Hoops & Heartstrings: A Rivals-To-Lovers Sapphic Romance

This will be longish with reason: It's rare that I find an author in the lesbian romance genre who includes a fully fleshed out, 3-dimensional, WOC main character, especially so a Black WOC. The author did a commendable job with Eva in this book. I'm going to focus on this for a moment because this matters, I've read a LOT of well-written WLW lesbian/queer romance, and when Black women are introduced in these stories it's usually as the sassy, tell-it-like-it-is queer (if I'm lucky) best friend, cheering for the MCs to get it together and fall in love. This is nice, but we're more than that. We're also like Eva, we have dreams, ambitions, sensuality, sexuality, complicated childhoods, singular personalities, complex relationships, varied personalities, you name it. I think that the author fell into the sassy Black woman trope/caricature a bit with this one, BUT it happened to have worked in THIS book. We were invited, for a short while, into Eva's family life and her ongoing negotiations as a Black and queer athlete, entrepreneur, and woman. We also weren't offered an ambiguous "idea" of her Blackness - the author was clear that she's an unapologetically Black woman, which I loved. I sense that the author did her research with this character, which this reader really appreciates! (I saw that dialogue about the head scarves and silk caps...I see you Eliza) Please keep including WOC with this intentionality and care. Because yes, I feel that the author cares about how Eva was…

🤎WNBA romance 🧡rivals to lovers 🤎Roommate/forces proximity 🧡Interracial couple 🤎🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ I really enjoyed this book. I heard a lot about it and figured to give it a try. I’m so happy I did. There’s lots of basketball talk which I know almost nothing about but I was not lost of confused at all. Lex broke her wrist after being pushed by Eva during a game against each other. Lex is still healing from her surgery but ends up on the same team as Eva. The banter between the two was fun to read. They really hated each other but that doesn’t last long as they start to get to know each other. Few bumps in the road, long distance relationship and basketball drama. Minimal angst and very steamy scenes 🌶️😏 No third act breakup and the ending was wrapped up perfectly.

I enjoyed the story about basketball rivals Lex and Eva who became teammates, friends and a couple. I was unsure about Eva for much of the book for not really apologizing to Lex for causing her an extreme injury. I really loved the character of Lex who was a forgiving person, a hard worker and a real team player. The author did a good job of explaining basketball terms so even if the reader is unfamiliar, it was understandable. The MCs had great chemistry, some fun banter and quite a lot of spice. Overall, it was enjoyable to read!