Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan Series: Hoops #1
Series Rating:
Published by Amazon Digital on March 22, 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Sports
Pages: 460
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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A 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
*Certain aspects of this story may be sensitive for some readers.
Editing to add: I started writing this review before this book hit the general Twitter consciousness a few weeks ago. I’ve been sitting on it for a while because I didn’t really know how to talk about this book, and then I didn’t want to add to the cacophony surrounding it. But I’ve decided to go ahead and post the review, and other than a little fine-tuning, and moving the trigger warnings to the very top, I didn’t really mess with it very much.
First – know this going in. There is every trigger warning for this book. Just… every one of them. Violence, sexual assault, weapons, rape, cheating (if you go with a strict definition of it), every trigger you can think of. And even beyond the actual real-world triggers, I know that there are a lot of romance readers who aren’t going to be happy with how little of the book the hero and heroine are actually together. There are long stretches, both in page count, and in time, when the hero and heroine aren’t together at all. Years, in fact.
I don’t even know where to start with this book. It was so good. It took me apart and put me back together again, and I don’t even know how to talk about it.
August West and Iris DuPree meet at a bar the night before his college basketball championship game. They’re both intrigued by the other, they both want to take it further than just conversation, but they don’t because Iris has a boyfriend. It’s a setup we’ve seen in dozens of romance books, but what Kennedy Ryan does with that setup is unlike anything I’ve seen in a romance novel.
Kennedy Ryan clearly did her research before writing this book. What Iris went through with her boyfriend was nearly impossible to read without breaking down, but so well-written. So real. I can’t recommend this book enough, but know that it will break you. I really don’t want to say more about it, because I think it’s best to go into without a lot of preconceived ideas, but please do read it.
About Kennedy Ryan
Kennedy Ryan is a Southern girl gone Southern California. A Top 100 Amazon Bestseller, Kennedy writes romance about remarkable women who find a way to thrive even in tough times, the love they find, and the men who cherish them.
She is a wife to her lifetime lover and mother to an extraordinary son. She has always leveraged her journalism background to write for charity and non-profit organizations, but enjoys writing to raise Autism awareness most. A contributor for Modern Mom Magazine, Kennedy’s writings have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today and many others. The founder and executive director of a foundation serving Georgia families living with Autism, Kennedy has appeared on Headline News, Montel Williams, NPR and other outlets as a voice for families living with autism.
