Waiting on Wednesday (39)

For this Waiting on Wednesday, I picked Deep End by Ali Hazelwood.

Release Date: February 4, 2025

Book Summary:

“Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

 
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
 
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...”

My Thoughts: 

I was genuinely surprised to learn that Ali Hazelwood, known for her nerdy STEM romances, is releasing a college-era sports romance. While a paranormal romance and a video game-centered romance seemed like natural progressions of her geeky themes, a sports romance feels like a new direction for her. Having enjoyed sports romances like The Wall of Winnipeg, I’m curious to see where Hazelwood takes her writing next. It’s clear she’s not afraid to branch out and won’t be typecast as only writing nerdy characters.

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Review: The Bromance Bookclub by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

The Bromance Bookclub by Lyssa Kay Adams

My Rating: 4 out 5

Review: 

“Oh my gosh, baseball is my default favorite sport. Stepping out of my comfort zone, I actually played softball for a while. But even before that, for as long as I can remember, my entire family spent weekends cheering for the Atlanta Braves on local TV stations. I have fond memories of sharing in the fans’ joy of victory and the agony of defeat. And as a Braves fangirl, of course, I couldn’t help but admire how handsome players like Chipper Jones, David Justice, John Smoltz, and Javy López were. This made me a natural fit for sports romances like ‘The Bromance Book Club.’”


The synopsis reads:


"The first rule of book club: You don't talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife."


At first, I thought this would make a fun movie—part buddy comedy, part romcom—starring go-to leading men like Sebastian Stan, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, or Luke Owens. But the plot didn’t feature the fun hijinks surrounding the secret book club that I had hoped for. Overall, I expected more focus on the ‘bro’ dynamics, baseball, and the book club, but instead, the story ended up centering around the hero and heroine going back and forth about divorce—a lot. The heroine’s mommy and daddy issues were portrayed realistically, but I was looking for a more lighthearted romcom, and at times, this felt a bit heavy. I would read another book by the author or in this series, but not when I’m in the mood for something light. It wasn’t what I expected, but it wasn’t bad either.

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