Annie Crowns debut novel was a hit out of the park, I was hooked from the first chapter to the last. Kendall’s and Vincent’s relationship might be strange to some around with her being the bookworm and him being the star athlete but the love they have for one either can push through anything. An amazing heart felt romance.

This was a classic contemporary rom-com sports romance. The characters are in college and they fall for each other super quickly. I had trouble connecting with the main characters because the FMC “was not like other girls” and the MMC was too perfect and could do no wrong. That being said the romance was written pretty well even though it could be cringey at times. It was overall enjoyable and fun.

Spice: 2.5🌶️
Rating: 3.5 ⭐️

This book was super cute! Am I the FMC? Hell yea - I too love smutty romance and am obsessed with the 2006 masterpiece of Pride & Prejudice. Also am a library kid, so the first part of the book was iconic. After that though it fell a little flat (for lack of better word). After their hot makeout, it just felt too easy. A quick Starbs date, a frat party, a misunderstanding, and a makeup. The book also just kinda ended. The epilogue came literally the chapter after they finally did *it*.

I feel like I could have had a little more dimension to the characters, she loves to read and he's a basketball player but what else? I also would have liked more of their friends - chiefly reactions after their weekend together. Would I read another book by this author, ideally about one of the other friends? Of course! But I definitely wish there was a little more in this one.

Thank you for this ARC, it was a super cute and quick read!

I’ll say this was a 3.75. I enjoyed it, enough to not be a 3, but something felt missing that would’ve elevated it to a 4.

I really did like how Vincent and Kendall worked through their insecurities & issues. I think this was a more or less accurate portrayal of what college kids are like, not like the usual contemporary romance novels with college kids who act like adults.

I wish there was a bit more of a storyline - the climax and resolution came waaaay too early, which made it really difficult to read the HEA for the last like, 20% (?) of the book.

Overall, short, sweet, and lighthearted read for anyone who is looking for that!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this one!

Hi thank you so much for the opportunity to read “Night Shift”

I thought the book was great! I loved that the story jumped right to the story line. I love that we don’t have chapters of a backstory on each character that ultimately has nothing to do with the story.

The one note I have I have is I felt the last half of the book dragged. Since the book began with the post of the story I felt the ending had a lot of details that didn’t fit the vibe of the storyline up till the midway point.

While I enjoyed the details of Kendall and Vincent first sexual encounter I just felt the last half of the book did not follow the same flow of the first half. After Vincent and Kendall made up it felt like the book was over. The last fall, in my opinion, did not need to be so detailed.

3.5/5⭐️
as a hopeless romantic with incredibly high standards because of fictional characters and someone who is constantly let down by men in real life. this book. was everything to me.

she works at a library. he’s the star of the basketball team. they don’t run in the same circles but they are perfect for each other. they work.

if you’re a fan of:
- books about book lovers for book lovers
- opposites attract
- main characters TALKING THROUGH THEIR PROBLEMS!!!
- a sweet, heart-felt romance
then you need to pick this book up asap!!!

thank you to netgalley and Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group for an e-arc!

Incredibly awkward but somehow also very endearing. This gave me Wattpad vibes and I ate it up. Adorable.

The description of this book sounded really intriguing: college romance between a bookworm and basketball star – say less. The beginning of the story caught my attention right away but didn’t quite keep it the whole way through. I enjoyed the FMC’s love for reading and thought the way the MMC found an appreciation for poetry because of the FMC was super cute. However, the miscommunication drove me crazy, and I didn’t feel like the characters were fully fleshed out. I didn’t mind the insta-love, but there wasn’t much of the characters connecting and getting to know each other after the first meeting. To me, the relationship was not fully believable in the end.

All in all, if you are looking for a super quick, spicy, college romance (I wouldn’t really call this sports romance), and don’t mind the miscommunication trope, you might enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group for providing me with a digital review copy of the Night Shift in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and W by Wattpad for the eARC.

Overall rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice rating 🌶🌶

This is a college age romance between introverted bookworm, Kendall & star of the basketball team, Vincent. If you are a fan of the show One Tree Hill I think you'll love this one. Kendall & Vincent have Haley and Nathan vibes (except Vincent is a good guy from the start)

Things I loved about this book:

Friendships! The friendship between the girls was perfect. They loved ans supported each other and weren't afraid to call each other out when they were wrong. The male friendship was equally amazing, supportive and sweet.

All the nods to book tropes. Our girl Kendall is a romance & smut lover and I loved her calling out book tropes as they were happening to her. It felt like talking to your friend about a book you just read.

Virgin FMC trope that didn't give me the ick. Finally.

Things I didn't like.

The pacing was great. . . until the end when the final spicy scene was too detailed, not in a spicy way but in a realism way. Sometimes I wish this book was less realistic.

I wish we knew MORE about the characters. They were a little surface level. I like to know the nitty gritty about characters. I want to know WHY the characters are the way they are.

And my final gripe, which is very personal. . . The MMC had the same name as my brother. Little uncomfortable but thankfully my brother goes by a nickname. I just changed his name to Nathan and pretended it was Nathan Scott and I survived.

I LOVED THIS WHOLE BOOK.
There was not a dull moment in this book. I loved the characters, both main and side, and I really enjoyed the plot.
The spice was HOT 🥵
I loved the main character breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging tropes in books (I also hate miscommunication and pregnancy trope so I felt seen hahha)

I was really looking forward to reading this book - the description sounded so good & the cover is absolutely adorable. The first couple chapters were actually pretty good & I enjoyed getting to know Kendall & her roommates. The dynamic between herself & her roommates was actually my favourite part of the book; love a bit of female companionship.

But, as soon as I started actually getting into the novel, the fmc started to get so irritating. At first, I loved her relatability - she's a bookworm, who loves a good smutty romance, and makes it her entire personality. But, I swear, every other paragraph she was comparing her interactions to her books. I mean poor Vincent is being compared to Mafia bosses & dukes with every move he makes. And whenever Kendall said what he'd just done was "right out of a romance novel" I found myself cringing, because what he did was actually quite underwhelming. Like bar is set low.

Also, the spice was very clunky & felt unnecessarily dragged out. I was actually cringing at times because of the words "slick" & "warm c*nt" (among other cringe worthy vocab) being used during the scenes. It just wasn't good.

And, Vincent is so bland, I don't see the appeal.

Overall just a very underwhelming read. I'm so upset about it because it has such good foundations, but it just fell flat for me. The cover art is absolutely beautiful though!

Who doesn't love a romance book with the backdrop being the backdrop? What a great read "Night Shift" was!

An interesting and fun read. I haven’t read a lot like this but I enjoyed it and would like to read more as soon as possible.

college. librarian (read: book girly). basketball player. = yes yes and more yes.

Quote: "Normal people don't make out within ten minutes of meeting each other unless they're drunk off their asses..."

4 star - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3 steam - 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis: Night Shift is about a college librarian, Kendall, who always has her nose in a book, and a basketball player, Vincent who is also the team captain. The book starts with Vincent visiting the library (in a foul mood b/c of course!) and needing help with his poetry assignment. Kendall, the knower of all things lit, reluctantly helps him find the books he needs and this is wear the spice enters. lol!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ b/c:
- The banter is great.
- So much nostalgia for college - studying in the 24hour library, the house parties, running across campus, etc.
- Kendall's growth and bravery throughout the book is what I aspire to!!
- Vincent is a closet softieeeee
- a lil bit of a slower burn

🎥 my reading vlog: https://youtu.be/Pv3KN4ps_6Y

This is:
- single POV
- sports romance (that's not hockey!!!)
- college romance
- quick-ish read (took me ~6 hours)

More quotes:
"No more living every Friday night like it doesn't really belong to me, or like the only good adventure worth having is printed on pages. My TBR list isn't going anywhere..."

"The thing is, I don't read romance novels for the realism. I read them because they make me feel seen and heard as a woman. They let me explore my desires--both the ones I'm proud of and the ones I clear from my search history--and they've taught me who I am and what I want."

Thank you to NetGalley and W by Wattpad for the eARC!

Every once and awhile, a saucy book about first love comes along and sweeps you right off your feet. Annie Crown’s “Night Shift” is that book. With clever plot devices, flirty banter and downright spicy scenes, the best part of this romance is the genuine relationship that develops out of a meet-cute that suggests it is to be anything but that.


I’m not going to spend time critiquing the smattering of more unrealistic elements in “Night Shift” because, based on the premise, it’s clear a suspension of reality is exactly what you’re signing up for. And sure, the depth of the bond between Kendall and Victor could have been explored further. But at its core this is a story about two college kids, in a sea of peers who are notoriously commitment-adverse, who are finding they want more than that for the very first time. In that way, “Night Shift” sticks true to its subject material, and doesn’t overcomplicate or overburden the protagonist with the far less-believable I-discovered-my-soulmate-at-twenty trope.


There are some worthwhile messages enmeshed in this storyline, too. Themes of inclusivity, a meta analysis of problems in the genre and the reversal of traditional, heteronormative gender roles all allow for this budding love affair to feel modern and made better.

If you’re a fan of Ali Hazelwood or Hannah Grace’s gloriously smutty works, then “Night Shift”—in which Crown somehow manages to helm an even spicier story than her literary counterparts—is for you.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for an honest review.*

This was pretty silly. The FMC Kendall is an introvert who apparently lives in narrative, meaning she applies common romance tropes and structure to her actual life. While that sounds quirky, I quickly bored of it as her narratives led her to some pretty wild assumptions about every single thing Vincent did. All very negatively. It just got ridiculous seeing her strong together these whole assumptions based on so little.

The romance aspect was ok, the instant lust I understand, but the intimacy and actual feelings felt very surface level. This wasn’t a full length novel so maybe that’s why, but I still needed a bit more.

Overall very bingeworthy and easy to read, but could have used more character backstory and steam to feel worthwhile.

Rating: 2.5/3, rounding up to 3.

🔹 Overall Thoughts:
〰 This was actually surprisingly cute and charming. I got approved for a copy on netgalley and since I was in-between books, I literally picked it up right away and read the whole thing in one sitting. I’m not sure how many pages this book has but it’s definitely a super quick read.

〰 I won’t spoil anything since the book is not even out yet but here’s a list of things I loved and things that prevented me from giving this a higher rating:

🔹 Things I loved:
〰 The fact that I was able to read this in one sitting without getting bored or feeling like the book is too long.
〰 The humor. I actually laughed a couple of times which is always a great sign lol.
〰 The female friendship. This will always be something that I absolutely love in books. If you like the found family trope then you’ll love Kendall’s relationship with her two roommates/best friends.
〰 The writing style was surprisingly great for a debut. And from my understanding, this was originally published on wattpad? If that’s the case then I have to say that whoever edited this book did a good job cause there were no glaringly obvious editing mistakes which we love to see.
〰 All the talks of book tropes and genres. The author was definitely speaking to all the romance readers throughout this book which was kind of endearing.
〰 All the english lit talk. I have a minor in English literature and I can’t tell you how much I love discussions surrounding 18th-19th century works. If you’re like me, then you’ll enjoy the multiple discussions in here about poetry and classics.

🔹 Things I didn’t love:
〰 The fact that this felt like a prequel instead a full standalone. The two main characters were not fleshed out well enough to the point where I actually felt like I knew them. I know pretty much nothing about their families or even their aspirations for the future.
〰 This was definitely very insta-lovey. Or at the very least, insta-likey. It didn’t bother me much but I thought it was worth mentioning.
〰 We don’t see a fleshed out version of the relationship between Kendall and Vincent. If anything, it felt like we saw the preliminaries and then the book ended before we got to see them in a “real” relationship. That’s why I said that this book felt like a prequel for me.
〰 The thing that happened after a certain party because despite the heroine insisting that she didn’t want to experience the “miscommunication trope”, it still felt like she was super quick to jump to conclusions in that scenario. I will say though that she made up for it so don’t let this point stop you from picking this book up.

🔹 Final Thoughts:
〰This was honestly cute. It actually gave me “Icebreaker” vibes a few times. If you’re looking for a super quick, easy read that will help you get out of your head for a few hours, I recommend it. Happy reading everyone!💕


Thank you Netgalley for granting me a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The FMC is both very aware of romance tropes and also falls victim to them. The MMC is way too perfect. It's a very cute, fast-paced romance with a dash of spice, but also feels way too aware and healthy for a book about two twenty year olds? It's not bad that they're so conscious of their flaws and faults, it just really didn't resonate true to my experience as a twenty year old. (Maybe that says more about me than the protagonists) This felt more like two people in their late twenties, early thirties, so I just pretended they were older in my head.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I wish this book was longer!!! I could not get enough of Vincent and Kendall! I enjoyed their story from the very first page till the last. I loved that Vincent was this soft, shy jock. The little notes 😭😭😭 Jabari's confession about Vincent 😭😭😭😭 I also loved watching Kendall grow and begin to trust and love Vincent. Such a cute read!

If you're looking for a fun, quick read, I'd highly recommend this book!!

Night Shift: ★★★★☆ (4) 🌶️🌶️ (2)

Pub date: November 14, 2023 - PREORDER YOURS NOW!

it was a cute little story. i liked that it was fast paced and a super quick read. i did feel something was missing within their chemistry and it was a bit too much of insta love.