By: Heather Dowell
*Originally posted on Heather’s blog.
Love is like water. Sink or swim.
Tomboy Nicole Fraser is used to crushing her competition. Crushing on them? That’s a different story.
Her passion has always been soccer, but when she gets roped into joining her brother’s crew team, her connection with crew captain, Ian Cruz, is undeniable.
The problem? He’s the boy next door and her brother’s best friend. Which means he’s strictly off-limits.
Pursuing a secret relationship with Ian would destroy her brother. Will she listen to her head or her heart? The wrong decision could cost her someone she loves.
A sweet stand-alone high school sports romance.
REVIEW
There is so much to love about this sweet sports romance series. All the books are standalone, so you can read them in any order. I actually read this one first even though it is the final book in the series. This one is about a tomboy named Nicole. She and her brother are adopted into a wealthy family, and he has always been her protector. In fact, he’s been threatening to beat up anyone who tries to date her. He even made his best friend promise he wouldn’t. He has some severe abandonment issues.
Ian, his best friend, can’t get too close to Nicole. He knows if he does, he might fall for her. So he teases her instead. Nicole is under the impression he hates her, so she lives to banter with him and prove she’s tough.
The book opens with Nicole being roped into a crew team practice, where she proves she’s more than capable of doing anything boys can. Problem is, now they want her on their team, and Ian is captain. As coxie, she’d have to literally face him during all the practices. She’s got nothing better to do during the summer, but he’s so attractive, she knows it’s a bad idea.
Then she starts to wonder if Ian likes her and wrestles with her own desires. She loves her brother and would never want him to feel betrayed or abandoned, but Ian is beyond sweet, and she can’t help but fall for him.
I loved the pace of this novel and the conflicts. They kept me reading and wanting to see if they’d get together and what her brother would do if he found out. If you like the Kissing Booth, you’ll really love this. It’s a forbidden romance with all the sweetness of a cupcake. You won’t be able to resist reading late into the night.
Functionally Fictional 
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