Thank you SO much to Berkley Romance for an advance copy of this book!
Thank you so much to PRH Audio for the complimentary audio!

This book will be out Feb 4th.

WHEWWWWW It has been two days and I still am thinking about this book.
I am wanting to curl back up in bed and read it for the first time all over again. My brain just has been consumed with Scarlett and Lukas.

I have been a fan of Ali's work since The Love Hypothesis (also shout out to Dr. Adam and Dr. Olive for making cameos) so whenever she drops a book, I am there. Her adult books are exceptional BUT to me she soars into a different sphere with her New Adult books. Check & Mate was outstanding and now this one *chef's kiss*. I was highlighting quotes & different moments because I was SWOOONING. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. When I was reading a different book, my brain would wonder back to it.

I was a part of a buddy read for this book and when I started reading this, I was VERY nervous on the direction of how this book was going to go because of the whole "I'm attracted/hooking up with my friend's long term ex boyfriend." I knew Ali wouldn't let me down but I still was nervous on how that whole concept would transpire. Don't worry you get all the answers in regards to that while reading. I also was unsure how I felt about Lukas. He is a strong, quiet, very intimidating male character. He is a Swedish Olympic God who is into BDSM and what do you know our sweet, diver Scarlett also is into that. Which is why Pen made the suggestion that the two of them should be together. Lordy! Pen's loss is our treasure.

We don't know how Lukas was with Pen but the way he was with Scarlett. He wanted to give her the world. And while it wasn't always loud or necessarily that talkative, it was in his small gestures. He always would make sure she was okay and consented to the things they would do. One of my favorite moments is when they are in Amsterdam and they are hanging out on the balcony and we really get a peek into their private conversations and them connecting. I just smiled the whole time. I know the two MCs are young but a lot of time I was just screaming at the book because I wanted them to communicate how they were feeling. Lukas would dance around it "you don't know, do you?" and Scarlett wouldn't let herself feel those things because of her relationship with Pen (understandable). And in the moment on the balcony, he was able to verbalize it.

There was a lot that happened in this book besides the romance. You have Scarlett trying to get over the mental block of doing a dive that previously had caused her major injuries, female friendships and the competition of being a top level athlete trying to get into the Olympics. It just all was so good! Besides the relationship with Lukas, the other relationship that was prominent in this book was her relationship with Pen. I remember in the buddy read, a lot of us were just over Pen and her antics. It just seemed like she was always there. And one thing I didn't even think about it while reading until after was that there should have been more boundaries between Pen and Lukas. But once again I blame all this on their age. They are mature in some ways but also still immature in other ways.

I also want to thank Ali for finally giving us short chapters. Compared to the the adult books, I remember them being incredibly long chapters but these, I was tapping through. Ali's writing is very niche to STEM and being very smart. And there was STEM involved in this book but it wasn't an overwhelming amount which I loved. I was much more into the diving aspect of it.

I primarily read this book with my eyes BUT I did pair some of my reading with the audio. Ali's last book Love, Theoretically was the first time I ever did a duet narration and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But this time around after listening to a few now, it was much more enjoyable. Once again Thérèse Plummer is back and I thought she did a great job with Scarlett and the narration. Ben Holtzmuller was our male narrator. I really liked his voice and I could listen to more of him.

To wrap this long review up, I just can't stress enough how much I loved this book! And I think it will be sitting in my brain for a long time.

PS - Did I buy a special edition cover of this book? Yes I did!