Hi Librarygoer!
Happy Wednesday! I have GREAT book shaped news of my own to share today.
I’m a 2025 SmoochPit Mentee! I’ll be working with Rufaro Faith Mazarura to revise Legacy in Bloom, and I’m SO thrilled to make my book baby even better.
Querying is on pause until the spring but I’m so excited that Leela and Braxton’s story is getting new life into it!
I can’t wait to share some of my journey along the way with you here!
Today, though, I want to talk about a lot of fun if you’re into New Adult emotional sports stories, or just anything that Bal Khabra writes.
Revolve by Bal Khabra
I grabbed Spiral (book two in the Off the Ice series) on a whim before a vacation because I kept seeing it everywhere. The book checked so many of my boxes and I was obsessed with the depth of the young twenty something characters. Revolve has a lot of the same emotionality with a lot of that built through physical intimacy in the book as the main female character, Sierra, reconnects to her body after an accident.
Happiest Pub Week to this book!
-Aleia
If You’re Into These Tropes, Keep Reading
Synopsis
Olympic figure skater Sierra Romanova suffered a life-altering accident on the ice last year and is just finding her way back to the sport she loves. She’s ready to reclaim the spotlight, and the key to that is unexpected—frat boy and hockey player Dylan Donovan.
He was recently kicked off his hockey team for unbecoming behavior and his chances of the NHL Draft are at risk. His only way back to the team, and the future he’s worked so hard for, is partnering with Sierra to help her conquer her goals.
Only he kind of annoys her entire spirit, and she wants help from everyone but him … which would be great if anyone was willing to help her post-accident. It’s a win-win for them both … even when feelings start to get in the way.
Why I Loved It
I mentioned picking up Spiral on a pre-vacation whim and enjoying it. I connected with the characters and how they were both more mature and evolved than more seasoned adults in some ways while also still exhibiting the ambition of youth.
Revolve did something similar for me. When we meet them, both Sierra and Donovan are battle-weary. Sierra is an Olympic ice skater who suffered a major injury during a performance. After the injury, her partner left her, which among other injury-related things, sent her self-worth into a tailspin.
Donovan has a very strong friend group but feels like he has to always be ‘the one who is put together.’ This belief leaves him to keep an intensely painful relationship with his parents to himself. Instead of looking to his friends for support, he drowns his sorrows in being the life of the party. That means lots of alcohol and lots of women he only knows by the sexual acts they performed in the bathroom, basement, or spare bedroom of the frat house.
When I first met him, I assumed I would hate him from page one to forevermore but Bal redeemed him in my eyes. In addition to his promiscuity and poor decisions involving substances, he’s just at the bottom of his luck in every way that matters. In the early chapters, he’s struggling with the fact that his party life doesn’t fit anymore and has cost him too much. Then he meets Sierra, and he’s down bad forever. Love to see it!
Sierra has physical reminders of her injuries—as well as a constant reminder of her ex-figure skating partner flaunting his new partner in her face. He acts like it’s no big deal to abandon her, so she’s constantly dealing with feelings of not being enough. Not being worth loving.
It’s not an infrequent struggle for a romance hero to contend with, but Bal handles it by not addressing it head-on at first. Instead of saying ‘you are worth loving,’ Donovan talks Sierra down from panic attacks. He makes her food because she constantly forgets. He’s just there. Eventually, he does get to the point where he says ‘I love you’ out loud, but he’s so present that he makes her believe it. This comes in handy during her moments of doubt. She can’t help but believe in his love because he’s always been right there.
This book has some one-line bangers of love declarations, as well.
Speaking of bangers, these two have a great time getting physical. Ropes, ice, and blindfolds are involved. I was surprised but pleasantly so! The sex scenes are pretty unskippable because of how entwined they are with the plot. There’s a lot of growth—both in trust and the deepening of their feelings towards one another—on these pages.
All in, this is just a story of loving yourself through recovery and loving your person even when you feel broken.
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What I’m Reading Next …
The Holiday Hookup List by Alexis Daria (Free to Read and Listen on KU)
Julia Song is Undateable by Susan Lee
Sparks Fly by Zakiya N. Jamal
The Re-Do List by Denise Williams
All Superheroes Need Photo Ops by Elizabeth Stephens
What are your favorite fall reads? Any genre, vibes, or specific books come to mind?
So happy for you Aleia 🫶🏿🫶🏿🫶🏿