By: Juliet Rhodes
Many thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the ARC!
Griffin Hayes is a football player, he’s known as the golden boy. He attends one of Aria Wilder’s concerts and a video of him singing along goes viral. Their people get in touch with each other and they decide to do a best friends PR stunt. The more time that they spend together, the more they each let their walls down and slowly feelings start to creep in. Then Griffin gets injured and shuts Aria out. Is this the end of Aria and Griffin? With their worlds and lives pulling them in opposite directions, what becomes of them?
Not thinking anything when I went into reading this book, my immediate thought when I first began the book is that this is inspired by Taylor and Travis. That’s fine, but the book as a whole fell a little flat.
This is a fake friendship, opposites attract book. These tropes don’t bother me at all. I think I was not as invested in this couple as I wanted to be because the book is in third person POV. When I read a romance book, I want to fall in love with the couple as they fall in love with each other. When it’s told in the third person POV, I feel as if there is a block to that connection with the characters. We never really get inside of their heads to understand how they feel, and what they are thinking. I never really felt the chemistry between the two.
The characters both feel one dimensional. They both are all about their careers and only have 1 friend each. For Aria, it’s her sister. For Griffin, it’s his teammate, Elliot. We never even get a really good description of each character to visualize.
The ending was just okay. I don’t know.. I wanted this book to be better.
However, I think young girls who love Taylor and Travis may eat this one up!
Paperback Publish Date: July 28, 2026
Find the book here.
*This post contains an affiliate link. I earn a small commission if you purchase the book through this link.
Book Addict Book Blog 