Spice: 3+

Thank you to NetGalley and Tandor Audio for the opportunity to review this book!
Love Devlin is a BIPOC Author (we need more BIPOC authors in the mainstream!)

General Tropes:
- Black Romance
- Sports Romance (NFL)
- Christian elements (including sermons and Bible verses)

This is a book that was published a few years ago, and is now getting a new audiobook CD.

The story immediately draws you in by introducing you to Trent, a former NFL player/convicted felon, and Jade, a single mom who grew up well, however is on the brink of eviction. I found these characters to feel so real with their emotions over the first couple chapters. I really liked the voice actor who was chosen for Trent!

I think that I wanted more from Jade and her motives at times, and I wanted to see more character development. There seemed to be a conflict between the Christian elements and the spice, and I wanted this to be addressed. Overall, the chapters in this book did feel a bit long, and I feel that the story could have been shortened. I also saw more misogyny throughout the book, and I really wanted Trent to call out his friends for that.

Overall, I really liked the first couple chapters but Jade was just not as compelling as the story progressed!

I wanted to love this, it started off promising. But then it just fell flat. I felt like the characters were under developed and just overall underwhelming. There’s a healthy amount of spice, but that doesn’t make up for the lack of character depth for me. I mean these are grown adults moving in with one another and she didn’t even google him? Didn’t know his last name? Jade was just, I don’t know. The narrators were great but I didn’t love the story itself

I could not get into this. The narrating is good. I just can not get invested in. I also think that the dialogue was not realistic.