4.5 rounded up to 5.
SPICY SPICY SPICY. 4/5 chilis. But there's still enough plot lines that it doesn't just feel like it's floating from spicy scene to another.
Rory Miller *almost* surpassed Finn Rhodes as my favorite Stephanie Archer MMC. He falls first and falls HARD...he's a bad boy reputation who's secretly a golden retriever. The PINING he does over Hazel is gold.
The BANTER between Rory and Hazel is perfection. It's like enemies to lovers, but they also knew each other in high school so it's more like frenemies to lovers by way of fake dating that very quickly doesn't feel fake. Fake dating is not usually my favorite trope because of the constant "it's not real" feelings assumptions that is irrationally frustrating, but here they drop the act without all the fuss. There's third act conflict, but no big breakup. I wish there was a bit more development into the conflict with Hazel's ex, but I get that the book is longer and it needed to be resolved without another 100 pages.
I loved Hazel's mission to open an inclusive gym that stems from her mother's insecurities. I loved this side plot because it shows how much a mother's words can affect her daughters from a young age...and how either that can be absorbed and imitated or the opposite, as in Hazel's case, where she takes it and tries to make a change but it affects the mother-daughter relationship.
This book is LONG...82 chapters! But they are short, dual POV chapters so it goes by so fast.
While having read Jamie/Pippa's story is fun, it's not needed at all! Rory and Hazel have such a good, genuine connection.