RATING: ⭐⭐⭐.5
STEAM: 🔥🔥

The premise of the book had appeal: Journalist used to be a high school nerd who formed a friendship with the quarterback only to be scorned when she asks him to a dance. Now she can get him back by pretending to be a complete stranger and make HIM fall in love with her and ask her out.

Except that Conrad "Hawk" Florence does remember Becca. Not only does he call her out for trying to get him back, he eventually turns it around into a bet that he will get her to fall in love with him in 3 weeks. Will Becca make the same mistake of opening her heart to Hawk?

The premise of the book was cute. I am always a sucker for second chance enemies-to-lovers, especially if there is a possible redemption arc involved.

However, while the premise of the book had appeal, the character development was off for me. I could not connect with Hawk and Becca. In fact, I was more drawn to Hawk's cousin Vera, her husband John, and their five(!) kids. Penny pretty much stole the show when she was present.

While I did find some of Hawk and Becca's banter amusing, I found that they sometimes dragged on with little progression in the story. Even Hawk's exchanges with his teammates, which is supposed to reveal his inner thoughts about Rebecca, dragged on.

I did like Hawk's redemption arc. The book did a great job in explaining and showing that his actions -- which are not as bad as the blurb implies -- were due to his immaturity. I also think his growth was shown really well through his actions and relationships with family and friends.

I am also fond of Becca. She clearly has come a long way from the meek nerd in high school. She stands her ground and is not afraid to go toe-to-toe with her male colleagues in a male-dominated and often misogynistic industry. I just wished there was more of a resolution with her work. Harvey, especially, felt like a loose end.

Becca was Conrad's tutor and friend in high school, until he broke her heart. Years later he's a star quarterback and she's a reporter that plans to give him a dose of his own medicine.
I really liked the multiple point of view writing and the banter between Conrad (Hawk) and his teammates. Conrad is just a big ole teddy bear that felt he had to play the dumb jock jerk.
Can Becca see that he really is a good guy underneath?

This quick story is kind of a friends to enemies-ish to lovers and kind of an insta-love. I did not feel it was a true rom-com as stated in the description.
I will probably read the rest of the series since we got a sneak peak of the other characters personalities, so I'd like to see how their lives play out.

This was a quick read & the first of what could be a good series. Unfortunately, this book needs more editing. There's a lot of spelling mistakes and it does read like bad fanfiction at times - I expected more from an experienced (as yet unnamed) writing pair. I felt that with this being a shorter book, I didn't connect with Becca & Hawk, and found their relationship to be a little forced, as if it had to be crammed into a set amount of pages before the book ended. I hope that this is just the writers getting used to working as a pair, but this book was a disappointment for me.

This book was so short and the writing did not really allow for any development to be had in that time. They loved each other at the end but it made no sense because they had only spent like a week together. I'm not opposed to that normally but it was just not written well.

I received a copy through netgalley.

This is a light, funny story of Hawk and Becca, who meet again as adults after an entanglement in high school that did not end well. They're both grappling with past baggage in their own ways, but their chemistry is undeniable. Working through that takes time, soul-searching, and the help of a large group of riotous but loving friends and family.

This has a fun, irreverent tone that reads very easily and brings lots of laughs. I was so surprised to see love scenes with no mention of protection (this is not part of the plot), but otherwise this was a pleasant, low-angst read perfect for a mental vacation!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!