Block Shot by Kennedy Ryan

From award-winning author Kennedy Ryan comes the steamy, powerful second installment of the Hoops trilogy. If Jared Foster had a dollar for every time Banner Morales made his heart skip a beat-the heart everyone assumes is frozen over-he'd be richer than he already is. He's found success as a sports agent by always assuming "no" means "I'll think about it." And he knows Banner's thinking about him. Her simmering anger? The way she puts him in his place? Foreplay. She thinks she's won the game, but they're just getting started. If Banner had a dollar for every time Jared broke her heart, she'd have exactly one dollar. One epic failure of a night. After parting on such bad terms, Banner has no intention of ever giving Jared a second chance. She's found success in a field ruled by men like him. She's learned to call the shots and block them when she has to. So she'll ignore the way he makes her heart pound. Sure, he seems carved from her most private fantasies, but she can get past that. She's got her one dollar, and Jared won't have her.

Ugh this book was so hard to get through and I nearly DNFd it a few times.

My main issue with this entire book was Jared. Now I love an alpha hero, but Jared was just a dick. An arrogant, selfish dick. Every word which came out of his mouth made me roll my eyes, and whenever he talked about ‘taking Banner back', it just sounded so cold and shady. There was just nothing redeeming about him.

Although it was rough, I've decided on a 2.5 star ratings for 3 reasons:

1 - Kennedy Ryan's writing is great.
2 - Banner and Zo (it should have been their love story!)
3 - The epilogue. It was a good epilogue. It will give it half a star.

I have a feeling that book 3 about Lotus and Keenan will be more like book 1, so I am going to continue and read that one, as well as reading other Kennedy Ryan books. I think this one just didn't gel with me and that's okay.

CW: Overly obsessive thoughts and talk about weight. PCOS. Cancer-like illness. Manipulation. Mom calling her daughter a straight up “Puta”. (NO, MA'AM)

One: “En las buenas y las malas” is “Through the good and the bad” not “Through thick and thin”.

Two: I thoroughly enjoyed this book more than Hoops 1 because I was not ready with that book and it didn't feel safe. #1 reason for not continuing with this series for a year and a half. I felt safe in this book. HOWEVER, it got real tiresome having Ms. Morales talk about her obsession of weight ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. It lasted throughout the entire book. She included it in her motivation speeches about her career acting like she tucked it away to be the bad ass chic in the room but she never really did. It always circled back to that. When you are the greatest, people who admire you don't see the body. When you are the greatest, haters will always fall back to the body because that is all they have to grasp onto and even then it is nothing but a weak comeback. Give yourself some grace, please.

When a man is telling you over and over again that he loves every dip, every curve, every little thing and has never done anything to contradict it; take it in and hold on to that power.

UGH... I'm sure there are people that obsess that much but as someone that has found so much success and is brilliant at what she does in every aspect outside of her weight, I expected more from Ms. Morales.