Summary
Brady Vaughn is sweet, sexy, and totally into me…
Too bad I don’t have time for distractions, especially the relentless football player kind. If I want to graduate next semester, I need to focus on student teaching, not on my love life. But Brady’s incredibly hard to resist. Not only is he the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever laid eyes on, he has the personality to match. He’s sweet. Attentive. Real.
When he crashes my pole dancing class, swearing he’ll return every week until I give him a shot, I’m certain he’ll be the first to crack. But with each passing week, he’s melting my defenses, and it’s getting harder and harder to resist his quiet charm.
The only problem? He doesn’t know about my side hustle as a camgirl, and I plan to keep it that way.
As much as I like Brady, I can’t risk my future—or my career in education—on anything less than a sure thing.
If life has taught me anything, it’s that there are no guarantees, and if my secret gets out, I’m not the only one with something to lose…
Review
This book didn’t miss the mark by much. I mean, I feel like one of its tropes was more a way to show how much the characters were different, and it wasn’t used to its full potential. Yet the rest of the story was interesting, and while not completely original, there were a couple of elements that were refreshingly new or unusual.
The missed opportunity? The fact that Brady is a virgin. First of all, in my opinion, it isn’t developped much. He admits he’s done things with girls, but not ‘all of it’, and I couldn’t figure out why exactly. On top of that, he was strangely very proficient once he’s getting it on with Piper. I’d have enjoyed more struggles and inadequacy, to make it more real and interesting. It was still an interesting plot point, especially when college athletes are usually players in romance, and it has some relevance with Piper and Brady’s story–but I don’t want to spoil anything.
The reason why that makes Brady different from Piper is that she’s a sex worker. She does cams to finance college. It was a major plot point. How she rationalizes her side gig says a lot about her. The fact that she’s a plus size girl and that she got criticism for it makes it empowering. And it introduces the main conflict that will threaten her relationship with Brady.
But it wasn’t the only difference between them. She basically has no family, as her mother has never cared about her, while Brady has been part of a tight knit family–which is also one of the reasons he’s such a gentleman and a sweet guy.
Those differences don’t keep them from each other at all, and I loved that. I loved that, while being muscular and an athlete, Brady was described as having a dad bod. I loved that their connection was instant. I loved that the seduction part of the story was so important–and hilarious. Maybe it was a bit too slow though, and the second act the author is used to write was introduced early, by small touches, but really started quite late in the story, making it almost an afterthought.
It worked though. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that Piper’s cam work is involved in more ways than one. Its conclusion came quick too, and a bit easy.
Two more aspects that I loved in this book: the sexy scenes were adventurous and passionate; and football had an important place in the story, with real bits of sports. All of those were nicely mixed.
Finally, it worked well as a conclusion to the series. All stories took place in the same timeframe, so it wasn’t like we get a little more of all the characters’ life after the main events. But the other characters’ experiences–in their own love story–are suggested and have some importance in Brady and Piper’s story. So it kind of wrapped up everything nicely with a bow.
Quickie
- Series: Waverly Wildcats #4 (can be read as a standalone)
- Hashtags: #sports romance #football #instalove #sex worker #virgin #plus size heroine #dad bod
- Triggers: mild psychological abuse, blackmail
- Main couple: Piper Reynolds & Brady Vaughn
- Hotness: 4/5
- Romance: 4/5
- + so much positivity!
- – virgins shouldn’t be that proficient
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