4.5 rounded to 5.

If you said this was a college sports romance, you’d be right in content but not in spirit. This book isn’t about the parties and friendships and entanglements in college, and it isn’t a coming of age story. This book is really about a promising young woman with a significant history of, largely unexplored/untreated, trauma, that frequently sets her back, and a young man (her coach - see next paragraph) who comes to love and care about her. They each have something to offer the other (though at times, I felt she wasn’t bringing quite as much to the table.)

Although he is her coach, they are close in age and there isn’t the sleazy vibe you see in a lot of books with power disparities (ex. Billionaire boss- assistant; teacher-student). He is just a few years older than her and he knowingly struggles with the moral and ethical problem of developing feelings for one of his players. He does his best to avoid his feelings, but obviously he can’t- because this is a romance novel! He ultimately chooses a path that most would find responsible. I say all this to help assuage the concerns of some readers who may be automatically put off by the teacher/student, coach/player dynamic.

One minor challenge I had in reading this book - The author makes a big point about how gorgeous Olivia is. Every man who sees her stumbles over himself trying to talk to her and is blinded by her beauty. She is basically the Helen of Troy of competitive running. Periodically, as a reader, and a real, live woman in the world, I felt a little envious of her and a little put off at the author for making the heroine such an absurdly out of this world gorgeous woman. Like, must we be so over the top? That said, not everyone will feel that way and perhaps this is something better explored with a therapist