Shooting To Win: A Forced Proximity College Sports Romance

A solid 4.5 STARS This is the second book in the Pierson U series and is the story of Adam known as “Van” and Stella. Van is a senior on the basketball team and is friends with West and Monty (the stars of the first book) and Stella is a sophomore and friends with Monty. As a result Van and Stella have to hang out a lot. However, unknown to everyone, Stella and Van hooked up once when she was a Freshman. Since then she is avoiding Van because she thinks he cheated on his GF with her (when actually they had been broken up during that time). Van meanwhile, breaks up with his GF and can’t understand why Stella hates him as he really wants to date her. Stella ends up having to move into the basketball house and the relationship develops from there I really enjoyed this book.The author created a great college atmosphere, two interesting characters and a great set of supporting characters. I loved the larger group of friends and supporting characters. I especially loved the text messages on the groups. I loved Van's character - he was a really nice guy and for once not a player or a skirt chaser. He really loved his ex-GF and cared for her, even when he broke up with her. He ran the risk of being too perfect but then acted asinine so that was okay. The two of them labored under a lot of misunderstandings that could have been resolved by talking and then actually were. I am generally not a fan of the misunderstanding trope but the author did a great job with it. I could look at the scenarios and say this is how someone could act and it didn’t feel overdone. I did think the initial misunderstanding time could have been cut down a bit but it wasn't a huge deal (again because it was dealt with so deftly). I will definitely read more books by the author and now want to read Monty and West's story. A solid 4.5 stars. I received a free advanced review copy of this book via Book Sirens and am voluntarily leaving a review.