Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ALC of Let the Games Begin by Rufaro Faith Mazarura. All opinions are my own. 

Let the Games Begin is a contemporary romance story set at The Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. It follows an Olympian sprinter named Zeke who is at his third Olympic Games but is struggling with his mental health including dealing with the grief of losing his father a decade ago. This story also follows Olivia who is supposed to be interning at the Olympics but has been given a volunteer job instead. While they don’t have a meet-cute, Zeke and Olivia finally decide to get to know each other after running into each other numerous times. 

One of the things that stood out to me about this story was the friendships. Not only do Zeke and Olivia develop a strong bond, but their other friendships were sweet as well. I especially liked it when Zeke and Olivia’s friends got to know each other. 

The setting of The Olympic Games was so fun and interesting. I haven’t read any other books set here, and I thought it was interesting getting to see some behind-the-scenes aspects of The Olympics. 

The romance in this book was cute, and I liked how well Olivia and Zeke got along considering how this story was only set over a couple weeks. When Zeke learned to be vulnerable, I was really proud of him. I also liked how much they trusted each other and were able to lean on each other as well. 

I listened to the audiobook for this story and thought the narrator did a great job. I do wish they would’ve used two narrators though since this story was told in dual POVs. It would have been nice to have a separate narrator for Zeke’s chapters. 

Overall, I would recommend this book. It was sweet, hopeful, and full of growth.