Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Standalone FORBIDDEN LOVE SET IN THE EXPLOSIVE WORLD OF THE NBA…
🏀 🏀 🏀
Think you know what it’s like being a baller’s girl?
You don’t.
My fairy tale is upside down.
A happily never after.
I kissed the prince and he turned into a fraud.
I was a fool, and his love – fool’s gold.
Now there’s a new player in the game, August West.
One of the NBA’s brightest stars.
Fine. Forbidden.
He wants me. I want him.
But my past, my fraudulent prince, just won’t let me go.
🏀 🏀 🏀
*Some aspects of this story may be sensitive for some readers.
Long Shot
Getting out and living well!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: 💙💚🖤❤️💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📒
World building: 🌎🌍🌏🌎🌏
Character development: ☺️🤬🥵😘🥰
The heroine: Iris Dupree – grew up in New Orleans in the 9th ward with a mother, a revolving door of uncles and her cousin Lotus. She wants to get into Sports Marketing though her boyfriend Caleb and his family want her to be a perfect trophy wife to Caleb while he becomes an NBA star.
The Hero(s): August West – College basketball star. August is drafted to an expansion team in San Diego. He is doing well in basketball and with the women, but only wants one and she belongs to someone else.
The Story: Iris and August met in small bar the night before his biggest college game. They find they have a lot in common, including feeling out of place in their own families at times. They talk until the bar closes, he finds out she has a boyfriend. They both seem to feel like they have lost something before it has begun.
The following day August’s team plays against Iris’s boyfriend Caleb’s team. The two have been in the same world for years, attending the same basketball camps and playing against each other and have never liked each other. Both are going to be drafted and will see each other in the future.
The story was quite sad at times and it was certainly disheartening to see how a girl like Iris with her own hopes and dreams and determination not to end up like her mother, get stuck in a situation every bit as bad. She was so independent and wanted to stay that way and follow her dreams, but her choices were somewhat taken from her and it was a sad commentary on how life can take you to places you don’t want to go no matter how much you want otherwise.
When Iris tries to extricate herself from the situation, things get dicey and the story is so familiar. Caleb is ultra controlling and everyone believes him over Iris. His being a celebrity makes things even worse for her.
“Cracks in the system are tailor made and just the right size for men like Caleb to slip through.”
The narration was fantastic, Sean Crisden and Jo Raylan do a terrific job on very emotional material. I really got invested in this story and it was told it is and without filters. It was an honest and open look inside a controlling and abusive relationship. I also like the fact that amidst all the brutality in this book. There is a real connection between Iris and August and a sweet love story.
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