Hard Pass by Sara Ney

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Title: Hard Pass
Author: Sara Ney
Series: Trophy Boyfriends #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: June 16, 2020
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 238
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Sports Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

“Hard pass.”
That’s what the last girl I slept with said when she got her first sober glimpse of me. She laughed, walked out of my penthouse—and I never saw her again. It doesn’t matter that I’m a rich, professional athlete; what mattered was my face. Beauty might only be skin deep for some—but I know better.

“Pay up.”
That’s what the last girl I spoke to said over the phone when I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. Desperate to sell a set of rare baseball cards, she’s clever and entertaining. I’m instantly smitten, but nowhere ready to reveal myself. Thank god she has no idea who I am—or what I look like.

I’m a professional athlete--how hard can playing the love game be?

My Review:

2.5 stars — This book profoundly underwhelmed me.  And it started off really good too, so that’s a bummer.

First some background: I have a huge beef with society and its standards of beauty…and it filters over to my love of romances and the completely generic cookie cutter heroes we always get (abs for days, never mind that most normal guys don’t have abs for days).  So to say I was super excited about the blurb of this book is probably putting it lightly.  This author is hit or miss with me, but I was just really intrigued about this one.

And honestly, it started off pretty solid for me.  They had some cute chemistry texting back and forth, and I really felt for Noah’s low self-esteem and struggle with the spotlight.

But to say this book was shallow is putting it lightly.  We get these tidbits about the characters, but NOTHING is explored in any detail.  I can’t figure out if Noah has a good or bad relationship with his parents.  He supposedly has some great friends from back home, but did no one ever talk to him about what he was going through?  He seems so alone.  As for the fact that he’s supposedly a brownbagger, I genuinely have no idea where that comes from other than he sounds non-descript and with probably a prominent nose.  Like really?  OK fine.  Whatever.  There’s a climax that brings it all to a front, and do they have a heart to heart about his obviously skewed self-image, or the horribleness of other people?  Nope.  She basically tells him not to let people get to him and then they have sex, the end.  Whoops, spoilers I guess.  Zero growth, zero exploration.

Then there’s Miranda.  I can’t even remember her name half the time.  I honestly didn’t get much of an impression on her at all.  Everything felt like a thing to check off on a character checklist, not like something that is part of her.  She’s supposedly into design, but we don’t get into that at all.  Otherwise she’s just sort of…there.

And don’t get me started on them together.  Other than that initial fun banter in text form, there isn’t much chemistry for me.  It all feels really just uncomfortable and awkward.  Heck, even the initial chapter where they explore just ends abruptly.

I’ve also accepted the fact that this author and I just don’t share a sense of humour really.  And even though Noah is supposed to be this sensitive introverted guy, he had a lot of jerkish moments and was definitely drinking a bit of the toxic masculinity kool-aid.

So yeah.  Darn, that was ranty…sorry.  It just wasn’t a match and I guess I was just really disappointed.  Oh well.