Clace 's Reviews > The Striker

This book made me feel ✨Nothing✨

Look I enjoy Ana's books a lot, twisted was one of the series that helped me get into reading romance novels because they were fun, cute, easy to read and short!! Her series Kings of sins has been okay so far but they were all being recycled so I was so happy when I found out that she was writing a sports romance INSTEAD of another billionaire romance but 👹

BRING BACK 300-400 PAGED ROMANCE BOOKS 🙏🏼

This had no reason to be 700 pages long?? like its was literally so long and I thought that maybe there would be something fun that she had planned because she was hyping it so much but there was ✨nothing✨ it was all yap no slap. The writing style was so weird?? like the more books that I read from hers the more distant I feel...this is not the writing that I was a fan of 😔 Its sad because she was one of my auto buy authors and four consecutive disappointing releases aren't helping her.

Now onto the main problems:

. Literally nothing of substance happening in 700 pages like there were cute moments but when the book is feeling sloppy getting long even the cute scenes feel boring like I dont skim but there was a point where I started skimming because it was just getting to annoying. What happened to planning? what happened to editing?

. The characters, now they might be the ones that made the book bearable for me but if you honestly look at it they only had a few (emphasis on few) cute scenes and worked somewhat well together (which they were for a significant amount of time) but if you separate them from each other and see them as individual characters you will see nothing because there was nothing to see!! character development was found dead 😒 you're telling me that there's zero development in 700 pages?? the character were the same at the end as they were on page 1, they were so one dimensional ISTG like I need good characters. Asher was a good MMC but he was just good not great or anything extra ordinary, I liked the gestures that he did tho and Scarlett ??? thats all I can say because ????

. This book was so damn predictable and like you would say Clace this is a romance novel and I KNOWWW but still its like?? I know whats gonna happen from the first page why should I bother reading it?? its not like there's anything fun or cute happening. Like I love reading cliche 2000's romcoms because at least they're fun to read and they're short with thing that actually enjoy this was the exact opposite of that. It had everything to be honest brothers rival, forbidden romance, sports, training coach but failing to deliver at those tropes is embarrassing

. The romance, Where??? where was it?? sorry for being repetitive but they have sex on page 200 out of a 700 paged book and it was so mid like it made me feel bored and I skimmed it because there was insta lust, the classic I just met him why am I already hard/wet for him/her and then them fucking but they had like zero chemistry, zero tension, zero angst, zero pining, zero banter so the romance was overall zero like spicy scenes are Ana's strong suit but they were all so mid. I think there are four- five scenes and only one ( the mirror scene) was fun to read the other were pfft 👎🏻 Vincent (scarletts brother) had more chemistry than her and Asher.

. The plot, 😂😂😂😂 WHERE???

. The third act break up 😭😭 it was so dumb and unnecessary, it made no sense and it was so messy the whole overall conflict of this book was dumb and messy like please dont write about things if you dont actually feel about it and everything about it was so inconsistent like Asher racing plot line and even scarletts crash one. Also talk about being forgiveness 😍 like what the fuck was that scarlett?? if that is all it takes for her to forgive Asher, he'll be getting out of many thing.

. The side characters, Vincent was the only one I liked. Brooklyn and Carina were so mid even Adil and the other guy LIKE why is it so hard for you guys to write about fun, enjoyable side characters???

This was easily Ana's most dumbest, snooziest, boring, frustrating book to date. I have never been this disappointed in her like WHYYY and I was so excited that the next book was vincents...but my expectations are on the floor.
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I have never read a football romance so I'm SUPER EXCITED 🤭 also wanted Ana to venture of into something new 🙂‍↕️
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Brother's rival is such a goated trope!! Ana you must ace it 😤
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The way Ana's serving with all the Asher scenes in king of sloth 😌
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Ana Huang writing a football romance wasn't on my 2023 radar but I'll gladly add it 🫡

----> Fall 2024 will be my time 🤭