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A review by mjsam
Top of Her Game by M. Ullrich
4.0
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a nice sports romance from Ullrich. I’m not a huge soccer fan since it’s not a major sport where I live, but I still enjoyed the soccer background and didn’t think there was too much emphasis on the soccer scenes.
This features MC Kenzie, a rookie about to play her first season in a women’s soccer league and Sutton, a long time player who is also Kenzie’s idol and crush. The two have instant sparks, but Sutton has a girlfriend (who plays for a different team in the league). I liked that even though it was obvious that the two had developed feelings for each other, nothing happened until Sutton broke it off (I also give kudos for how she did this).
The romance from here on is pretty standard and sweet, with plenty of nice chemistry between the two. I also liked that they didn’t just fall into bed with each other after this, another rarity in lesfic. So, up until around the 75% mark, things were going swimmingly, but then a sexual harassment storyline pops up. This involves one of the MCs and was just.... kinda unbelievable. In the current political landscape I didn’t buy for a minute that the issue would have been handled the way it was, and even if it was, all the MCs had to do was go to the press and the whole thing would have swung their way. I also didn’t buy how Sutton handled this, and thought the breakup was too contrived. I’ve knocked a star off for those two reasons.
That said, I did enjoy the romance and that there’s an epilogue that provides some closure (some idea of what happened to the harasser would have been good). It’s a solid romance, and sports fans are sure to enjoy. 4 stars.
This is a nice sports romance from Ullrich. I’m not a huge soccer fan since it’s not a major sport where I live, but I still enjoyed the soccer background and didn’t think there was too much emphasis on the soccer scenes.
This features MC Kenzie, a rookie about to play her first season in a women’s soccer league and Sutton, a long time player who is also Kenzie’s idol and crush. The two have instant sparks, but Sutton has a girlfriend (who plays for a different team in the league). I liked that even though it was obvious that the two had developed feelings for each other, nothing happened until Sutton broke it off (I also give kudos for how she did this).
The romance from here on is pretty standard and sweet, with plenty of nice chemistry between the two. I also liked that they didn’t just fall into bed with each other after this, another rarity in lesfic. So, up until around the 75% mark, things were going swimmingly, but then a sexual harassment storyline pops up. This involves one of the MCs and was just.... kinda unbelievable. In the current political landscape I didn’t buy for a minute that the issue would have been handled the way it was, and even if it was, all the MCs had to do was go to the press and the whole thing would have swung their way. I also didn’t buy how Sutton handled this, and thought the breakup was too contrived. I’ve knocked a star off for those two reasons.
That said, I did enjoy the romance and that there’s an epilogue that provides some closure (some idea of what happened to the harasser would have been good). It’s a solid romance, and sports fans are sure to enjoy. 4 stars.