This review was initially shared on Sep 18, 2023, on a former platform. In my quest to maintain harmony and unity, I've decided to repost this review, preserving its essence and integrity.
Warning: Themes of this review contain adult content that is not suitable for those under 18 years of age. Use caution when reading this review and the book.
Book: Forbidden Score
Author: Amelia Lark
Genre: Sports Romance
Rating:
⭐⭐⭐1/2
Spice:
🍆🍆
Synopsis:
In Forbidden Score, the POV belongs to Roman Adams and Jenny Edwards. Roman is a hockey all-star on the Hollywood Hurricanes and Jenny is the owner's daughter. When Jenny comes home for the summer from boarding school she meets Roman who is new to the Hollywood Hurricanes and professional hockey. Jenny and Roman end up developing a relationship after getting to know each other better, despite Jenny's father warning her against letting her guard down around the guys on the team, the two continue to have secret dates with stolen kisses. Unfortunately, after Jenny returns to school, Roman is traded to a new city team and the media leaks a photograph of Roman in Tennessee with another woman, leading to the destruction of their relationship. Four years later, Jenny is now a mother to a three year old boy, and Roman makes a return to his hometown and former team, forced to relive his past, and change the image of his future. What could go wrong?
Review:
While Lark has an incredible way of writing the sexual tension between Roman and Jenny, I felt like the pacing of the books was severely rushed and filled with various plot holes or just plot lines that didn't make sense four pages later. I caught myself having to go back and re-read something because I thought I skimmed over a few sentences too fast, when in reality, what I had read was countered by what I was currently reading. For instance, at the start of the book we find Roman in a bar with his teammates, a night of bonding as he was recently traded from Hollywood to Nashville in a gut blowing move possibly motivated by Roman's rivalry with former teammate (and older brother of Jenny) Jay Edwards. Then as the chapter ends and we get to read from Jenny's POV there is no indication of how much time has passed or that it had passed at all. We are instantly teleported to a car ride with Jenny, her brother Jay, his wife Mara, and Evan. It isn't outright said who Evan is or his age, though at the start I thought he was a teenager or something. Later it's noted that Evan is the three year old son of Jenny and his father is still unknown. Still in Jenny's POV, she stands firm that Evan's father will remain a mystery, only a few pages go by before it's made obvious that it's Roman, not that I was hoping for a grand reveal, but it was also strange that Roman took zero time to claim Evan as his son. While I shouldn't be upset by that, I felt like a lot of the drama from the book was leaked way too soon, leaving me craving just a bit more mystery even though I already knew the direction of the story.
Because Roman and Jenny already shared a history of a whirlwind romantic past, it was only a matter of time before the two would end up in each other's arms once more lusting after each other. While I can't say that romantic scenes were particularly "spicy", I will say that it was lust filled. The desire of being away from each other for so many years, not having full closer between them, so the door to an equally forbidden sexual encounter is still wide open.
Roman and Jenny were definitely written well for each other. They both struggled with trusting one another due to the abrupt end to their courting which was the main cause of the miscommunication between them into adulthood. Jenny and Roman both had no idea how to navigate expressing their feelings to each other, let alone now that a child was in the mix. You root for them to find common ground and be with each other, but at the same time you kind of hope that Jenny would have more power over herself as she builds her strength to stand up for herself against the harsh will of her father and the over protectiveness of her older brother.
It was great finding that Roman wasn't the womanizer the media made him out to be, he was simply misunderstood and had no power over his own image, as made clear with his PR makeover, helmed by Jenny. He always held a flame for Jenny and his excursions for the past 4 years were just him attempting to forget the sweet girl he was forced to leave behind.
One thing I didn't really like was the dramatic "twist". Finding out that Roman was set up in Nashville to look like he had easily gotten over Jenny, was a bit of a mood killer for me. It was of course something I didn't actually see coming, but I was curious as to how the importance of Roman getting drugged that night would come to play later. The person involved to be the mastermind felt cheap.
Although Lark probably wrote this book specifically for the sexual and R rated material, I believe had she given herself more time to fully develop the characters, the full weight of the plot, along with the middle and end, this could have been a much more compelling story with cohesive heart and soul.
Instead I was left with a partial story, heart and soul very disconnected, non-cohesive plot lines, and a plethora of grammatical mistakes.
Overall, I did enjoy this book more than I thought I would, though I feel like I could have really loved this book if more time and editing was given, rather than a last minute rush job to meet the publishing deadline.
I hope that once this book is fully released, a little more workshopping will have taken place to fix some of the inconsistencies with in the story and the very much avoidable grammatical errors.
Would I read this book again? Absolutely! It filled my desire for something steamy, for something wholesome. It filled my love of fast romance that comes with a happy ending.
It makes me excited to read more from Amelia Lark, and heck, it made me realize that I do enjoy Sports Romance. Just give me a little bit more spice!
Great job!
Disclosure: I would like to clarify that this review is based on an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) provided by the talented author, Amelia Lark. I want to assure my readers that this is not a paid review, and all opinions expressed here are my honest and unsolicited thoughts on the book. If you have any queries or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly.