Edge of Glory by Magan Vernon

This book releases on July 12th, but the Amazon links to the preorder, which is apparently on sale for 99 cents until release day.

Blurb:
“Welcome to Conti’s. I’m Lia and I’ll nguhhhhhhhhhhhhh”.

I froze. Directly facing me was Olympic swimmer, Jay Morningstar… and I just made an idiot of myself.

The rest of the table looked up to see me standing there with my mouth practically gaping. His coach, who I recognized from TV interviews, and even two other swimmers from the Olympic team… they didn’t say anything, they didn’t even blink.

“Uh… I mean…”

I couldn’t even put together my words and Jay Morningstar was just staring at me with that Wheaties box smile and those icy blue eyes.

What was I supposed to say? Sorry I just made a weird noise, it’s just that I have a poster of you on my wall where you are wearing nothing more than your gold medals, a smile, and a pair of man panties?

    

My Review:
2.5 stars — I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

Yeah, this book didn’t fit with me.  I probably should have DNFd it, but when it’s an ARC I requested, I feel like I need to give it more of a shot than I would just a normal book.  Don’t know why.  Anyways, I didn’t really enjoy the characters, I wasn’t feeling the chemistry between our hero and heroine AT ALL.  And those are basically the two things that draw me into a book (particularly a romance), so yeah…not a Lenore winner.

So the characters.  Well, this was all in Lia’s POV, and I’m usually drawn to insecure heroines, but Lia takes it to a whole other level.  I know people are like this in real life, but it’s just not the kind of character that I end up rooting for, you know?  I guess I didn’t see any growth there.  And I didn’t really get Jay.  And they kept calling him a dumb jock, and he would even call himself a dumb jock, and Lia NEVER said “uh, no you aren’t.”  Which I was really sensitive about, b/c I have a brother who thinks he’s dumb, and it’s just not right.  Plus, he really didn’t act dumb.  But seriously, how mean is that?  “I’m just a dumb jock.” CRICKETS.

I also really didn’t enjoy the reality tv aspect — it felt a bit thrown in and really didn’t fit the story.  It gave a lot more drama and things to think about, and I would have preferred the story remained a bit simpler, and we got to know the characters a bit more and see them grow as a couple more.  I didn’t really end up believing their progression as a couple, b/c while we got some sweet moments at times, I was taken out of it by their fights and then rapid makeups.

Maybe that’s it?  Maybe I just didn’t believe the characters?  I don’t know, I just really didn’t enjoy my reading at all.  I felt like I was forcing myself to read.  I’m sure I had more to say, but I want to avoid getting too ranty.  Basically I just didn’t connect with the characters individually, or as a couple, so it was not a book for me.  Which is too bad, b/c I personally love the swimming world and was excited for a sports romance set with swimmers.