Holding

Thank you NetGalley and Kata Cuic for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Question of the Day: Do you always read series in order? I’ve been known to grab a book and devour it without realizing it’s an installment in a series. This is one of those books that I would NOT recommend doing that with! To be fair, the author did give a warning that this could be read as a standalone but would be much more enjoyable and understandable read as a series installment. So any issues I have with this are being taken with a grain of salt because I didn’t follow the rules. That all being said, I was conflicted on how to rate this one. Follow up QOTD: What was the last book that left you unsure of how you felt about it?
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This book surprised me. When I hear sports romance, I usually think light and fun. I wasn’t expecting so much depth and story packed into a sports romance. This is not your typical light sports romance. Holding has layers worth exploring. The chemistry between PR intern Tori and NFL player Mike is capital h HOT. There were a few times that chemistry surprised me. I’m going to leave that vague but if you know, you know. Not judgement, I was just really surprised it felt like it came out of nowhere.

Which leads me to the timeline of this book. I didn’t realize I should be paying that close attention to the little hints of time because about halfway through the book we’re a year in out of nowhere. Around 70% I had pretty much no clue what the timeline was and I didn’t understand a good chunk of the plot. BUT this is where I remind you, this is book #5 (FIVE!!!) in a series. So this is totally my fault. You can’t really jump into movie 5 of Harry Potter can you? Well you, but it’s just not as good.
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My takeaway... READ THE SERIES PEOPLE!

I really liked the story and the characters, I couldn't put it down, so I had to read it in one sitting.

Tori is an intern with the public relations group promoting the Albany Wolves football team. Her assignment is to babysit one of their star players, Mike, who has too much negative publicity. He resents having a public relations person buts finds Tori very appealing. The public relations department believes Tori should be Mike’s pretend girlfriend and the problems begin. I liked that Tori has brothers and Mike has sisters. It helps Tori and Mike understand each other even better. I really liked this book. Mike and Tori find themselves in lots of interesting situations, sharing family and friends and a lot about themselves. It is all about trust and friendships which both figure into a love relationship.

You can't judge a book by the cover. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Cuic does a beautiful job of driving that point home in the most enchanting of ways. Holding opens the heart to all life's possibilities with characters who are so much more they seem. Tori and Mike yank off the blinders of bias and prove that with a bit of effort anything is possible.

3.5⭐️

Okay, so maybe I need to read the previous books first and I am still intrigued to read them. But this one was just a little bit draggy for me. And I got lost and it got a bit confusing sometimes especially with the time jumps. It was kind of hard to follow. There are certain things I like about it like the plotline. But it didn't satisfy me enough. It felt like I was missing something. And I find it a bit frustrating that they always have reasons that kept them apart.

I still think this story was entertaining and I might need to go back to the previous books.

Complex friends-to-lovers romance

This story spans a couple professional football seasons as Mike and Tori's slow-burn romance develops as an extension of her work for him as his PR rep. Their working relationship soon involves her having to pose as his girlfriend for the publicity boost, which of course gradually grows into a real relationship.

As a standalone romance, this book covers their initial meeting all the way to their HEA. However, it apparently builds on the events of the earlier four-book series that charts Rob and Evie's romance in which Mike is a close friend of Evie's and has had his life greatly shaped by those prior events. I wish that the author had taken the time to have Mike explain his history with Rob, Evie, and Alex to Tori on page, rather than just have her acknowledge that he did explain it all to her at some point. Not having read the previous books, this approach leaves holes of indeterminate size in our understanding of Mike's motivations.

Still, the focus is on Mike and Tori, and their romance is sweet, steamy, tender, and heartwarming. I loved how they built a solid foundation of trust right from the beginning, and how that allowed them to feel safe in revealing more and more of their secret selves to each other. They have a terrific HEA that also gives hints into a future book focusing on Alex's relationship with Amira.

If you've already read the first four books, I've no doubt you'll be right at home with this one and will not want to miss Mike's well-deserved HEA. If you're new to the series, be prepared to not quite understand his relationship with his high school friends, but be assured that that history doesn't really get in the way of his moving forward with Tori. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for a arc copy for a honest review.

This is my first book by Kata Čuić now I have to go back and read the rest of the series a 4 star read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Happy Reading

Lisa

I received an ARC copy of this book from the author and netgalley.

This book is my first by this author. It is a series and a standalone though in some parts of the book it is hard to follow because they are characters from the prior book and their stories are intwined.

Though I was confused at some points the author does a great job of weaving the story of Mike and Tori. They are really great characters and I enjoyed the dialogue between them. The writing is great which is really what kept me in this story! The premise of this book is about Mike and Tori. Mike has had a hard time in the press and Tori is hired to pretty much babysit and help boost his image, though she initially tells him she’s his new PR rep. They work on boosting his image and through that they get to know each other and form a friendship. They eventually decide to fake a relationship together in hopes of bettering his image and helping her career.

Overall this was a good read I just wish I had a little more background or had read the other books prior to reading this. I feel it would easier to follow of I had. I will read more from this author in the future.

Quick moving, steamy and exciting. Kata has a great style.of writing that makes you want to keep turning pages