On The Rebound

Greg was on his way up in the collegiate coaching world, until every coach and admin around him fixed athletes’ grades, got found out, and everyone got fired, including him. After a few years with no job, his only prospect is as an assistant position at a small school—for the girls’ basketball team. Ciara is in charge of the academic success of the athletes. Finding out that a coach involved in a cheating scandal is working with her girls—it doesn’t go over well, at all.

Set in the highly competitive college sports world, the twist of being about a girls’ team, not a boys’ is truly refreshing. The players are background to the main plot, though an integral one. Greg is the kind of man every reader will fall head over heels for: kind, hard-working, respectful, honest, and hot. With Ciara, however, readers are going to struggle to like her even a little bit. She is rude, judgmental, unforgiving, and hurts Greg based on a past love from so long ago that it shouldn’t matter so much. There is a fine line to a tough but relatable female character, but she goes over it.  Greg is an amazing character, carrying the plot and story wonderfully and with grace. While this is a sports based romance, there is a bit too much description of the many basketball games. By the end, when the game really matters, readers may scroll through. Greg’s journey - from nothing to thinking of going places to an epiphany of where home is - is beautiful and heartwarming to read.

Julie York