Hook Shot By Kennedy Ryan
For the greater part of the last couple of months, I’ve been binging Kennedy Ryan’s books. As stated before in a previous review, I was introduced to this author during some buddy reading with my Sister Girls. We read the Skyland Series and I’ve been hooked on Ryan’s writing ever since. Her work is inspiring, detailed, attention-grabbing and just all around worthy of reading. As an English major, I find myself picking apart the books I read (you can blame all those college workshopping classes!), but I find myself not being too critical of Ryan’s work.
Hook Shot is a part of a three-book series, of which I’ve only read two books at the time of writing this review. The other book I read was Long Shot, which you can find the review for on my website.
This book tells the story of Lotus and Kenan, two characters us readers are introduced to in Long Shot. Lotus is Iris’s cousin and Kenan is August’s teammate—both of whom feel an immediate spark when they initially meet in August’s hospital room in Book One. Their romance is a whirlwind; sweet and loving, tender and patient, and provides all the feels.
Though each character is completely different in interest and personality, they meld really well. Lotus is into fashion and follows her passion wherever it takes her. She dropped out of college and moved to New York for the chance to work under an esteemed fashion powerhouse. Kenan has been in the NBA for quite some time and is a divorced father who is planning on getting his feet wet in the love interest pool after coming to terms with the end of his marriage. Due to past trauma, Lotus isn’t looking for love and Kenan is okay with that. However, they eventually do fall in love and unpack a great deal of things that I believe everyone should unpack before getting serious with someone.
What did this story do well? Almost everything. I enjoyed digging deeper with both characters because from the moment they met, I figured they would have a story. Their connection is instant, and I found myself falling for Kenan right alongside Lotus. He was what she needed before she even knew she needed it, and I think that’s a testament to how well their relationship works. I loved the way Kennedy Ryan broached the topics of divorce, loss, and child sexual abuse. I would strongly advise to check the triggers for this story because they could be a lot if you’re not expecting them. With that said, Ryan took great care in Lotus’s story which made everything palatable and believable.
The characterization was on point! The audience was able to get to know each individual character—their plights and struggles, what made them tick, what made them who they were and who they ultimately ended up being. Ryan wrote both characters with equal amounts of strength and gave the characters the same agency she manages to give the rest of the ones she writes. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that Lotus and Kenan were real people with how well they’re written.
I particularly enjoyed the voodoo aspect of Lotus’s background. As someone who practices an ATR, I found Lotus to be believable and a curious character when it came to her great grandmother’s legacy. The voodoo storyline wasn’t overdone and was delicately handled. This is something I can appreciate since a lot of stories do too much that overshadows the actual practices they talk about. Kenan’s reluctance to Lotus’s spiritual belief is understandable, but that was the one thing I wish could have been different about the book. I wish he could have tried to find some understanding or at least researched it a bit more instead of somewhat demonizing it or making it seem as if it were make-believe.
Other than that, because I don’t want to spoil the story, I feel as if this book was a clean 5/5 stars. I’m debating reading the third story in this series because I’m usually a two-book girl when it comes to a series, but because it’s Kennedy Ryan, I might just give it a chance. Do I recommend this book? Resounding yes.
The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert
I went on a romance binge-reading journey this summer, and The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert was one of the last books I read in this specific genre. It was a fast read (I read it one sitting) but a story that not only made me realize I wanted to read more of Hibbert’s work but had the capability to get my gears turning for my own writing.
The Princess Trap tells the story of an everyday black woman named Cherry who works in HR and finds herself in a fake-marriage/marriage contract with a prince. She works for an academy that caters to highly intelligent children and he’s trying to find the right school to give money from his charity when they meet. Their chemistry is immediate and electrifying but ends up landing them in a sticky situation that threatens to make them both look bad. He’s disgraced the crown one too many times and doesn’t need any more bad press, and she needs help paying her sister’s medical bills in America—forcing them into a mutual agreement to get married for a year. Along the way, they fall in love for real and their relationship morphs from a lie to reality. Cliché, I know.
Despite the cliché of it all, though, Talia Hibbert does an amazing job of telling this story, and it’s done in a way I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else. Her characters are the kind that get stuck in your head, and you find yourself thinking about them from time to time. Both are strong in their own rite, and it’s easy to sympathize and empathize with their different upbringings and happenings. I loved how organic their personalities felt, individually and together.
The only thing I will say against this book was that it felt too short. I wanted more from the characters—to know them better, to hear their conversations more, to see them interact more outside of sex and dancing around each other and their problems. As I said, the characters are both strong in their own rite. However, we don’t get the bare bones of them—or at least not Cherry. Her character felt a bit buried beneath the prince, but I suppose it’s due to his royalty.
This was my first read from Hibbert’s library, and it won’t be my last!