I wanted to love this book series! The cover is what drove me to this book and I thought I was going to enjoy the premise, but it just wasn’t it for me.

Summary
Elliot Carson left Sugarlake and has never looked back. That is until Rebecca Sanger, the preacher’s daughter and the town's disappointment, winds up working for him.

Forced together, Becca and Eli’s hatred turns to heat, and they start an affair. But disaster quickly strikes, ripping them apart.

Years pass, and Becca’s back home, under her parent’s thumb, and living a mundane life. When Eli shows up out of the blue with a fiancée in tow, Becca is tasked with planning their wedding.

There’s only one problem. Becca still loves Eli... And he hates her.

For the second time in their lives, they’re forced together, and they’ll find out just how thin the line is between hate... and a love that lasts a lifetime.


Review
♥️ Small Town
♥️ Second Chance
♥️ Sports Romance

This book was such a cosy, easy sports romance with lots and lots of spice.
Becca is strong, sassy and doesn't hold back in giving others a piece of her mind. She has parents that you love to hate and really shape her character. Eli is swoony and also kinda filthy. His solution to almost every problem is just... sex. But hey ho - we all love a bit of spice with our sports romance!
Becca and Eli are thrown back together after a whirlwind of emotions. I really felt for Becca when she's roped into planning Eli's wedding, and can't imagine how difficult that must be.
The narrator was fab - I loved the accent and felt like it really drew you in more.
I loved their story and can't wait to return to Sugarlake!

I don’t know why I put off reading this series for so long!! I absolutely loved it! This audio hit all the feels I crave in a good romance book: tension, heartbreak, redemption, and that delicious mix of longing and heat. Eli and Becca’s story had me completely hooked from the start, and the way their relationship evolved, from bitter enemies to something so much deeper was beautifully done. I love the little jaw dropping blip Emily leaves us with in Beneath the Stars. Gets you hooked before you even pick up the second book!

The audiobook narration was fantastic. Both narrators brought so much emotion and authenticity to the characters that I felt every heartbreak, every stolen moment, and every spark of hope between them. I was rooting for Eli and Becca through every twist and turn! The male narrator makes me giggle when he switches to his girl voice!

I believe I have now read the second and third books in this series, and somehow managed to miss the first one, but of the two I've read this one was definitely my favourite!

Both Becca and Eli have troubled family lives which have massively impacted their lives and left them with some deep rooted insecurities that are effecting they way they view relationships. Throw in the fact that Becca is Eli's sisters best friend and the fact they have never really got on, you end up with these brilliantly flawed, complex characters who share this amazing chemistry!

Following a lot of trauma and an injury causing him to lose the job he loves, Eli has moved away from Sugar Lake and is coaching a college basketball team. Becca attends college in Florida and is doing her best to get away from her judgemental (and quite frankly awful!) family, so decides she is going to stay and support herself after her Dad cuts her off. Of course, the first job she can get is joining the coaching staff of Eli's team. We can all work out what happens from there, the 'enemies' very quickly become lovers.

However, we then jump 5 years ahead and the chaos really begins. Cue a fiancé and Becca having to take charge of planning the wedding... its utter madness but I genuinely really enjoyed it. These characters have a lot of depth and even though the romance and the spice is great, I also loved the way Emily McIntire doesn't shy away from exploring all the bad things as well.

I think I need to pick up Book 1 now!

Thanks NetGalley for my copy of this audiobook.

After reading a little about Elliot’s story in the previous book, I was excited to start this one.
Elliot is a star basketball player from Sugarlake who is destined for the NBA, until he sustains a career ending injury. He takes on a coaching position where his sister’s best friend, Becca also just got a job working for.

Eli and Becca never got along growing up. Now their relationship is even worse because Eli left town after his mom died and never looked back, leaving his sister to deal with the aftermath on her own. They both have their own demons to conquer and their own reasons for not wanting to return to their hometown. When they actually talk and get to know each other better, they learn that they actually aren’t all that different.

Their banter and chemistry was EXPLOSIVE and off the chart! I ending up liking this story way more than I thought I would. I’m so excited to continue this series and get Jackson’s story next.

The audiobook was great! Brittany Pressley is one of my favorite female narrators. She brings Becca to live perfectly.

3.5 Stars

I liked this one more than the first, especially the first half of the book. I do feel like my interest dropped a little once we got back to the current events that were happening simultaneously as Beneath the Stars. It could be because I already knew some of the items, but ultimately I feel like it is because this peak behind the scenes just wasn't enough for me? I wanted a little more depth to their current story compared to their past, but the nature of this second chance didn't allow that connection to become fully fleshed out. But even saying that, I think this is done really well as an interconnected standalone. You do not have to read the first book, but it helps with putting puzzle pieces together.

I do prefer Eli and Becca as a couple and appreciated their start a little more than Chase/Alina. The narration for this audiobook also did get slightly better regarding the male narrator doing female voices, which allowed me to stay in the moment more while listening.

Overall, this book is an OK read and I think I'm just grading harshly with how much I enjoyed the Never After Series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC!

As much as I loved the Never After series, I could not get into this one. I've tried to pick up this series multiple times across multiple different avenues (audio, physical, and kindle) and it just fell flat for me. Although the smut portions aren't YA (obviously) the storyline felt very YA.

When I asked for this book i didn’t realize it was the second book in the series. I prefer to read series in order so i am going to skip this one for now.

I was able to listen to this as an audio.
I enjoyed this is. It is a second chance romance with sport/boss/coworker elements. Our FMC has some unresolved issues caused by her parents and the secrets that they keep/ also some religious trauma
Our MMC has family issues that he ran from and refused to go back home to face.

Is the best friend’s brother trope taking over my life? I think so… and I’m not even mad about it!
Eli moved away from home first chance he got, but when an injury occurs and he can no longer play basketball he does the next best thing… Coach. It just so happens that he is the coach at the college in Florida where his younger sister’s best friend, Becca, attends 👀. Cue the dramaaaaa.
I absolutely loved this book! It’s definitely smuttier than Beneath the Stars and these two are just so dirty! I caught myself smiling at my kindle on more than one occasion due to their banter. But when they come together, it’s magic. The problem? He’s a coach and she’s a student… oh and the fact that she led Lee to believe that she has absolutely no contact with Eli. Sheeeeesh! And tack on her parents being absolutely terrible and these two have obstacles around every corner!
Emily DID NOT MISS with this book! She had me hating Becca’s dad with a passion, and I was ready to throw hands throughout the whole book.
I cannot waittttt to get into Jackson’s book!
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This book has both enemies to lovers and best friend’s brother tropes… and together, they make a perfect book. I love Emily’s writing style. She’s able to have spice and smut while still having plot and that’s super important to me. I would recommend starting with Beneath the Stars, but either way… pick up this series!

“I’ve ignored a lot in my life—I’m a master of avoidance. It’s not a badge I wear with honor, but it’s one I wear all the same.”

This book surprised me. I was thinking it was just a sports romance but it was a lot more. Rebecca, the FMC, heads down to Florida to go to school. She signs up to work for the schools basketball team where she runs into her best friends brother. Yeah we got the best friends brother trope. Elliot left his hometown after an injury cause him to leave the NBA. Now he's the coach at the University in Florida. They are forced to work together and the enemies to lovers really does last long in the enemy stage.

I would have rated the book higher but I have an issue connecting with religious undertones, which this had a lot of. Rebecca's dad is their town pastor. He is also cheating on the mom (fun twist with that at the end of the book). I expected a third act breakup but not how it went down. It just didn't make sense to me that a girl dead set on leaving her family would go back.

Not a bad book by a long shot but I just had a hard time with parts of it.

I've been reading this series out of order, but I'm happy to report that it does not at all affect my appreciation of the Sugarlake books. I'd be hard pressed to rank my favourites amongst the ones I've read so far. I'm not familiar with the Southern accent from Tennessee, but I enjoyed the narrators and I thought the drawl added to the reading experience and authenticity of the characters. I really loved Becca's personality, she was fun to read. Eli was also lovely once you got to know the character better. The characters' growth/development was great, you really went on a journey with them individually as well as together. Also, as someone who doesn't really follow basketball, this was still an enjoyable read.

While the story in Beneath the Stands had a lot of potential, I wasn’t a fan of the narrator in the audiobook version. The pacing and delivery just didn’t quite match the tone of the story for me, which made it harder to fully immerse myself in the book. That being said, the plot and characters were engaging, and I could see how others might enjoy it more if they had a different experience with the narration.

Becca Sanger is exactly my type of heroine. Smart mouth. No filter. Full of sass. She runs into Eli Carson (literally) and the tension is instant. He’s her best friend’s brother and her new boss. She hates him. He hates her. Or so they say.

Their banter is top tier and the steam picks up fast. One second they’re arguing and the next they’re all over each other. Zero to sixty!

Both of them are a mess emotionally. I wanted to shake them half the time. Eli is spiraling after a career-ending injury and Becca is trying to survive after getting cut off by her overbearing preacher parents. So yeah. There is baggage. And a lot of miscommunication.

Then we get to the second half and it is pure chaos. Becca is back in her home town. Eli shows up with a fiancée. Becca has to plan their wedding. She still loves him. He pretends to hate her.

Audiobook was decent. Not a fave but it did the job.

I really loved this book. The chemistry between the characters, the setting, the storyline. Nothing was easy for them but it felt so real and it was so beautiful. It was so worth the wait.

This is book two in the Sugarlake series, and we finally get the full story behind the little glimpses of Becca and Eli that we saw in book one. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Liam DiCosimo and Brittany Pressley, and they absolutely nailed it.

Becca grew up as the preacher's daughter but learned early that the church isn’t always what it claims to be. She moved away to Florida for college to prove she could make it on her own. After her parents cut her off, she took a job as an assistant for the basketball team.

Eli had a promising future as a professional basketball player until an injury took it all away. He lands a job at a Florida university, hoping to move past the loss of his mom and his dreams. On his first day, his sister’s best friend walks in, and he’s tasked with teaching her about basketball. One thing leads to another, and their connection turns into a fling.

Things fall apart, and Becca returns home to live with her parents. When Eli comes back to town to plan his wedding, Becca’s father assigns her to handle the planning. The unresolved emotions between them come rushing back.

This story was such an emotional listen. I’m not sure if it was Becca’s strained relationship with her parents or the way the writing pulled me in, but I felt everything. Both characters had so much depth, and I couldn’t stop listening. The narrators brought so much heart to the story. I already want to listen to it again.

If you're in the mood for a forbidden romance with second chances, this audiobook is one you do not want to miss.

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for allowing me to listening to this audiobook!

Emily McIntire can do no wrong. I fell in love with her Never After/Villains series and came back for her contemporary romance. The spice was there, the cute characters, the lovable interactions. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of this Audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review. I appreciate it!

It’s always hard to follow on from such a strong first book of an interconnected series but Emily did it and did it SO perfectly.

Becca and Eli had the right amount of character flaw and turmoil to make me both relate to and root for them. The way the author weaves their development, emotions and romance is a true work of art!

Series is so good so far. The female narrator was getting a bit annoying but im excited to go to next book

3.75 stars

I listened to the audiobook version of Beneath the Stands and overall enjoyed the experience. While the female narrator’s voice wasn’t my favorite and took a bit away from the immersion at times, the emotional pull of the story kept me engaged.

At first, I wasn’t sure about the time jump—it felt a little jarring—but as the story unfolded, I appreciated how it added depth to the characters and their journey. Emily McIntire does a great job tugging at the heartstrings, and by the end, I was invested in both the romance and the personal growth woven throughout.

This book has me curious about the rest of the series, and I’m definitely interested in continuing. A solid listen for those who enjoy emotionally rich, character-driven romance.