4.2 stars

Cute story. I wasn't prepared for the twist. I thought I had it figured out but was pleasantly surprised to see it. I did want more of a resolution of how the ending came about with the coach. ( )

This book is basically atrocious.

And I read the whole thing. Why it atrocious? First the nickname tutor girl did not do it for me. But neither did the politics of sports tutoring. As someone tutored athletes at a prestigious sports & academic school, I felt awful for the pressure Meyer got to have her clients succeed. Imagine having it pinned to you the reason a star athlete and this program can play and or succeed. Frankly, it's not really unusual at all either.

But then there was this whole controlling and abusive coach dynamic. And weirdly, Tobias is stalker trash to the point that he watches Meyer at a baseball game and then without listening to her, punches her brother bc of Meyer & her daughter's interaction has him thinking someone's trying to pick up "his girls". I hope this isn't a spoiler, bc Lord knows I knew who it was. So I had this weird relationship where the hero was hella scary as a human, but also managed to be aspirational in other aspects of his personality.

What was good? He tried. Meyer is the mother of an infant, and rather than freaking out when he learns this, he invests and does these things that could help her. He didn't bat an eye. He just loved them both, carried the car seat, offered to have a zoom meeting or go to her place for tutoring so she wouldn't have to get a sitter and could be with her daughter. I felt like he had this how to help thing down all the while not making Meyer feel the least bit self-conscious about her attractiveness as a mother. And note: (view spoiler)

And that part being so well done while Meyer's insecurities were there but not overwhelming were why I kept reading. Because it was fascinating. He acted like an controlling jackass and I couldn't stand his internal monologue *except* when it came to supporting Meyer as a mother and in a sense them as a unit.

Without some of the awful aspects (including the vomit-y nicknames and possessiveness), this could have been such a solid read bc I don't think I've ever read a hero take his attraction to a woman who is a mother quite in such stride (maybe Wrong to Need You but that read less integrated in terms of parenthood than this?)

So it's a bit of a bummer it didn't soften some of the aspects of him that were toxic through and though and that the whole coach dynamic read a bit like a horror book.