A fake dating, sports romance, with opposites attract, an inexperienced female lead who loves to read *ahem specifically smutty romances included, and a cocky yet amazingly charming football player, Kandi Steiner you had me hooked from the moment I read the synopsis, as well as from the many TikTok videos I watched!

Giana and Clay were the complete opposites of each other. Clay was the confident, popular, charming football player, whereas Giana was shy, kept to herself, and at times struggled with her own confidence. With the idea of fake dating in order to help one another, Giana and Clay set into motion not only one of my favorite book tropes, but an exciting romance I couldn’t wait to get into. 

One of the things I loved about this book was Giana and her love of reading. In a way, I felt like Giana was a representation of all us book lovers who love our romance stories of the romantic heroines to the mafia romances that even Giana seemed to love reading. Oh, and let’s not forget that Giana loved to read smutty romances as well *wink, wink. With the mentions of different book tropes, books, and Giana’s overall love of reading, I felt giddy with excitement, but also like, “umm Giana let’s be besties so then we can do book dates and recommend each other books!”. 

Giana was the type of character who was shy and reserved, but despite that she was able to hone in on her inner strength throughout the book. I liked seeing Giana challenge herself, as well as others perception of her, she may have come off as shy and quiet, but Giana was still able to show just how mighty she truly was. I was even impressed to see Giana stand her ground and push Clay to be better for himself. I loved Giana and her personality, she was endearing and thoughtful. Even while discovering more of what she truly wanted in a relationship, Giana went on a journey of loving herself, learning to experience the pleasures of her body, and even enjoying intimacy with a partner a.k.a. Clay giving her lessons. With the background information of Giana’s upbringing, in a way she was held back from truly feeling comfortable with her body, but by the time she got to college and started to explore herself (also the smutty books were greatly appreciated) she was able to see what she liked and didn’t like. Then enter Clay and Giana started to feel things she’d never felt before, but had only dreamed of while reading her books. In a way, I felt like I could relate to Giana’s character, since I too also grew up in a household that frowned about anything having to with intimacy or questions pertaining to our bodies (if you catch my drift). That being said, I liked the “lessons” aspect between Clay and Giana because, while Giana was both enjoying and learning about herself, Clay was also very reassuring, calming her worries, and making sure Giana understood that her reactions or things that happened were perfectly normal, and to not be ashamed of. 

There was a bit of miscommunication between Giana and Clay in that, each thought the other wanted to be with the people, and that they truly had feelings for one another. Clay and Giana were originally onboard with the fake dating plan, but with each lesson, time spent together, and conversations, both of them started to see the other person in a new light, and couldn’t deny their strong feelings. I really liked how Clay became so enamored with Giana, and honestly became so head over heels for her. Giana was an absolute sweetheart and truly saw Clay for the person he was, and was able to be his support in a way that he never really had since he was usually the one putting others needs before his own. 

The romance and spice was immaculate, chef’s kiss, exciting, and quite frankly everything we book lovers could hope to imagine and even want for ourselves. Giana and Clay’s chemistry was off the charts, it had my pulse elevated, and simply WOW! Clay went above and beyond for Giana such as, stealing some of her smutty books, and reading them in order to see what she liked, and how he could bring that into the bedroom for both her pleasure and make her feel at ease, YASSSSS! When a man wants to either reenact  some of your favorite spicy scenes or reading the pages you tabbed in your smutty books….. HE’S IMMEDIATELY MVP! There was an equal balance of sweet romance, and of course that raw, powerful passionate that came across fantastically in the pages. In other words, once again I fell in love with another fictional man, story of my life, but it’s ok. 

Overall, this was a fantastic book and honestly felt like a little ode to book lovers with the mentions of smutty romance books, book tropes including fake dating, and just the overall vibe of the story. I loved Giana, she was a sweetheart and endearing, and Clay was very bit of an amazing guy, who couldn’t help falling in love with Giana’s lovely soul. As if I hadn’t fallen in love with Kandi’s writing and story, the epilogue made me even more excited with Holden’s book coming next. Absolutely would recommend this book, and as per usual, I have nothing but immense love for this book!