Review — Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan

Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan is a solid and beautifully written romance novel, that I would also classify as women's fiction. It's an epic forbidden love story, set in the NBA world between a rookie basketball player and a recent college grad aspiring to work in sport marketing. It was really refreshing to read a sport romance that's not about hockey, baseball or American football. Let me speak this into existence : I'd love more books about basketball and soccer players! 

I also enjoyed reading about two multiracial characters, it was an important part of the story not just there for the pretty (even though the pretty got a little bit ridiculous at some point : violet-blue eyes for real? lol). 

The forbidden aspect of this love story was really interesting as well, for once it's not about dating the little sister, daughter of, or a student/teacher thing, nothing is taboo about this love story it's all about circumstances and timing. When August and Iris met, they had an undeniable, tangible attraction, an instant and deep bond, but it happened a year too late. They could only have moments together, they could only hope for a future together. 
Long Shot is a very impactful read, I will never forget these characters and the important lessons they taught me throughout their journey. It was very difficult to read at times but I felt like the book spoke directly to me, challenged me, provoked me and in my opinion it doesn't matter if you've been in this situation, or if you think that you're too strong and independent to end up like Iris, one thing this book taught me is that we're all stronger than we think but abuse can happen to anyone . Women are taught to endure so much more than we should. This needs to change and I really felt like with long shop Kendall Ryan realized that she had a platform to reach many of us and have a positive influence and used it. With the sweet love of August and Iris she told us "This is how it should be and you all deserve of it.".

I would definitely recommend this book to every woman with a trigger warning due to graphic descriptions of rape, physical and emotional abuse.

4 stars 

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Review— The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

FAKE DATING WITH A TWIST!

I loved this cute romance novel! Jasmine Guillory took one of the most overused romance trope and wrote a unique and realistic story. 

THE MOST NATURAL, LOVELY CHEMISTRY!
Alexa and Drew were delightful together. They had one of the best meet cute EVER, once I finished that scene I just knew they were IT for each other. It was the most natural, lovely chemistry. You could just tell that they had FUN together and I loved that. So much fun that it made total sense for them to try a long distance relationship. It's probably this aspect of the story that kept me invested . So often when a romance novelist use the fake dating trope it last for the entire book and imo it's not the most interesting choice, when the book is over i'm never totally convinced by the HEA unless they're a big fat epilogue to make up for it. Here you get the comedy of a fake wedding date but you also get to experience what happens after it, when they're back to reality and in their case reality means self-doubt, flying every week end, missing each other, falling in love, fighting and REALLY getting to know the other. 


They were much more than a sexy pairing, Drew and Alexa really cared about each other. They were interested in each other beyond sex and even when they were struggling to define their relationship you could feel that what they had was special. One of my favorite thing was how supportive they were when it came to their respective careers. They're both passionate about their work and it was nice that even though they worked in totally different environment they both cared enough to ask how the other was doing, to ask about specific projects or patients in Drew's case.

A RELATABLE COUPLE !
Jasmine Guillory said that she wanted to write a romance with characters that look like her friends, live in big cities, had careers they're really invested in and all of this trully made the book for me. Alexa work for her city and she had a particular project that she was passionate about, I don't want to reveal it because it's one of my favorite storyline in this book, but the fact that Drew kept asking her about it really solidified their relationship for me.

Some people prefer when fictional interracial couple don't talk about race and don't make a big deal of it I personally don't agree, I think it's great that Alexa was scared to ruin everything by talking about their relationship status but never compromised when it came to this. She was NOT afraid to confront him about his privilege as a white man, she didn't hesitate to ask him if there would be any black or poc guests at the wedding and Drew was never defensive or made her feel like he wanted to avoid the topic or like he had nothing to learn from her. I think it SUPER important to represent that kind of healthy dynamic in an interracial because it's cool to be attracted and fall in love with a black/poc but some people don't want to deal with our struggle or hear about it and that's just toxic imo especially when these people end up with black kids and refuse to hear that they'll experience things differently and that at some point they WILL have to have THE talk.

The Wedding Date is an absolute GEM, I just know that it'll be one of the best books of this year. Even though i'm unapologetic about my preference for this genre, this book is much more than a romance, it's a love story, it has an amazing cast of secondary characters and compelling relevant storylines. I'm gonna campain HARD for the Choice Awards this year, move over Colleen Hoover!

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