Strong Side

by Ava Sutton

Genres: Football, Sports, Romance

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 21, 2025

About the author

Ava Sutton is a sports enthusiast and author of spicy college and professional sports romance.

When she’s not writing, you can find her nose in a book, scrolling social media or planning dream vacations she someday hopes to take. She lives in Dallas, Texas with her two dogs.

Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

@avasuttonbooks

Reviews

[Erin Under_Covers_Smut_Lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶
Narrating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧.25

Casey King & Noelle Jame's Story

This is the 3rd book in the Walker U Stallions series. We've got the teasers in book 1 and 2 about how Casey has feelings for his best friend, Noelle, but she always had a boyfriend. Well, this is there story and it's filled with all kinds of feelings coming to light. I was ready for these 2, and the author brought her A game for this book!

Tropes:
🏈 College Sports Romance (Football)
🩵 Best Friends to Lovers
🏈 Fake Dating
🩵 It's Always Been You
🏈 He Falls First & Hard
🩵 Teach Me/Spicy Lessons
🏈 Hidden Feelings
🩵 Protective/Possessive MMC

Narrators: Thomas Oakley & Sarah McEwan
These two narrators did a good job. I actually enjoyed their voices as a whole and the way they sounded. I just wished there would have been more emotion/action behind certain parts. Like during the spicy lessons/spicy times, when there was moaning the person's name or gasping words, they just read the parts with very little emotion behind it. More so her than him, but that's just because he didn't have to read those moments often.

Also, I say this often but stand firmly behind my words; I wish this book was done in duet narrating. It's hard to find a great narrator that that can sound both male and female during this line. Visa versa as well. Since duet narration came out, it's changed audiobooks 100%. All books should be done that way now. The female narrator in this book didn't do a great job sounding male. It was ok, but not great like others I've heard.

This book is about best friends Casey and Noelle and their junior year at Walker U. They have been best friends since middle school and pretty much un-sepreable since then.

Casey feels more for Noelle than just friendship. He's been in love with her since he was old enough to actually understand what love was. He wants more than friendship with her, but is scared that she doesn't feel the same and that he's just going to be friend zoned forever.

Noelle is going through a breakup in this book to get loser ex, Trey. She caught him cheating with her roommate, Zoey at the end of sophomore year. So she turned to the only person that's always been there for her, Casey to help her.

Trey is a narcissist and such a terrible person. Even though he was cheater, he pretty much blamed Noelle and her lack of skills in the bedroom. He was always putting her down and making snide comments to her about her looks, her friends, pretty much everything in her life. Noelle ended up believing a lot of those things and it tore her down.

Now starting their junior year at Walker, Trey won't leave Noelle alone. He's following her around campus and waiting on her after her classes. Doesn't matter if she blocked him on social media and phone, Trey text her from unknown numbers. Saying that she is his and she'll come running back like always.

Noelle is done now, and won't take him back. So she blurted out to him one day after he followed her from class that she was dating someone else now and have hot, wild and raunchy s3x with him. When Treyv blew up wanting to know who, she blurted the first person that came to get mind, Casey.

Now Noelle thinks she'll have to talk Casey into fake dating her, but he jumped at the opportunity. He thought this was his one chance to actually convince her that they will be perfect together and show her how a real man should treat his woman.

Casey is the perfect boyfriend and I loved how he loved Noelle. He wasn't scared to show her and when Noelle asked him if he'd teach her s3x lessons, it took their relationship to the next level.

She believed Trey when he said she was bad in bed, but he was just a selfish lover. She described their love life as vanilla. Pretty much a wham bam thank you ma'am kind of situation. He never even given her an O before. But when she caught him cheating with her roommate, the way he was doing it with her was very different than with her. So she thought he could be right about her being bad in bed. Casey shut that down real quick.

The more that Noelle is in this fake relationship with Casey, the more it doesn't feel fake between them. She starts having all these big feelings for her best friend. Everyone tells her Casey has had a thing for her and they could see and witness it all the time. But it's like she didn't believe or just didn't hear what others told her.

Casey was her protector and always wanted to fix her problems for her. She figured out this wasn't healthy for them or their relationship. Trey pretty much down some major things to her way of thinking and feeling about herself. And when she sees Trey at the ball field one day... let's just say that this part will blow your mind. I did not see this past coming at all.

After seeing what she did, Noelle realized just how much damage he'd done to her and wanted counciling to help her self esteem and to be the best partner to Casey that he needed. I agree with her seeking help, because she did see herself in such a negative light. Even if Casey made her feel perfect everyday, deep inside she had these insecurities because of her ex.

I don't necessarily agree with what she did when she decided to get help. I always thought you were supposed to surround yourself with positive people during times like this. Only have people in your life that love you and want the best for you. But that's not what happened. Poor Casey during this time. Just when he thinks he's got the girl, something else happens to separate them.

I loved this book and the real life issues in it. It had real world issues in it that I'm sure a lot of people could relate to. I'm glad Noelle was able to overcome her ex and wise he done to her. It was more damage that she led her family and Casey to believe. When she decided to get help to be the best partner to Casey, I love her mindset and her reasons behind everything. I'm also happy her blinders were lifted and she could see and feel the love from Casey in more than friendship way.

This is a must-read book. It can be read as a standalone, but I recommend the series. It doesn't matter what order you read them in either. I started out with book 4, then book 2, then book 1, then book 5 and ended with this one. It's a pretty easy time line to follow along with in the books.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

🏈 ARC Review 🏈

Title: Strong Side
Author: Ava Sutton
Series: Walker University Stallions Book 3 (Standalone)
Pages: 242

- Tropes -

🏈 Best Friends To Lovers
🔥 Spicy Lessons
🏈 He Falls First / Always Been You
🔥 Fake Dating
🏈 Who Did This To You?


- Favorite Quotes -

"My heart belongs to her. Always has, always will."

“Our story is my favorite, and I want to live in it forever.”

- Thoughts -

Oh. My. Heart. This book wrecked me in the softest, most swoon-worthy way.
Casey King has been in love with his best friend Noelle James since forever—but never crossed the line. Not even when she was dating someone else. Not even when her heart was bruised. He stayed. He waited. He loved.

And when Noelle finds herself in need of a fake boyfriend to scare off her walking red flag of an ex?
Casey doesn’t hesitate.
Because he’s always been hers. Even if she doesn’t see it yet.

Their chemistry? Explosive.
Their friendship? Rock-solid.
The build-up to more? Chef’s kiss.

I loved how this story handled emotional healing—how Noelle had to unlearn the damage of past emotional abuse and rediscover her own worth. Watching her grow into the girl who knew she deserved Casey was one of the most beautiful parts of the book.

And Casey? Sweet cinnamon roll with a possessive streak. Book boyfriend royalty. The way he protected her, cherished her, waited for her—it had me crying AND swooning.

Ava Sutton continues to impress me with this DEBUT series. I don’t know what she’s putting in the pages, but I’m hooked. And “Strong Side” might just be my favorite Stallion yet.

My Rating: 5 ⭐️
Spice: 4 🌶️

Couple: Casey King and Noelle James

[Sarina Vega · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I swear, I couldn’t love you more. Then tomorrow comes, and I love you even more. Every day it’s like that for me. I guess that’s what happens: you fall in love with your best friend.”

Casey has been best friends with Noelle since they were young. He has been pining over her for all those years. Casey was afraid to risk his friendship if he pursued more. Now, Noelle is trying to escape a toxic relationship. In order to get her ex-boyfriend to leave her alone, she lies and tells him she’s now dating Casey. When Casey finds out ,he decides to show her what it is like to be treated properly! Casey and Noelle’s relationship rapidly evolves into something real and explosive. Who knows you better than your bestie?

I swooned so hard for Casey King! He’s the epitome of the perfect book boyfriend. Give me a cinnamon roll with a side of spicy, and I’m a goner. He treated Noelle like the queen she deserved to be. I loved watching the progression of their relationship evolving into something intimate. Ava has a gift for writing swoony MC’s. This series found family is one of my favorites. I’m excited to see what she has coming next for us.

Tropes: football, college, friends to lovers, fake dating, friends with benefits, teach me, it’s always been you.

Thank you so much, Ava, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Merit Myra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to preface this review by saying the friends-to-lovers trope isn’t my favorite, but this story is well written and had me hooked — I genuinely couldn’t put it down. I appreciated how the FMC was honest with herself and her guy, vulnerable, and willing to seek help when she was ready; her emotional growth felt authentic and respectful. While the male main character was almost overly understanding to the point of feeling unrealistic at times, it added a dreamy, wish-fulfilling quality for the book. Even though this is part of a series, I didn’t feel lost or like I needed to read the first two books to follow along. A heartfelt, engaging sports romance emphasizing the importance of friendship.

[Berta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these 2 main characters. Enjoyed this one alot. It's funny because for once, I chose not to finish the last few chapters because my heart was happy with how things were going so well, like at 89% or something. Like I didn't need, or want to read any possible break up/make up. I will never know how it ended but it's ok.

[Nelly]

Should I read it ?Is it worth or the cover is just niccceee !!!