The hottest kiss of his life was with a complete stranger. Thank goodness he’ll never have to see her again….
James Buchanan never anticipated he’d fall for the five-foot sorority pledge that leaped into his arms, and then into his life. With an entire competitive season on the line, the last thing is he needs is anything that will break his focus, which is why he decides to do the only sane thing possible: get the girl he can’t stop thinking about off his team. Armed with a foolproof plan, he knows the sacrifice will be worth it when he makes the national team. But James can’t help himself from protecting her when he should be tormenting her, fighting for her when he should be ignoring her.
Esmeralda Steadman never expected to run into the hot kiss guy she totally accosted on pledge night, but when she reports for her first day with Castoria’s rowing team, she’s met with the same soulful green eyes that have been haunting her dirty fantasies. That wouldn’t be so bad, except Ezzie has dreams of her own, and a prestigious internship that will take all of her attention to win. Despite not being built for love, Ezzie finds herself staring at his naked body during art class and laughing at his stupid beaver jokes.
With each of them so driven, the only option is to keep their hands, and growing feelings, to themselves. But will they be able to resist the pull of their perfect one night kiss?
Meet Castoria U’s elite rowing team in this laugh out loud college sports romance by Rosie Birch that readers are comparing to Isla Madden Mills, Fiona Cole, and Pippa Grant.
There was something enticing about this marriage between art and sport, the steady hands and stubborn determination that guided them, the passion and known heartbreak that united them. There was a hope, a tender love, that burned between brighter than every doubt and every fear that threatened Ezzie and James, making their emotional chemistry so beautiful to read.
Castoria University is a fun and quirky (and the location sounds absolutely stunning!) college setting, where beaver puns abound, all sorts of antics have you laughing out loud, where kisses are stolen in the night and where family is found. It was the perfect setting for Ezzie and James slow-burn and complimented their individual growths beautifully.
The amount of sexual referencing used to describe their initial attraction to one another did bother me, however, I was glad to see it took a turn after the first third of the book as more emotions came into play. Other than this, there was so much that I loved about this story!
Birch’s commitment to the beaver theme is to be admired - seriously, so many beaver references 😂- and I loved that Ezzie wasn’t straight out of high school and into college. That’s not something you often see in college romances, so thank you for this added detail. I appreciated James’ determination to forge his own path in pursuit of his dreams and I would also like to commend Birch for the representation presented through James’ learning and visual processing disorder. They’ve done a great job at crafting a lovely story in which many will feel seen.
For a cute premise that explores the beauty of art and the strength of rowing and realistic characters navigating life’s ups and downs in a college setting, I recommend giving this read a go! 4⭐️
Thank you to the author for the ARC copy. I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.
This book surprised me in the best way. I loved the realistic college town, the unique and fun characters, and the colourful art and rowing plotlines. I finished the book in under a day, and I regret nothing.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the way the characters dealt with their first kiss. To me, it felt like all they focused on for the first half of the story was their desire for the other, while maintaining that the rules said they couldn’t do anything about it.
But then things really started moving when their emotional attachment to each other started to grow. And while it happened a little slower than I prefer, it did make sense for their characters.
I loved how the author kept certain things from us through the creative use of both POVs. I also loved the excellent description of the quirky college and the surprising reveals that made so many things fall perfectly into place.
Overall, this book had a cute premise, realistic characters, and an ending that made me smile. I fell in love with these characters and will definitely read more from this author.
I received an ARC of this book in order to facilitate my voluntary and honest review.
This is such a fun and delightful debut novel from Rosie Birch! Rosie's writing is engaging, well paced and has a really lovely casual tone that creates the perfect way to express this college age romance. Rosie's characters are fun and well rounded, both the hero and heroine have a great drive and ambition, so even though they are in college they never feel to immature for where they should be in their lives. I also from the premise of a rowing team to be interesting and unique to what I have read in sports romances in the past, so if that is of interest to you this is definitely a novel to explore!
Rosie Birch's debut novel Rowing Steady starts of with a kiss and an instant attraction between James and Ezzie. When Ezzie joins James' rowing team as the coxswain the chemistry and attraction between them threatens to boil over and they both must learn how to work together in order to succeed.
Birch uses humor, heart and real life moments in order to immerse the reader in the small town college atmosphere of this novel. I think she does a wonderful job balancing moments of lightness and depth to explore the characters, their relationship and how they grown throughout this novel. I love that James has strong convictions and feelings, he has found something he loves and he works hard to succeed in it. Ezzie is also the same way she has dreams that she is working towards and is starting to learn what it means to stand on her own feet as well as what it might mean to let someone into her life. While this novel does have many light hearted moments and silly beaver jokes, Birch also takes some care in exploring more hard hitting topics through James and Ezzie. James has a form of dyslexia which makes certain subject and things take longer, but Ezzie shows him that this does not limit him in any way. There is also some moments of attempted sexual assualt that should be noted between Ezzie and another student that is weirdly encouraged by the head sorority sister of Ezzie's house which leads to Ezzie finding the courage to stand up for herself in this awkward situation.
Overall, I found this novel to be a well rounded, well writing debut and I am definitely interested in seeing how Rosie's writing grows through out this series and throughout her career!
Thank you so much to Rosie Birch for providing me with an eARC, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
This was a cute and easy read. I really liked the characters and I loved the way they met. Both James and Ezzie had their stuff they were dealing with and it was nice to see them help each other out. There was some good tension when they were trying to resist each other before they finally gave in.
I would’ve preferred there was less conversation/reference to genitals being attracted to each other and the ending felt a little bit rushed, everything happened extremely fast once they finally got together. There was also a bit of miscommunication which is my least favourite trope but it’s resolved quite quickly.
Would recommend if you’re looking for a cute romance read with a little bit of spice.
4.75 Stars! I’m loving this series!!! I actually started this series out of order and read Not Rowing to Lie first. And it was amazing! So I obviously had to start at the beginning. The writing was just as good, the characters very well written and flushed out, and the story was impossible not to love! I loved Ezzie! She was artistic, sweet, fun, and most importantly, authentic. I really enjoyed her whole character arc. As amazing as Ezzie was, James stole the show for me! Not only did he steal the show, he made of with a bit of my heart! He was such a beautifuly flawed, yet wonderful human. I don’t want to give anything away, but love that his personal struggle was one that has such stigma attached to it and so many people have different types of it, and it was just written about so well! There was only one question I was left with at the end…what was the scandal?!? I have to admit that I love all the beaver stuff! From the funny food names to the pranks, I loved it!
James is trying to make his way thru college to ultimately be a professional rower. His father wants him to study finance so he can work for the family business. When James decides to follow his dream and not his fathers plan, his father denies him money, making it difficult for James to fund his education and hobby.
Ezzie is a freshman at Castoria U and an art major. She dreams of working at an art museum and landing the internship of a lifetime. She’s also pledging for Phi O sorority. Her mother was a Phi O at the same sorority house, but since she had passed, Ezzie has been trying to find her father and hopes the Phi O house may have some clues.
Rowing Steady is a can’t-put-down story of James and Ezzie falling for each other while trying not to fall for each other. Both focused heavily in their rowing careers, Ezzie brings out the best in James. This book is filled to the brim with funny, laugh out loud moments of cheesy beaver jokes and so much more! (I still picture a beaver mascot doing the Macarena in my mind!!) I crushed this story in one day, not being able to put it down. The twists and turns this story took made me fall in love with it more and more, chapter after chapter. While it’s classified as a romance, there is a second story of Ezzie finding her father that stole my heart. It brought tears to my eyes at all the right moments. This is a brilliant story of love, friendship and family that I highly recommend!
Read this book if you love the tropes of: Grumpy Sunshine, Alternating POVs, friends to lovers, slow burn romance, college sports romance
The only reason this did not get a full 5⭐️ from me is because I felt like there’s were some wording/run-on sentence issues along with a lot of repetition in the first 1/3 of the book. Once I hit the 40% mark -ish, it all went away for me and turned around brilliantly!! When you pick this book up, push thru the first bit, it’s soooo worth it!!!!!
▪ I know what I feel. I know she's one of a kind. I know I'm better with her in my life than not. ▪
Thank you to the author for providing an ARC for a honest review.
I love discovering new authors, especially if they write books I enjoyed! This was one of them.
The first 40% was a bit harder to get through and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it as the characters kept talking about how much their genitals were attracted to the other. It was getting a bit weird to be honest. But after that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The characters showed development, the story was flowing, it was going places.
Following the story of Ezzie and James you see them both growing. James was always highly focused on rowing but now he has met Ezzie and finds out that there might be more in life than just rowing. It also shows him opening up about his life and his 'secret' which he is ashamed off but she fully accepts him. It was such a beautifull moment and my heart got a little bit gooey.🥰 Not only James, but also Ezzie goes through changes and she realizes she might be worthy of love and being loved after all. But aren't we all?
The only thing what felt like just dumped in there and could have been more developed was the found family part, I would have liked it if there was more time spend on that as it was one of the reasons she transferred to Castoria.
Overall, it was a nice sweet romance read with a bit of steam. 🛶 •
If you like Grumpy/Sunshine trope, pick up this book as fast as you can! Rowing Steady is about Ezzie and James who both have their own goals in life and go after their passion. One dreams to be a rower in the national team and the other wants to get the internship in a big art museum.
At one third of the book, I was like huhhh?? because both characters keep talking about their desires (and their genitals) towards each other but deny it all the time. Also, there is a little miscommunication between them so it kinda ruin my reading mood. I'm sorry this trope always make me frustrated but I promise you it's only a tiny bit of it and you'll get your compensation afterwards :D
Nevertheless, starting from chapter 13 onwards (I think), I'm able to catch up what's going on. Things that I love about the characters are: always eager to know, have a strong determination to achieve their dreams, and bold. All in all, the characters are personable (minus their monologue in the first few chapters).
Not forgetting that Rosie Birch also included the representation of learning disability and visual processing disorder, which I find very helpful in spreading awareness about this. Since this is a sports romance book, I like how Rosie chose rowing as the sport as most of author opt to write football, hockey, and basketball. Great choice, Rosie!
This was a sweet and cute college romance. It was my first book by Rosie Birch, and I enjoyed reading it.
It centers around college kids Ezzie and James who are both on the rowing team. One unexpected kiss leads them to catch feelings but the circumstances around them being teammates, force them to be friends. They both have paths that they have carved out for themselves, but as their friendship grows, the relationship between one another starts to gain importance.
I enjoyed having the backdrop being rowing and learning more about the sport. It was interesting to have scenes take place during practice and competitions to bring the reader into the world of rowing. The story felt original that way.
There were some fun college antics, a lot of chemistry between Ezzie and James, and both characters growing from a past that had hurt them. It was a quick and easy read and I enjoyed having something fun and light.
Thank you to the author for providing an ARC to me for an honest review.
"The hottest kiss of his life was with a complete stranger. Thank goodness he’ll never have to see her again…." (Blurb from Amazon)
This is a sweet College/Sports Romance about James and Ezzie that tackles some big issues that give the characters depth but somehow manages to keep it a sweet, light read.There is a little steam and some good laughs. Many brought by the Beaver mascot.
I read this one in just two sittings because of these characters and their chemistry.
I also got super into the rowing backstory and I've never been a fan of the sport before. Rosie Birch did a wonderful job of building this small college town community that had me invested.
Overall, I enjoyed this read and recommend it to Romance Readers.
This comes out TOMORROW April 28th. It will be available on Kindle Unlimited. It can also be pre-ordered on Amazon NOW!
Rosie’s debut novel was an absolute delight. I never had an interest in rowing, but after watching a movie about it on Netflix the other day, I’m now obsessed. Finding this author came at the perfect time. Rosie gives you an in-depth look at how the rowers interact with the coxswain, while still keeping it flirty and fun.
This fun Collegiate rowing sports romance starts with one steamy kiss and some cherry lip gloss. Right off the bat, James is a sweet angel. He is driven (for good reason). His head down attitude leads people to believe he is a grump. His attraction to Ezzie starts of scorching and just becomes so wholesome (and still scorching). While this isn’t technically a friends to lovers, watching their relationship develop through mutual understanding of hardships and the hand life dealt you is really sweet. I am SO excited to read #2.
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced reader copy of this book, it’s a very short and sweet sports romance. I really enjoyed the internal discussions that each character had with themselves. There were a few moments where I felt like I wanted them to stop with the talking about the sexual thoughts that they wanted to do to each other and just get it over with and do it… But I often find myself laughing and enjoying the story!
I felt like a few parts of the story could’ve been expanded upon like a James’s relationship with his family and Ezzlie‘s attempt to find her dad. I so wanted to be more invested in both of those plot lines but couldn’t bring myself to. Aside from that it was a simple enjoyable book would definitely recommend!
Let me start off by saying I absolutely loved this book. There is so much laughter and chemistry between James and Esmeralda. They are perfect for each other and are there for each other when events come in there path. Highly recommend this book
I didn’t hate this book but I also didn’t love it. I think the author does really well writing. I just wasn’t into the whole sorority and rowing thing. I liked James and Essies chemistry. I just couldn’t connect to the story.