Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan

DNF @ 27%

I downloaded this while it was a Kindle freebie because my friends were going nuts over it, and I figured anything with that many five star ratings across the board had to be good. In the book's defense, it isn't awful. It actually reminds me a lot of Colleen Hoover's TOO LATE. August and Iris meet at a bar and have an instant connection but Iris is already in a relationship with a guy named Caleb.

Like August, Caleb is a professional basketball player, but unlike August, he's controlling as all get-out and expects Iris to put all her dreams on hold for him. Which she pushes back against initially, even lining up her dream job: until she finds out *oh no* that despite using protection, she's pregnant.

Here's where things soured for me. The heroine doesn't, even for a moment, entertain "other options," even though she's not sure she wants to be a mother. #Sorrynotsorry to get political here, but that is exactly why pro-choice options should exist. It isn't fair to bring a child into this world that you're not sure you want to care for. That's selfish and cruel. What makes it worse is that Caleb is abusive and shows no more interest in the baby than as its potential to be an anchor to keep Iris trapped into a relationship with him that will eventually lead to marriage.

Now I 100% understand how hard it is to leave a controlling relationship, but that dynamic really wasn't present in Lily and Caleb's relationship. She had other options-- she had a job, she had another guy who was interested in her. It didn't make sense to keep her in the relationship with Caleb except to basically provide the plot for an angsty romance about cheating that was okay because the other man was a bad guy. And that's kind of what squicked me out about this book. It felt like it was taking two REALLY complicated, emotionally fraught issues and not really handling them all that well.

I got bored with this book and ended up leaving it to rot on my Kindle for a couple days. I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm probably not going to finish it. Again, other people have enjoyed it and seemed to feel that it was handled with appropriate sensitivity. I just didn't really feel that keen on it (especially when the hero is like goggling creepily at the breastfeeding heroine).

Peace, I'm out.

2 out of 5 stars