e-Audio, 13:46:23
Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer & Ben Holtzmuller
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape (Berkley)
Read from: January 30-31, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a copy of this e-ALC from the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review.)
Content Warning: Sexual Content, Injury/Injury Detail, Emotional Abuse, Child Abuse, Toxic Friendship, Death of a Parent, Domestic Abuse, Bullying
For Readers Interested In: Adult, Sparkly Covers, Realistic Fiction, Sports, RomanceA competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was….. a journey. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to say about this. On the one hand I realized they were young. On the other hand I realized this was less of a story about what I was expecting, and more about mess. I had to come to terms with a lot of this story and I’m not sure if its me I’m disappointed in or the book itself.
Ok so when I say that, there were a lot of factors. I don’t want to spoil this for anyone, but let’s just say the kink in this was so hyped up and it was supposed to be so spicy, etc., etc, but it just wasn’t? It was like your usual kind of romance. Maybe it was tamed down after going to trad pub (I heard this was originally self pubbed when it was named WHET) but like geez….. They had to have cut a lot lol Because this was kind of basic? Like they made this whole big deal about the list and we still got this? Idk maybe I’m being dramatic, but I felt weird about it.
And the “friend?!” Y’all that was the dumbest thing I had ever seen. Like for the love of all that’s WHET would you do something like that if you didn’t want this outcome? I truly had trouble calling this realistic fiction because I honestly didn’t believe that there was someone dumb enough to do this. Like that seemed like torture. Especially if the other partner said they didn’t mind, they weren’t going to hold anything against you. Idk she needed to work through A LOT but chose to let it get to this point instead. It was hard to watch (read? listen to?)
I don’t think I would have rated this as high if I didn’t remember that they were young. They made a lot of mistakes with each other and with the kink, but I did chalk it up to them being young. HOWEVER, I found it weird because they were saying they had been doing it for while. And likeeeeee, What? Idk I hate being critical of this because I do think some of it was lost in trad and because they were young, but woof. I don’t think this is something to cut corners with? It can get harmful if not done properly.
I feel like I keep repeating myself, so on to something else. I think the plot itself was just ok. However I loved the sports aspect of it. I’ve never been a diver, but I have been an athlete coming back from an injury. I appreciated what felt like a lot of research (or experience) that was done into that. The mental that goes into completing something that once harmed you, even something that you love isn’t easily portrayed in words. But I felt the worry, the scared, and the betrayal that she felt while trying to get back to where she was.
Also with the main characters, I did like them. Outside of their spicy times I enjoyed their relationship. The way he always wanted to make sure she was ok before going to that messy girl and the way she was so concerned about her friend. Although that was also her downfall, I liked the way she was such a great friend. I do wish they would have showed more moments of them being a couple vs them running from their friend. But eh, I get it. This just wasn’t that type of book. But that grand gesture? Yeah that whole cleaned out the bank account thing had me laughing. Because ain’t no way lolol But it was cute anyway.
This wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I don’t think I have the right to talk about a lot of this since I’m not an expert in kink, especially in power play, so I wanted to keep everything kind of surface level. If you have more insight, I’d love to hear it. Also, was it just me or was this long af for no reason lolol
Overall, I give this,
