Spring Tide by Ki Stephens
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Romance
Blurb (on back of book):
HARPER St. James is the type of girl who thrives on the idea of life's simple pleasures: a half-melted ice cream cone on a summer's day, a puppy licking sand from a baby's face, a gentle wave that crests and breaks on the ocean's shore.
For quite some time, Harper's been harboring a secret crush on Nate Gunderson, fellow Coastal U student and MLB-hopeful. In order to spend more time with him this semester, she finds herself spinning a ridiculous web of lies. Her first step . . . convincing her sports med professor that she's been dating a football player. After all, if she's romantically involved, it simply wouldn't be right for her to keep an internship with their team. Unfortunately for Harper, this silly, frantic excuse to switch assignments quickly snowballs into an unstoppable rumor.
LUCA Reynolds is the type of guy who prefers to set low expectations, both for himself and others, if only to avoid any inevitable disappointment. His football teammates would describe him as reserved, brooding, and occasionally stand-offish.
The truth? Luca doesn't feel like he belongs.
When an unexpected injury threatens to destroy Luca's long-term plans, he finds himself in need of help from a discreet professional—one who will assess his knee, provide some simple stretches, and assure him that everything's fine. Luckily, there's a scheming student intern that just might owe him a favor or two.
A secret for a secret. A lie for a lie. It's not really blackmail if she's the one who used him first.
MY OPINION: ****
I have no clue why but I ate this book up. Was it even that good? Probably not. But for some ungodly reason, I was obsessed. I kept reading like a woman deranged. I finished it (also) in a day. I've been on an unhealthy binge this spring break, reading books in one day each.
This book has all the top tropes we know and love. We got fake dating (sports-med intern Harper accidentally claims she's dating stormy football player Luca and he goes along with it in exchange for physical therapy), we got grumpy sunshine (she's an optimistic bubbly queen and he's the cold, cynical boy), we got the little jealousy trope (she wants another man on the basketball team, or she thought she did). It had it all. Oh, and the she fell first he fell harder MWAH.
I love a good college romance. It's been a while since I've read one that I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm glad I found this one. I don't even like sports but I will always eat up a sports romance.
I will ALWAYS love a man named Luca (or Luka, however we want to spell it). It immediately bumps the rating up if the male love interest is named Luca (call it what you want, but I wrote a novel about a Luka for a reason). And Luca was adorable. You could tell his rough exterior was cracking anytime he saw Harper and I loved it. He was very standoffish and extremely overworked (real) and my heart went out to him whenever he was hurting.
Harper and Luca were an unlikely match but I loved them together. It's been a while since I actually shipped the characters in a romance book and this one finally let me fall in love with a pairing without even realizing it. They balanced each other out in every way. The third act conflict was also cute and I loved seeing them start to realize how strong their feelings were for each other.
The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the Sofia/ex thing and seeing Luca literally admitting to himself that he still was hung up over his ex (who was now dating his "best" friend). It kind of felt unnecessary, as if the author just tried to add in some more drama for the funsies.
I will say the third act conflict needed wayyyy more groveling. Harper a better woman than me.
Definitely recommend for the spring :)
Main Character: Harper, Luca
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, Sofia, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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