the relationship. Rather the pair come from very different home lives but struggle with the same self confidence issues though neither could really tell.

But more than anything, I loved the character growth we see from Jess. At the beginning she comes off as this down on her luck “oh wow is me, my life is so hard” leading lady because of the losing streak - and granted I’d feel that way too in her position. But rather than her issues being fixed by a lover, she takes the time to fix them herself (with the help of her friends).

Overall a really amazing book and I could not put it down. If you’re a fan of sports romance - especially of books like The Deep End - this is the story for you.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book. All opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Marcus Mitchell.
22 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
February 3, 2026
This was a pretty solid enemies to lovers romance, highlighted by the dive into self-confidence issues of the protag. There's something about the writing that comes across as really unpolished, but in a way that really helps it feel grounded and stands out against the sometimes formulaic writing structures of the genre's bigger hitters, but without feeling amateurish or anything. It was nice and refreshing and I was happily surprised to find myself itching to read it. Devoured this over the course of about 48 hours, which isn't something I can usually say for most books.

The book really shines when we get Jess and Vivi on the page together and I wish that happened a bit more. They have pretty good chemistry and a nice dynamic, and it's really nice to see how quickly they can get on the same page and look out for each other. The scene in the tattoo shop was probably the swooniest of the bunch for me, while Vivienne's handling of Jess's mom is probably the best hook as to why these characters need to be together.

However, the book's cast is pretty massive and, while not hard to keep track of who is who, they can be a little distracting. Troy could've been left on the editing floor and many of the characters just kind of exist as NPC's to set up new scenes for the main character. Also, I appreciate the volleyball scenes and think they're wholly necessary, but the descriptions of every action do run long a bit at times and I found myself skimming rather than trying to project the action in my mind by following each and every movement and impact. It was probably a breeze to read for vb players though, so it's hard to complain.

All in all, this hovered around the 3 or 4 star range for me. Definitely glad I read it and excited to check out Moffatt's other works as well. It's nice to have more books with strong rep without feeling cookie cutter.


Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC!
Profile Image for Saloni Porwal.
515 reviews6 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 13, 2026
I had fun reading this book, and I'll admit, it made me slow down to take everything in. Although romance is something present in the book it accounts for a very small portion of the story, and most definitely isn't the focus of the writing. A more accurate description would mean that the story is centered around queer characters, and there is a ton of character development that we get to see over the course of the story.

Like I said, it is very slow burn, so you have to be patient. I myself didn't mind this because I much prefer meaningful relationships and a significant arc in the characters over a plot driven, possibly insta love story. The volleyball aspect of it is pretty strong. Despite me not caring in the least about sports or having any previous knowledge of volleyball in particular, everything is well explained, and I was able to really visualize all the scenes with the matches. And that is huge, because there are detailed descriptions of a lot of matches.

Speaking of characters, I loved Jess and Vivienne, particularly how realistically flawed they both are. The 3rd POV narration is mostly done from Jess' side, and her inner thoughts and internal conflicts felt relatable and made me root for her. Side characters deserve a mention because of how memorable they all were. Jess' partner Tania was one of them, and I enjoyed their relationship. Same goes for Toni and Lee, and Jess' neighbor Nelson. I strongly recommend this book, just a caution to not go in expecting a lot of romance, it's merely a side plot.
Profile Image for Andrea (looseleftlesbian).
457 reviews27 followers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 11, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book by the author that I’ve read. I love sports romances and beach volleyball is a sport that isn’t written about a lot. This is a rivals to lovers romance. While I get the rivals aspect of it, I did find it hard to feel like Jess was justified in her hatred towards Vivianne. It seemed more personal and I think a regular rivalry trope would’ve given the same “angsty” feel.

I loved that the author had volleyball terms in the begininngs of the chapters. It really helped and the term that she had would usually show up in that chapter. I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but I really liked it for some reason.

The tension between the characters is palpable. A lot of times when authors identify their stories as slow burns, the couple is together around the 60% mark. This is not the case with Bump, Set, Sparks and I’m so happy for that. I prefer when slow burns are slooooow. This was a true slow burn and the tension that has been steadily rising makes the wait worth it and that much sweeter. I enjoyed getting to know both MCs without the romance, especially due to only having Jess’s POV through out the story.

I do feel like after they got together, things went pretty fast, both in terms of their relationship and the plot. I did want a little of a glimpse into their relationship after they got together and for some things to not be wrapped up so fast.

I will definitely be on the lookout for more of this author’s work! 3.5 Stars
Profile Image for Nev.
1,495 reviews223 followers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 21, 2026
3.5 - I pretty much always enjoy a good rivals to lovers queer sports romance. I liked following Jess as a main character and seeing her dedication to beach volleyball while also struggling with her confidence in the sport. It was interesting to see a book following adult athletes after college who aren't at the professional level. They have to work other jobs and hope to some day make it to the upper pro level. I enjoyed seeing Jess working through her feelings for Vivienne and realizing that her preconceived notions were incorrect.

Definitely go into the book knowing that there is a heavy emphasis on the sports in the sports romance. There's lots of play by play of different games. But it always felt like it was serving a purpose in the story of showing Jess' emotional and self-confidence journey. Where I think the book faltered a little bit was with how slow burn the romance was. I liked the tension of the drawn out time waiting for them to get together. But I didn't think there was enough time at the end of the book actually showing them with one another and convincing me that it would be an HEA. And it was also a closed door romance which isn't my preference.

But overall I did enjoy my time reading this book. Jess and Vivienne were both individually compelling characters and I appreciated seeing their passion and dedication for their sport. I would recommend this for people who are eager to try out different flavors of queer sports romances.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Profile Image for m.
70 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 22, 2026
This is definitely your typical rivals to lovers sports romance, and honestly I really wanted to like this more than I did because volleyball happens to be the only sport I have any interest in.

On paper, anyone who knows me personally would think this was designed specifically for me.
- Rivals (where one is a little bit of a bitch (love love love))
- Volleyball (the only sport I care for at all, really)
- Slow burn (truly I struggle with books where they get together before the 80% mark)

Even with all this going for it I feel like the overall read was a bit of a disappointment. I wonder if I just expected too much from it, but I feel like certain aspects were lacking. For me, two things in particular fell a bit short. If a story is going to be a slow burn the characters really need to be fleshed out, and while I appreciated the story telling around Jess and her lack of confidence, I never really felt as invested as I think I should have. I think overall, a lot of the characters weren't as fleshed out as I would've preferred (plucky side characters included). I wish more exploration of their interiority was explored--a lot of the time it felt like telling instead of showing. Secondly, I wish there was more to the climax/confession. What can I say? I love angst with my slow burn and I wish there was bit more to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Profile Image for Amanda.
38 reviews4 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
February 7, 2026
The characters in this were enjoyable for the most part. I liked getting to know them more as time went on and see how Jess's life is. I did like the character growth in this as well. I just wished Jess's character growth could have happened a little sooner. She just complained a lot about games, how they played, and Vivienne. I did like how she finally got confidence but it just felt like a drastic change all of a sudden.

So much volleyball! I didn't know anything about volleyball so it was cool getting to learn about it throughout and what the players have to go through with training. I liked how the chapters started with definitions of volleyball terms. But there was just to much of it. I felt like I just started skimming the parts where they played games or anytime Jess talked about where their ranking now. Just to much. I would be cool reading about the first game against Vivienne to see how they effect eachother and then probably the last game or 2 as a finally. More then 3 games being described is just a lot.

Very slow romance build between enemies to lovers. I was hoping for more romance and spice. It felt like by the time they were actually getting together there should have been more of a spicy scene. They also didn't talk much after that about what they had been feeling for eachother the whole time.

Overall it was an okay read if you like volleyball, very slow burn, or just a cute feel good story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for When Books Speak.
139 reviews1 follower
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
May 13, 2026
The sapphic rivals-to-lovers beach volleyball premise had me really excited for this one, and there were parts I genuinely enjoyed. The chemistry between Jess and Vivienne is there, and Vivienne as a character is a clear standout. She's confident, layered, and honestly more interesting than the story sometimes gives her credit for. The volleyball terminology at the start of each chapter was also a nice touch that helped ground the sport for readers who aren't familiar with it.

That said, a few things held this back for me. Jess's inner monologue got repetitive after a while. Her confidence issues are understandable and relatable at first, but by the midpoint it starts to feel like we're going in circles rather than building toward something. I kept waiting for that shift and it came a little too late for my taste.

The slow burn is very slow, which I was prepared for, but the payoff felt underwhelming when it finally arrived. I wanted more from their relationship once things actually progressed. The volleyball content also dominated a bit too much for me personally, and at times it pulled focus away from the romance rather than complementing it.

Overall a decent summer read with a fun setting and a likable love interest, just not one that fully came together for me.

Pub Day: June 16, 2026
Categories: LGBTQIAP+, Romance

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC.
Profile Image for hanna.
159 reviews1 follower
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 27, 2026
Bump, Set, Sparks follows Jess, an amateur league volleyball star who hopes of making it to the pros but this season isn't off to a very good start. The only thing lower than Jess and her teammate Tania's standings in the league is Jess's confidence, which has also been taking a big hit. It doesn't help that in their volleyball friend group, one of the first place players, sexy, talented, perfect Vivienne is always there to see Jess at her lowest. And Vivienne probably has some snarky comment about it too - what could she understand about not being perfect?

This book could be the next Cleat Cute, but with the slow burn and rivals to lovers tropes instead. It is also a mostly closed door romance. But with the success of queer sports romances like Heated Rivalry, I could definitely see this book riding that wave to success as well. There were some truly sweet moments that had me kicking my feet and Jess's confidence issues and imposter syndrome felt incredibly relatable. I also love romances that have good, developed side characters, which this book delivered on as well. My one criticism is that at some points the book could be quite cheesy. The introductions in the first chapter started out that way and I didn't begin the book with super high hopes, but as I read on, I started to enjoy it more and more (3.5/5 stars).

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.
Profile Image for Gianna Stover.
55 reviews1 follower
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 10, 2026
First, I’d like to say thank you to the author and publisher for giving me early access to this book via NetGalley. I went into this book really wanting and expecting to love it. I mean, lesbian volleyball players…come on, now. However, right off the bat I felt a strong dislike for the primary FMC, Jess, and unfortunately I never got around to even liking her even a little bit. She was negative, mean, dramatic, and there was very little growth through the entire story. Though there were some scenes where she seemed like just a different person entirely, but it never stuck. Meanwhile, the other FMC, Viv, just felt kind of flat to me. She also started off really mean and then suddenly seemed to shift. I’m all for a good enemies to lovers trope, but this one just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t get the sense that they cared about each other and there was very little chemistry aside from Jess thinking Viv was hot. While I appreciated the volleyball lingo that was introduced and defined at the start of each chapter, there was so much volleyball talk throughout the book that I’m pretty confident in saying a good 10% of the book most likely went right over my head. Overall, this had the potential to be a really good, cute story but the characters just felt icky and immature.
31 reviews3 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 27, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for this ARC!

Pros: I really enjoyed the volleyball intros to each chapter, but the W/L record and the definitions. I am not a sports person, so it was a great way to keep me in the story without feeling like I had to do extra research to get what was happening. There was also a good amount of queer rep outside of the MCs.

Cons: in my opinion, there were far too many characters, to the extent that it was difficult for me (and at times, I honestly think the author) to keep them together. Why do we need Winston and Troy? Lee’s wife Toni is mentioned once early on and then not referenced another single time for around 200 pages. In an early chapter, our MC’s best friend begs her to go out after work and then the best friend just… isn’t at the event, and it’s just… not mentioned. I’m not trying to nitpick, just giving a few examples of how this was frustrating.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to people who like a sports romance, especially if they tend towards YA romances- it’s got profanity but it’s closed door, and the maturity level of the MC is low for 24.
Profile Image for Maddie.
13 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
February 7, 2026
((~~ Rad via ARC provided by Netgalley~))


Overall this book was just *fine* when really bummed me out because it seemed like a really good premise. I am normally a big rivals to lovers but this didnt fulfill the entirety that rivals to lovers should be.... it all just seemed one sided and more so "Jess' brain vs the world" than the trope it really should be. Which is fine but not what I was going in expecting and wanting.

The character development is fine. We see some of the main characters make it over their slumps and things that are holding them back. Which is good but even though we see them work through these hurdles..... their development lands almost there but not quiet. Like 2.5 dimensional is the 3 dimensional characters that really draw you in.

The pacing was okay. I think personally I just had a hard time getting into it so it dragged a bit for me.

This book is fine, a decently cute read. I am always glad to see more WLW books hit the market. It's largely a demographic that is lacking in representation. I would probably reccomend it to a friend if they were looking for a medium length book that is fairly easy to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Isa.
68 reviews1 follower
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
February 11, 2026
ARC copy from a giveaway !
3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

This book was really good! Definitely a good book to read in the summertime, on the beach. If I would’ve read it in the summertime I feel like I would’ve enjoyed it more and rated it higher tbh.

We follow Jess, who plays on a local beach volleyball team and her goal for the entire book is to make it to the playoffs, to then win the playoffs and potential go pro.
She has a rival, Vivienne, who she can never win to and is perfect. Jess envies her, thinks she’s stuck up and full of herself, and too beautiful to deny.
Throughout the book she is constantly thrown in Vivienne’s path and the two of them begin to get closer, learn more about the other, and suddenly their rivalry doesn’t seem so strong.

I think the plot was great, the way the author writes is great and easy to read, the story itself had me flying through the pages. The romance was slow and didn’t rush into the relationship which I enjoyed—it’s hard to find that in romances nowadays. Both characters had lots of depth to them and it talked about how they both felt such pressure and resentment towards their families and things like that.

good book and good vibes
Profile Image for Katie Rufo Barksdale.
102 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 12, 2026
Have you ever thought, what if I looked at my life in a different light or through a different lens? What would be different? What would I see? How would I feel? What I enjoyed about this work was that the main character, Jess has a perception of herself and what other people think if her. Her negativity/filling of other people’s narrative detracts from her life. Her best friend and beach volleyball partner, Tania tries to support Jess but throughout the book becomes frustrated that Jess is carrying so much negativity. She just wants Jess to see herself the way others see her. When we see ourselves through the lens of our friends, life becomes lighter and more fulfilling. Jess reaches her full potential when she lets go and begins a friendship turned romance with Vivienne.

I enjoyed how author Jennifer Moffatt shows us how opening ourselves up to love makes life better. We can reach our full potential when we stop listening to the negative voice(s). This book had a good amount of Volleyball and good mix of supporting characters. I wish there was a touch more of spice but overall it was a good and quick read.
Profile Image for LeeAnn Hynden.
83 reviews5 followers
April 15, 2026
I enjoyed this book for a feel good, low stakes, palette cleanser.
I would say this is a YA read and sometimes I enjoy reading those for the fact that I don't have to think a whole lot while reading.

I am a huge sports person and especially volleyball, so I really enjoyed that part of this book. This is a book I would recommend people pick up in the summer because it just has that light hearted feel to it that I correlate with summer.

I appreciated the FF aspect of this book because there aren't that many out there compared to other tropes. Personally, I think this book had a good balance of personal life as well as volleyball in it. But it also portrayed what life was like for athletes and how much of their personal life is their sport of choice.

The one thing that was difficult for me was the formatting of the text messages. I read this on my Kindle and the texts were the same font as the other writing so there were times I missed that they were text messages at first. This might just be because I read it on Kindle though because the NetGalley app had different font for text messages.

Great read! Thank you for the opportunity to ARC read this book!
Profile Image for CMarie.
239 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 26, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This was my first time reading Jennifer Moffatt, and I didn’t realize going in that this would be a closed-door YA romance, which wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

The biggest issue for me was the pacing. It felt very slow, but not in a satisfying slow-burn way. The story dragged, and many scenes didn’t flow naturally into each other. Jess’s feelings were made very clear early on, and the repetition made it feel a bit heavy-handed. We get it. Jess REALLY hated Vivian!

While I usually enjoy sports in sports romances, the amount of beach volleyball content here felt overwhelming at times and contributed to the slower pacing for me.

I’m also not a fan of main characters hooking up with other people before getting together, so that aspect didn’t work for me.

Additionally, the text message formatting was difficult to follow when embedded within paragraphs. I hope that gets cleaned up in the final version.

Overall, this had a fun premise, but the execution and pacing didn’t fully land for me.
Profile Image for Jamie P-Kretzschmar.
188 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 9, 2026

I received an ARC of this book from St. Martin's Griffin. This is the first time I have read anything by Jennifer Moffatt.

The plot focuses on Jess and Vivienne, rivals in the Southern California Beach Volleyball League. Jess is dealing with a losing streak and a lack of confidence, while Vivienne appears to be winning at everything. They end up challenging each other while competing for the same spot in the pro leagues.

I liked the specific details of the setting, such as Jess’s wiener dog, Fleming, and the scenes at Maggie’s bar. It is a heartening, feel-good story that effectively highlights a niche sport.

However, I found the POV difficult to parse at times; it wasn't always immediately clear whose head we were in, which was distracting.

I also wished the romance was steamier, as the physical tension on the court didn't fully translate to their relationship. Despite that, I enjoyed the community aspect and hope this turns into a trilogy.
4 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
March 3, 2026
Bump, Set, Sparks is a book that is a patient read. The plot and characters take time to develop. However, character development is strong, especially with Jess. Her questioning and emotional growth never feels rushed or overexplained—it just unfolds in a very real way. Viviane is steady, confident, and grounded, which makes her a great counterbalance to Jess without feeling flat. The supporting characters add flavor to the read and give it a true vibe of stepping into someone else's life through words.

The romance is a very similar to a slow burn. Jess and Viviane don’t just fall into feelings overnight; it takes time, reflection, and small moments to get there. The timeline makes sense, and that’s what makes the payoff so satisfying when things finally click. Nothing feels forced or prematurely romantic. If you enjoy the slow-burn type, questioning romance with solid emotional buildup, this one is well worth the read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
26 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
April 24, 2026
Bump, Set, Sparks is a fun, feel-good sapphic sports romance that brings beach volleyball, rivalry, and slow-burn tension together in an engaging summer read. Jess is a passionate but struggling player whose confidence has taken a hit, especially as she faces off against the effortlessly talented and infuriatingly charming Vivienne. Jennifer Moffatt captures the competitive energy of their league while layering in humor, friendship dynamics, and that classic “I hate how much I notice you” chemistry.

What makes this book especially enjoyable is its emotional growth arc—Jess learning to get out of her own head, and both women slowly realizing there’s more beneath their rivalry than they expected. The volleyball setting adds a fresh, active backdrop, and the found-family feel of the team brings warmth to the story. Bump, Set, Sparks is a light, slow-burn romance that’s perfect for readers who love sports, sapphic tension, and a satisfying emotional payoff.
Profile Image for gracie.
698 reviews300 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
March 27, 2026
When I talk about using the sports in sports romances to build characterization and dynamics, this is exactly what I'm talking about. I loved how every single match added something to Jess's character, I felt I really got to know her. I loved how confident she got, how much she worked at her game, ugh she was adorable.

We only get to see Vivienne through her eyes so I do not really have much to say about her except that I found it strange that the author found it necessary to point out how small she was even as a pro-athlete. Misogyny really is doing a number on us all. I also do think there were a confusing number if recurring side characters but that got better eventually.

All in all, this was a really good read!! Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the arc in exchange for an honest review
Profile Image for Scott Cutlip.
44 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 9, 2026
Bump, Set, Sparks by Erin Moffatt is about Jess, who is in the middle of a losing streak on the volleyball court, and Vivienne, who always seems to be around to see Jess’s bad moments. Jess is annoyed by Vivienne, Vivienne is…well, something by Jess, but as we get most of the story from Jess’s point of view, we’re really not sure at first.

I understand the reasoning for looking at it mostly from Jess’s point of view, so that moment of enlightenment shines brightly, but I do think we lose a bit not seeing things through Vivienne.

Regardless, the interactions between the two are interesting, and I think Jess rounds a corner before I was too irritated by her. This novel certainly doesn’t open any new ground, but it is a pleasant read that is sure to have you happily spending a few hours in the upcoming summer.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.
Profile Image for Mal.
604 reviews9 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
January 20, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy

3.5 stars

What Jess wants more than anything is to be a professional beach volleyball player, but she worries that she won't reach her dream, especially since she and her partner, Tanya, have been on a losing streak in the Southern California Beach Volleyball League. And because her nemesis, Vivienne (and Vivienne's partner, Lee) have been dominating the scene since they joined the league. So when Jess oversleeps and misses the departure to a tournament, she's forced to ride with Vivienne. Being stuck in the car for several hours makes Jess start to wonder whether her impression of Vivienne might be too surface level. Maybe she and Vivienne could be friends--or more?
43 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 22, 2026
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book for review!

I'm not familiar with the world of beach volleyball at all, but that didn't stop this sapphic sports romance from being a fun read. There was more of the sport than a lot of sports romances include, but each chapter teaches you some terminology, and I really liked getting to learn a few things about a new sport. Jess and Vivienne were both great characters to get to know, and the development of their relationship - both personal and professional - was very satisfying. Some of the supporting characters could have been fleshed out a bit more; Jess's friend and dogsitter was my favorite of the background cast.
Profile Image for Tali Nusbaum.
156 reviews4 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
March 4, 2026
In my neverending quest for more queer sports romances, I decided to pick up this early beach volleyball read. And, the beach volleyball vibes were great. Unfortunately the rest of the book was a bit of a letdown. The pacing was off, the writing wasn't the strongest, and the resolution is a bit contrived at the end. The slow burn was SLOW but at least there was no third act breakup! There were definitely moments to enjoy, including the beach volleyball games, an adorable doggo, and enemies to lovers as a trope always hits, but overall this is not going to be high on my rec list. 2.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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