erin

PRE-RELEASE:

I NEED MORE AARONJULIETTE AND JAMES I MISS THEM SM.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.0★

Honestly, I’m not 100% sure on my feelings for this book, and I don’t know whether 4.25 is an accurate rating, but I’ll change it later, if needed.

While I certainly enjoyed this book, I never felt particularly inclined to pick it up. I wasn’t bored while reading, and I didn’t dread picking it up, like I felt with The Right Move, but it wasn’t how I felt with Caught Up, where I just wanted to be reading it all the time, and was excited about reading it. I think that if I didn’t like the characters a lot, though, then it would probably be a similar rating to The Right Move, which I rated 3.5 stars.

Speaking of the characters, I loved Isaiah. The funny, sweet character who hides their true feelings is probably my favourite stereotype of character, as two of my favourite characters ever are like that. He was so sweet towards Kennedy, and out of all the MMCs so far, I think he’s the best boyfriend/husband. I wish his complicated relationship with Dean had been more developed, personally. I felt like there was a lot of implication that Dean was quite a big problem with Isaiah’s issues, but then it was brushed over pretty easily near the end. It also felt like it was built up to be something in Caught Up, so I guess I was just kind of expecting more in that regard.

Kennedy Kay wasn’t really what I was expecting. I feel like she’s not as cold as the book was trying to make out? She’s certainly very aloof and kind of standoffish, but I don’t think cold really covers her personality. Maybe it’s just because she’s different with Isaiah, and we never much get to see her around people she’s uncomfortable with, other than her parents, but even then she just seemed to be that: uncomfortable. Not cold. I also feel like, other than her fear of intimacy, there’s not a whole lot to her character, other than her issues with her parents and the problem of sexism* in her line of work. I don’t know, compared to the other characters, she feels kind of boring to me, but I also relate to her in the way of fear of intimacy. I think she’s also the best girlfriend out of all the FMCs so far. Her giving Isaiah the colour blind glasses in the epilogue was so sweet.

*I really loved how Tomforde spoke of such an important topic. I’m not in sports, but I know how much misogyny is involved in lots of women’s jobs regarding sports and also the world of medicine.

Overall, I think I’d give this either a 4 star or a 4.25. I don’t think it’s any higher than a 4.25, nor is it any lower than a 3.5. If it weren’t for the fact that I wasn’t particularly intrigued, and the fact that I had fairly high expectations (as I’m pretty sure this is the fan favourite in the series), it probably would’ve been rated a little higher.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.5★

I bawled, blubbered, wailed, and all the other disgusting synonyms for crying you can do at this book. Simply because my heart couldn’t take seeing two people so in love lose each other, even if it was only for a short amount of time.

Kai Rhodes was genuinely such an awesome character. While he was just as protective as Zanders and Ryan, there was a gentleness to him that set him apart from them, and that was what made me love him so much more, as a MMC and love interest, than the other two. He’s such a good guy and a great dad and I loved watching his character and feelings towards Miller grow. Miller was the snarky FMC we all know and love. Again, she’s vastly different from the previous FMCs of the Windy City series, and honestly, she’s probably my favourite yet. Watching her heart grow towards Kai, and most specifically Max, made me want to cry from cuteness. And I did, as I mentioned at the start of this review. I also loved witnessing her relationship with her dad, and her complicated feelings of guilt around him quitting his job for her, and how that resolved in the end. You don’t understand how much I <i>loved</i> Miller and Kai’s dynamic. Like, the final night she was with them before she left, I was crying so pathetically. I got so attached to them throughout this book, it hurt my heart to see them separated.

As a romance book, I think the pacing was amazing. There was hardly a moment where I was bored, which was refreshing after the long as hell first book and The Right Move, where I was bored after the first 45%.

Overall, this is my favourite book so far in the Windy City series. It was just…so good. Like, I can’t even explain it. There’s hardly ever any romance books that make me sad to finish, but this is absolutely one of them. Kai and Miller and Max hold my heart right now, and I just need to sit with them for a few days before I move onto Play Along. I think Play Along does have potential to dethrone this book as my favourite, as I’m pretty sure Isaiah and Kennedy are the fan-favourite couple, but I’m not gonna get my hopes up too high. But I already adore Isaiah, and I’m intrigued to see how Dean will play a role in their dynamic, because we already know he’s a dick who likes to play with Isaiah. Anyway, please read this book, it’s so good.

(no rating yet!)

I bawled, blubbered, wailed, and all the other disgusting synonyms for crying you can do at this book. Simply because my heart couldn’t take seeing two people so in love lose each other, even if it was only for a short amount of time.

Kai Rhodes was genuinely such an awesome character. While he was just as protective as Zanders and Ryan, there was a gentleness to him that set him apart from them, and that was what made me love him so much more, as a MMC and love interest, than the other two. He’s such a good guy and a great dad and I loved watching his character and feelings towards Miller grow. Miller was the snarky FMC we all know and love. Again, she’s vastly different from the previous FMCs of the Windy City series, and honestly, she’s probably my favourite yet. Watching her heart grow towards Kai, and most specifically Max, made me want to cry from cuteness. And I did, as I mentioned at the start of this review. I also loved witnessing her relationship with her dad, and her complicated feelings of guilt around him quitting his job for her, and how that resolved in the end. You don’t understand how much I <i>loved</i> Miller and Kai’s dynamic. Like, the final night she was with them before she left, I was crying so pathetically. I got so attached to them throughout this book, it hurt my heart to see them separated.

As a romance book, I think the pacing was amazing. There was hardly a moment where I was bored, which was refreshing after the long as hell first book and The Right Move, where I was bored after the first 45%.

Overall, this is my favourite book so far in the Windy City series. It was just…so good. Like, I can’t even explain it. There’s hardly ever any romance books that make me sad to finish, but this is absolutely one of them. Kai and Miller and Max hold my heart right now, and I just need to sit with them for a few days before I move onto Play Along. I think Play Along does have potential to dethrone this book as my favourite, as I’m pretty sure Isaiah and Kennedy are the fan-favourite couple, but I’m not gonna get my hopes up too high. But I already adore Isaiah, and I’m intrigued to see how Dean will play a role in their dynamic, because we already know he’s a dick who likes to play with Isaiah. Anyway, please read this book, it’s so good.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 3.5★

As much as I loved this book, and it's characters, and the couple overall, there were two main issues that stop this book from being a four star.

The first one is that I got really bored, like, 45% through, and was honestly dreading picking my kindle up a lot of the time. It's disappointing, because I really liked the first 40%, and was even laughing out loud at some moments, but then I suddenly found myself disconnecting from the story, for some reason.

The second one is that I found the conflict to be a bit unbelievable. Like, I know the pregnancy test was quite sudden and all, but, Ryan, babe, you bought her a house. For you and hers' kids. You paid for her fertility treatments. So she could have children. And we know Ryan, he's told to us to be an unimpulsive guy -- if this man was not planning on having kids with her, and is going to freak out the moment he sees a pregnancy test, why even buy her a house? And pay for her fertility treatments? Also, for thirty pages they were having a whole arc about trusting each other, only for him to turn around and basically accuse her of trapping him? I have immense sympathy for the guy, don't get me wrong, and I know it was probably a trauma response, but this just doesn't seem very thought through on Liz Tomforde's part.

Onto the things I liked.

I loved Indy. She was basically an improved Allie Hayes. And she also reminded me a lot of one of my friends, so I think I honestly just kept reading because I loved reading a book where the main character reminded me so much of someone I adored. I enjoyed her whole arc, but I didn't like the part where she was like Oh is it really worth me having kids if I can't have them with Ryan. Look, I've never been in love, so I can't really put myself in her shoes, but I do know that Indy wanted kids her whole life, and it seems ridiculous to me that she was planning to throw away her dreams of having kids just because Ryan didn't want them. Though, it does fit into her character with her catering to everyone else's needs, but I don't think that's what Tomforde meant by this internal monologue.

Despite my rant, I really did like Ryan. While his actions towards the end aggravated me and didn't seem to line up with his actions, I liked him as a character and how protective he was. He did seem really similar to Zanders in that regard (and other traits as well, to be honest) though, so I'm hoping the next MMCs differ a little from them in terms of personality.

Overall, I did like this book, but as I said, I found myself bored and I didn't like the way the conflict between the two characters was crafted. I'm excited to move onto the next books, and I'm excited to learn about Kai.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.5★

As a teenage girl, I never thought I would be able to fully enjoy adult romance books until I was older. Aside from a few exceptions, I could never connect with the main characters and their life struggles, nor did I particularly enjoy the couple, as it just seemed like they had sex and had a few meaningful conversations and then decided they were in love.

But this book changed that for me.

First of all, characters.

Evan Zanders really is the most lovable jackass to ever lovable jackass. Not only is he an absolute softie on the inside, he's also pure girl-dad energy, both with Ella and his dog, Rosie. He's so protective over his family and friends, and that sentiment is extended to Stevie almost immediately (like, 25% in). I love the way he was so reassuring about Stevie's body-image issues, and that the fact that she was curvy never even crossed his mind when it came to how attracted he was to her.

I'll admit, even though it was necessary for character development, him fumbling when Stevie asked him whether he could believe that she loved him really pissed me off. This guy had been trying to get her back for, like, weeks, and then as soon as he had a chance to win her back, he threw that out there. But, at least he's honest, which we love.

Next up: Stevie Shay. I think Liz Tomforde did such an excellent job of portraying body-image issues. I feel like eating disorder representation is fairly prominent in literature (from books I've read), but I feel like there's very rarely any curvy-representation in terms of struggling with body image (again, from books I read). I'm not an expert on this, so keep that in mind, but I think Tomforde handles it really sensitively, and I love that, as it's so difficult to find with some books.

Let's talk about character development and trauma development. I really thought this book would be somewhat similar to Off-Campus in terms of development, and I honestly don't think Elle Kennedy wrote that very well, neither trauma or character development. But this book was very pleasantly surprising. Not only is character development obvious by the end, it also happens throughout the book, instead of just giving us a paragraph about how they've changed near the end. Evan's development with his anger issues, his abandonment issues, and his relationship with his father (and mother) are all very excellently written. Stevie's development with her confidence, and her negative relationship with her mother are both well-handled, too.

Stevie and Ryan's break-up was honestly heart-breaking, I can't lie. I sobbed. Because this book is longer than most romance books (almost 500 pages), you connect more to the characters and their dynamic, so seeing them apart makes it all the more painful. I'll admit though, as aforementioned, I feel like their break-up period could've been over sooner, and that this book could've finished around the 85% mark, rather than continuing on for another 70 pages.

Overall, this book was really impressive to me, for reasons I've already stated. I love the characters, I love the development, I love the couple (which, side note, I was re-listening to the Lover album by Taylor Swift today, and almost every song is them-coded), and I love the book. Going into this book, I was kind of trepidatious, because so many people said they weren't a big fan of this and gave up, and despite the fact that it's (I guess) kind of slow in pacing, I was hooked almost immediately. Maybe it's because I read it on kindle, so I read it quicker than if I would've if I had a physical copy?

As I've said, I think it could've been a bit shorter, so that's why it's knocked down half a star. But overall, great book, and I'm excited to continue the series.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.25★

CHARACTERS

Sabrina James: She was very interesting, which was certainly a breath of fresh air after Allie, who I found a tad boring. I like how her trauma was (fairly) developed without specifically saying she had abandonment issues, and how it was stated how she was still struggling with them towards the end of the book, as it's not something that just disappears (unlike Dean's grief because hello what happened there??). I feel like her character actually clearly progresses over time, without there being a regression of a third-act breakup. You can see by the end, specifically the final three paragraphs, that she's grown as a person, and I love that because I don't think we really got that with the other FMCs.

John Tucker: He and Garrett are currently fighting it out for top place as my favourite MMC in this series. He's so respectful and sweet and patient, and just the dream guy, really. The only thing that kind of cringed me out was when Sabrina called him an 'alpha' early on in the book. I know I'm so nit-picky about things, but I feel like wording is important and it made me roll my eyes a bit.

SABRINA AND TUCKER

These guys are a good example of how the pregnancy trope can actually be done well. There's backstory to their relationship, and there's actually a date which is mind-blowing because there's been no dates, apart from the one with Logan and Grace. I feel like they had a strong emotional connection because of the date, and that their relationship wasn't just built on sex.

OTHER

Timeline: One thing I appreciated is how this book actually feels like it's over a span of a year. Maybe it's just because we get the months above a lot of the chapters, which we don't in the others, but the others' relationships sometimes seemed rushed to me.

Beau Maxwell: I think Sabrina's relationship with him deepened the grief we feel over his death, but at the same time, did Sabrina's grief just disappear too? I feel sorry for this guy - his death is being treated as a milestone for other characters and then he's just forgotten like what the hell 😭

OVERALL

Out of all the books in the Off-Campus series, I think this is the best written. The backstory, the characters, the writing, the development - I think it's Elle's best work in terms of this series. It's definitely not my fav in terms of the books, or the couple (That belongs to The Mistake + GraceLogan), but I just love it so much, and it comes second overall in the books.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 3.5★

CHARACTERS:

Allie Hayes: I really liked her, but I wish her co-dependent tendencies and her (implied) self-esteem issues had been addressed and fleshed out more. It felt like they were thrown in but they weren't developed as they should have been. I think it's sort of similar with her grief as well - I may have felt more sympathetic towards her in her lash-out to Dean after <spoiler>Beau died</spoiler> if we had known more about her grief about her mother.

Also, like, maybe I'm just not thinking this through the right lens, but is she not a hypocrite? Her father had been saying that Dean wouldn't stick around when times got tough, and he didn't - not mentally anyways - but then Allie breaks up with him because <spoiler>his friend died</spoiler>. I understand, I really do, she needs to put herself first, and I'm not against that. But her reasoning can't be her father's because, she broke up with Dean when times got tough as well.

Dean Di Laurentis: I love a man that's good with kids, like my heart was melting when he was teaching. I honestly wish we'd gotten more moments of it because it was one of the highlights of the book, in my opinion. And also it would let us see more of the joy he gets out of coaching, instead of the perspective of Allie viewing it.

I cried over his reaction to <spoiler>Beau's death</spoiler>. I know it's horrible, but I wish we'd gotten a longer POV over it, because it would've helped me feel it more. And similar to Allie, his grief wasn't finalised properly. Like, to me it felt like "Oh, he grieved for three weeks and got shit-faced, but now he's fine". I just don't think that's a healthy or realistic way to present grief, to be honest.

DEAN AND ALLIE

I hate to say this, but I was so disappointed by them. Don't get me wrong, they're cute, but I wished their relationship hadn't started off as fuck-buddies. Maybe it's just because I'm a fluffy-romance girl at my core, but the constant sex made me roll my eyes. I said this in my review of The Mistake as well, I think, but, like, they're are other ways of comforting each other guys!! Just so you know!!

I still think they're so cute, but they may be my least favourite couple so far.

OTHER

Hannah and Garret: I adored the extra content of them so much. They're so sweet, and Garrett being protective over Allie is just so special to me, idek why.

Tucker: Seriously wish I didn't know about the plot twist with him at the end, it could've gotten the rating up another quarter star.

OVERALL

I'm going to give this book a 3.5 star. Unfortunately it just doesn't reach four star territory to me. I think it could've been a 3.75 or a 4 if it weren't for spoilers + how Allie reacted during their break up. I also just think this book isn't as well-written as her others? Their characters + their traumas don't feel as developed as they should be by the end. It doesn't help that I had high standards for them either. Still, I don't dislike this book at all, or their characters, and it doesn't perturb me from reading the final book in the series.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.75★

"I love you, you stupid jackass."

CHARACTERS:

Grace Ivers: Oh my god, I love her so much, genuinely. Almost immediately I connected and related to her with her socially anxiousness, and her rambling. The fact that she had one friend she's known her entire life was also very relatable to me, because I tend to be more drawn to extroverted people myself, even if that means they're dragging me around. I think Grace's character is such a good way of showing "girls protect girls" because even though Grace wasn't that close with Ramona anymore, she jumped to her side as soon as she heard Ramona was in trouble. Girls don't necessarily have to like all girls, but we protect each other.

I like that her character development was fairly early on. While it feels like it's a bit rushed, in a way, it makes it easier for Logan's character to development cleanly and the way I personally wanted Hannah and Garrett's too.

John Logan: If you read my review for The Deal, you know I came away from it not really being fond of Logan because of his crush on Hannah - it just felt a little gross and sleazy to me, even though I know you can't control who you like. I found that the fact that he just "craved what Garrett and Hannah had" to be a bit of a cop-out, but I'm not complaining, as it made way for his grovelling for Grace to commence which I just loved so much.

As briefly mentioned, in The Deal, I wasn't a big fan of how Hannah and Garrett's trauma was cleared up, because it kind of felt brushed over to me. Like, not fully finished. But with Logan's it was, and it was done really well, in my opinion. It shows how addiction can affect the people around you, and that people who are addicted aren't always bad people, and I'm glad that his father got the help he needed. Even though it's only in the last ten-ish pages, I still think it was done brilliantly and handled accordingly.

JOHN AND GRACE:

I came out of Hannah and Garrett's book thinking no one would be able to beat them as a couple. Boy, was I wrong. Every single moment they were on the page together, I was in love with them. Their dynamic, their banter. Logan's grovelling when he was trying to get her back. Ugh, they hurt my heart to think about.

This is such a minor thing, really, but I didn't think their argument needed a big grand gesture thing to be cleared up. I understand Grace was angry, and that she doesn't get Logan's POV, but I think him feeling insecure about his life/future and feeling anxious over his relationship/future with her was completely valid. I thought that Grace should've had some compassion in that situation.

OTHER:

Dean and Allie: I'm still so excited about their book. Like, I really hope they're going to live up to my expectations.

Language: Again, such a minor thing, but why do they say frick so much 😭 It genuinely makes me cringe, like, Elle, you're talking about sex, you can make your MCs think/say the f-word.

OVERALL

I know I said this for Hannah and Garrett, but I really think this is going to be a hard book to beat. I adored the characters, the couple, and the writing just flowed better for me this time around. I'm excited for the next books, I feel like I'm gonna devour this entire series in, like, a week, so we'll see. I'll probably start the next book straight away, as I'm very excited!

(no confirmed rating yet -- in the 4 star zone!)

"Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don't know how you ever lived without them"

HANNAH WELLS

Her story was very hard-hitting, especially since you find out almost immediately about how she was raped. Like, it's literally on the first page. I like that Elle Kennedy focused on injustice within the police force, about how so many rapists go unconvicted. While it's dissatisfying that we don't get to see Aaron go to prison, at least a person who helped him get off got punched in the face. I wish the fact that she wasn't able to have an orgasm wasn't sidelined though. I know it was "fixed" due to Garrett, but I wish it had been wrapped up more cleanly than what we got.

The whole thing with Garrett's dad asking her to break up with him reminded me of Fake Skating by Lynn Painter (yes, I know this book came out ten years before Fake Skating came out but I read Fake Skating first), but it was done a lot better in my opinion, because there genuinely was no way (that Hannah knew of) to explain to Garrett why she had to break up with him.

I really liked her character, she was very easy to root for. Like I said though, I wish her trauma was wrapped up better by the end of the book. It felt like there was character development, but it was sort of, like, undiscussed, in a way?

GARRETT GRAHAM

I'm sorry, but every time I see an ambitious MMC who wants nothing more than to be the best at their sport/job, I immediately think Johnny Kavanagh (from Boys of Tommen). The way he constantly called Hannah "baby" definitely added to this as well. But fortunately, Garrett wasn't like a complete blueprint, copy-and-paste of those ambitious male main characters either. He had depth because of his father, and also hockey wasn't his entire soul before he met Hannah. He had other things as well -- like him being a history major. It always makes me roll my eyes a little at the triteness of a guy who only has interest in a sport or their ambition and the only thing that can tear their eyes away is a girl. I'm glad that Garrett wasn't like that -- not completely anyway.

Similar to Hannah, I wish his trauma with his father had gotten wrapped up better than it did. I understand that he doesn't want to give his abuser the time of day, but it came off as lazy writing to me. I would've rather the book been a little longer to see his dad get what he deserves rather than it just end with his father standing by the bus, waiting.

OTHER

Logan: I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this guy. His book is next, and I got a sneak peek at his book, and he's still crushing on Hannah. Quite frankly, if I'm going to have to read a book where the first 50% is him pining after his best friend's girlfriend, I don't think I'm going to like it much.

Dean and Allie: I just want to say how excited I am for their book. I love Allie so far, and I'm intrigued about her dynamic with Dean as in the bonus chapter, she said she'd kill Dean in a game of fuck, marry, kill (between Garret's roommates). That's just interesting to me, and makes me wonder if they'll have a, like, enemies-to-lovers kinda thing? She's with Sean right now, so I'm interested to see how he's gonna go bye-bye.

Inconsistency: This is such a non-issue really, but this is just something that bothered me when I read it. Garrett said that if Hannah went to sleep on his couch (after the Breaking Bad binge-watch) that his drunk roommates (Dean, Logan, Tucker) would come home and "grope" her. Considering these are our LIs of the next books, I don't know how I feel about that. Especially when later on in the book, Garrett states he'd rather "rip his own dick off than force himself on someone". Would he not hold his friends to the same standards? I know that grope does not mean SA, but it does mean unwanted touch, and I'm not a big fan of that. However, grope also does mean "search blindly for something", so maybe that's what he was trying to say? I don't know, but I wasn't a big fan of the wording with it.

Spice: I'm not really a girl who enjoys spice, but I like that the first few sex scenes were at least important to the plot. I feel like after the fifth one I started rolling my eyes because, like, there are better ways of comforting each other than blowjobs, gang! But again, I'm not one who likes smut, so I know I'm not really the target audience for those scenes.

OVERALL

This book is definitely at least a four star, or maybe 3.75? I think as a couple, Hannah and Garrett are going to be hard to beat for my favourite, but for favourite characters, people aren't out of the running just yet. I've already spoken of my dislikes and a couple of things that irked me throughout the book, which is why it's not much higher than a four. I'm definitely excited for the next books, but I'm going to take a break to prepare myself for Logan's book because I'm just too irritated with him right now to go straight in to his book.