Rating: 4 out of 5.

I love this book series and the author has done a fantastic job building a wonderful, supportive, and loving found family amongst the players and their wives and girlfriends. In this book it’s goalie Kace’s time to fall in love. His teammates don’t know it, but Kace is a genius in applied physics and his “side hustle” is working as researcher “William” for Dr. Laurel Kent, a fellow scientist at a university. They’ve never met, but work very well together and respect each other’s skills. They’ve formed a fun and flirty relationship and Kace wants nothing more than to take it to the next level, but Laurel made it very clear that she’d never date another athlete. So, when an opportunity arises for him to meet her, he decides he’ll try to date her as Kace and see if he can win her over, and if so, he’ll tell her about his William persona.

When they finally meet Kace charms a date out of Laurel and it goes well. They continue dating and he starts winning her over as he starts to distance himself as William the assistant. He figures he’ll tell her the truth after playoffs. Well, we all know how well that plan will go, right? Right.

Kace is the perfect golden retriever hero. He is thoughtful and goes out of his way to plan unique dates that appeal to Laurel’s interests. He loves her mind and is so supportive of her work. He constantly brags about rather than being intimidated by her brains and it’s a feeling she’s not used to from a man. For her part, Laurel eases up on her preconceived notions about athletes and dating and allows herself to be open to a relationship. They are such a cute couple and I love the respect and support they give each other. Kace’s teammates don’t let Kace wallow in his issues and force him to let them help. Their friend group is awesome and definitely gives me friend group envy.

What I loved the most about the book, however, wasn’t about the couple’s relationship. It was the author’s spot-on description of what it feels like to be an introvert. I am an introvert, and people that know me always scoff and say “no way, not you”, but they have no idea and I can never really explain it to them. When I read how Laurel explained it to Kace, however, I actually started crying (and I’m not typically a cryer) because I finally felt seen. Her description is so perfect and exactly how I feel but never had the words to express it. I highlighted that section of the book and the next time I have to explain it to someone, as I inevitably will have to do because I truly don’t think people understand what introverts go through, I’m just going to hand them this part of the book and tell them to read it. Thank you, Sawyer. Your words mean everything to me.

I listened to the audio of this book and the narrators did a fantastic job expressing all of the emotions going through the characters. They really brought the story to life and you could feel the excitement, tension, and tenderness in their voices.

I received a complimentary audio of this book from The Author Agency. All opinions are my own.