This series is so good!!! Emily knows how to keep you hooked and coming back for more!! I think this series every person should read!!

Beneath the Stands by Emily McIntire
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3🌶🌶🌶

This enemies to lovers, best friends bother romance had me happy, frustrated, and all of the other feelings.

When Rebecca Sanger, the preachers daughter from small town Sugar Lake, TN moves to Florida to attend college. She thinks she's finally escaped her small town. That is until her best friends older brother (that Becca cant stand), Elliott Carson (Eli) shows up at her new job as the new head basketball coach! As if that isn't bad enough. He is tasked with the job of teaching Becca everything she needs to know about basketball. But the more time they spend together they realize that Mayne they had the wrong impression about each other. But as quickly as love and passion can ignite, it can also fall apart.

Man, the ups and downs, the ways I wanted to scream at and hug these characters. Definitely a great addition to the Sugar Lake series!

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Like always, Emily McIntire books have me swooning and laughing. She brings hot and spicy to a perfect blend with banter and humor. I love everything Emily write. It truly is always such a good time reading, especially to escape the real world if necessary.

This was a super cute and fun story. It’s a spicy small town romance that I flew through. I loved the first half of the book in the college setting where it was more of a forbidden romance and sports romance. The spice scenes are pretty frequent but they hit every time. This is not a slow burn, it was pretty insta lust which isn’t really my thing but was still enjoyable. I didn’t love the second half as much once they got back to sugar lake. The woman narrator did a great job the accent is thick but fits the character perfectly. I liked the male narrator but I do have to note that when he narrates the female parts it’s not great. Other than that it was a good story.
Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the alc!

This second chance, enemies to lovers romance kept me hooked with its tension and emotional drama. Eli and Becca's chemistry was strong, and their past made their connection even more intense.
The time jump mid book was a bit jarring, but the angst and heartache kept me listening.
The narration was great, Brooke did an amazing job with Becca, and Liam nailed Eli’s emotions, though the female voices felt a little off.
Still, it was an enjoyable, steamy listen with a lot of heart. If you love drama, spice, and complicated love stories, this one’s for you.

Overall I did enjoy this book. It wasn’t my favorite romance book I’ve read but I still enjoyed it and the characters love story. I’m a big fan of an enemies to lovers trope so I enjoyed that aspect of this book. The one thing I didn’t like early on was how little Eli fought when Becca left. I would hope that if he cared so much he would have tried a little harder instead of giving up. I loved reading about the pull they had towards each other from the start of the book to the very end. You could really feel how much they were drawn towards one another despite any other circumstances. Overall, I would give this book a 3/5 stars.

This book was better than I had expected. Now I have to finish the series.

Anyway, preacher's daughter Becca has been trying to get out of the small town and free herself from her controlling parents. 100% disillusioned by her father who preach one way and do the opposite just to uphold the front of perfect family for the town. She thought her poor mother was the victim of it all.

Unexpectedly, she ran into her best friend's brother. She hates him for letting her BFF to deal with the mess back home. But then realized there's so much more.

Their chemistry is hot. Their split up was stupid, but their journey and growth was an admirable one. They needed time to mature, and that time apart did just that. No 3rd act, thank goodness.

The narrators, Liam DiCosimo & Brittany Pressley are well matched. I'm partial to Brittany Pressley, she does well with the voices, which made it more exciting.

Thank you to NetGalley & Blackstone Publishing for the Audiobook ARC

I loved this! I can't wait to read more of the series! This is my first book by this author but it definitely won't be my last. I definitely recommend!

The narration on this book was amazing, I had a fun time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️

The first half of the book was definitely my favorite. The other half it was to messy for my liking 😭 perhaps the reason this wasn’t my cup of tea was because I still haven’t read the first one!!

Overall cute read, I’ll definitely continue the series

Forbidden second chance with a side of small-town angst?
Yes please. 😮‍💨

This story surprised me in such a heartfelt way!
Eli and Becca: The tension, the history, the “you were never mine, but you always were” energy??
I ate it up!
I listened to this one, and the audio was so well done. The dual narration really brought out the ache in their story. Becca’s strength and softness were so relatable, and Eli... let’s just say he made the gym whistle-worthy! 🏀🔥

For me, there were just a few pacing dips and some very early steam that felt a little jarring at first—but once I settled in, I couldn’t stop listening! The themes of healing, growth, and choosing your path hit hard, and I adored it. Also, give me a wedding planner falling for the groom trope any day.
(Well... kinda...you’ll see. It's not as bad as it sounds...promise! )

Would I recommend? Absolutely.
Especially if you love:
*Second chance romance
*Secret pasts + public reunions
*Faith vs Freedom {THE tension}
*Characters who feel like people you know

Add to TBR if you're in the mood to feel a little gutted, a little healed, and a whole lot in love. 💔❤️‍🔥

A great second chance romance! I loved the character of Becca and how sure of herself she was at the beginning. She wouldn't let anyone walk all over her until her personality flips in the second half of this book. When she was around her manipulative parents, she was a completely different, people-pleasing person. Eli also flips personalities, but for the better. He starts off as an a-hole, but then becomes a sweetheart who you can't help but love. The plot is a bit chaotic and messy, but that seems to fit the characters lol. There was a lot more spice than I was expecting and it threw me off. I love spice but wasn't expecting all these changes and honestly got whiplash from this book.

I absolutely loved this book!! I love all books by Emily but I really enjoyed this one. It had my attention the whole time and really flowed nicely. Spicy at times and just an overall great book. I can’t wait to read more from her!!

Beneath the Stands is a steamy, emotional second-chance romance that follows Becca, a preacher’s daughter, and Eli, her sister’s best friend, as they reconnect years after a passionate but complicated past.

Emily McIntire delivers angst, chemistry, and heartfelt themes of forgiveness, growth, and love. While it stands alone, reading Beneath the Stars first adds depth. Perfect for fans of emotional, character-driven romance with a strong redemption arc.

⭐⭐/🌶️🌶️🌶️ Beneath the Stands by Emily McIntire (Sugarlake #2)

I received this ARC as an audiobook. The story is ok, but I just couldn't get past the FMC's voice. I think it was the accent, because I've listened to other books narrated by her. The FMC is from Tennessee, so I understand why they chose to use a Southern accent, but I didn't enjoy it. It sounded fake and exaggerated, and that made it difficult to enjoy her chapters.

🏀Best friend's older brother
💙Sports romance
🏀Secret relationship
💙He's her boss
🏀Forced proximity

⭐️ 4/5 🌶 3/5 🎧 4/5
જ⁀➴

This is a romance story that will rip your heart out, stomp on it, then hand you some sticky tape and hope you'll feel ok enough to survive at the end.... and I loved every moment of heartache.

Becca comes from a very small town which is known for its strong religious community, and where the town gossip can destroy someone's reputation. Did I mention that Becca is the preacher's daughter? Eeeek, yep you got that right. Our poor FMC has some seriously heavy religious trauma she has to navigate throughout this entire book and it is a train-wreck.

Since this story is based over a 6 year period, let me break it down for you.

Elliot, or Eli, is from the same tiny town as Becca. Eli left to live out his dream of being a professional basketball player. Which he did so well, right up until he had a major injury ruining his career. He now coaches ball at a college. A college where Becca now attends as a psychology student. When Becca starts her new job as assistant coach, and Eli arrives for work, they immediately recognise each other and things are TENSE.... but not in a good way. You see, Becca has been lifelong friends with Eli's little sister and when he left, Becca had to watch her bestie's life fall apart and now holds a bunch of anger for Eli.

Naturally, they try to avoid each other but soon they become infatuated and fall in love....

~~SPOILERS~~

.... only for Becca to absolutely destroy Eli's heart by abandoning him, all because she was scared he would cheat on her with the team's physiotherapist, sArAh (aggressive eye roll). Now this was so traumatic, for real, because Eli was completely in love with Becca and had no intention to hurt her, and when she left, his soul was burnt. Five years later Eli arrives back in their small town to get married to sArAh, only to find out that Becca is the one who is going to marry them.

My gut turned knowing that the book was only at 40% in, and my girl Becca has already had an entire lifelong emotionally abusive relationship by her parents, threw away her career and dreams, and threw away her true love match all because she was scared of Eli loving sArAh instead of her, only to have Eli arrive back at their small town church with plans to MARRY sArAh.

Like, how the fuck will Eli and Becca come back from this one? Because I would be livid, tortured, emotionally dead, and traumatised.

But, where there is love, there is always a way, and Becca and Eli do find a way back to each other. The only hard part here is that they both have to go through 60% of dealing with their traumatic life events, and growing before they can fully have a trusting relationship again.

But it is a happily ever something.

────୨ৎ────

🎧 The audiobook was performed really well with no noticeable errors.

🎙This was performed in Dual Narration. That is where the female POV chapter is read completely by the female narrator, including reading the male dialogue, and same for the male narrator reading the female dialogue in male POV chapters. It was not distracting at all, and the narrators did an excellent job at portraying different accents and emotions.

────୨ৎ────

Did I cry? YES
Did I fall in love? Twice
Did I enjoy this form of torture? Also yes

────୨ৎ────

♡ Traumatic pasts
♡ Religious trauma
♡ Alcoholic parent
♡ Dead parent
♡ Excommunication
♡ Domestic emotional violence & manipulation
♡ Best friend's older brother
♡ Small town
♡ Basketball player MMC
♡ Meek FMC trying to be independent
♡ Healing needs to happen in order to love (and the healing is longggg)
♡ Complete soul shattering heartbreak
♡ Spicy 🌶🌶🌶
♡ Semi HEA

Honestly, I didn’t love the characters. I finished the book because I was curious how it ended and listened at 2.00 speed. I felt like all the characters were toxic and though some healed I just wasn’t rooting for them.

Love and Basketball twisted with small town romance! Huge thank you to Netgalley, Emily and Bloom Books for the audiobook ARC for this!!!

What to Expect:
⭐ Best friends brother
⭐ Childhood connections
⭐ Sports romance (Basketball)
⭐ Over time story told from youth to college aged young adults to adults
⭐ Definitely a lot of spice not closed door
⭐ Dual POV (His + Hers)
⭐ Family trauma surrounded around death of a parent

My Thoughts:
it is definitely a bit more YA when it starts. Some of that is due to this story taking place over many years. From the main characters meeting when they're younger, then both heading to college and then as they get older. The main character (Becca) is the best friend of second main character (Elliot) sister. They grow up together through childhood, but Elliot is a few years older. While Becca has always had a little crush she never said anything about it because he was "off-limits". When they run in to each other later in life they reconnect on a whole different level. This is where the change happens "a little" from the just general YA to actual young college aged adults.

The story leads to a 3rd act breakup but it isn't an actual breakup and more of just home town requirements pulling Becca back and Elliott doesn't. From there it is a story of family, planning a wedding, family drama and struggles come to the forefront. In the mix of all of that the two find themselves back to each other.

That to say the story is more than just the spice or the anticipation. The characters are well developed and their stories are deeper than just a touch over. For me personally it is what I appreciate the most for a romance story. It's a story of healing, a story of family and also a story of love with sports twisted in here and there.

Overall its a great story but it wasn't my favorite. Things feel a bit chaotic in the story. Times when I am like wait what happened and had to rewind a bit. It took me a long time to complete which is very unusual for me. I did absolutely love the audiobook version of this! The two narrators are amazing! I 100% recommend the audiobook version if you can!

Synopsis:
Elliot Carson left Sugarlake and has never looked back. Revered as the next big thing in basketball, Eli’s a star until an injury ends his career, sending him spiraling with no direction.

But he won’t go home.

He can’t.

Instead, he accepts a coaching gig at Florida Coast University, determined to leave his past behind. But fate has other plans when Becca, his sister’s best friend, shows up as a student and, even worse, becomes the new team manager.

Rebecca Sanger is the preacher’s daughter and the town's disappointment. When she ignores her family’s demands to come home, she’s cut off and needs a job so she can stay enrolled at FCU. She thought she had everything figured out, until Eli Carson—the person she hates more than anything in the world—ends up being her new boss.

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.

I received the ALC for this book and was so excited to read this series as I am a huge fan of Emily's Never After Series!

Just a quick note to mention - I haven't read the first of this series as of yet, but even so the book was enjoyable and I didn't get the feeling that I was missing anything.

As for the book itself, I enjoyed Beneath the Stands and have rated it a 3.5/5. The beginning of the book started off strong with both Eli and Becca hating one another (although there was brief mention as to why, there wasn't any real backstory) but it quickly evolved to a relationship of sorts that had a lot of passion between the two. About halfway into the book, they end up breaking up and the rest of the book is more tension filled and had me wanting to yell at the characters.

The story is filled with heavy topics that I wasn't really expecting from the book but the tie in the story was really well done. I related a lot to Becca with family issues and understood why she was so angsty in the beginning of the book but devolved into a "shell of herself" throughout the last half of the book.

The reason I rated the book 3.5 was because I felt that at the beginning of the book, I was getting more enemies-to-lovers feel but without the tension that I craved because it changed so quickly to love. I also felt that there was so much in the last half which left me feeling that the ending itself was rushed in a way. However, I loved the way the heavier topics were dealt with as well as the introduction to the characters in the next book at the end as well. The other thing that I enjoyed was how Eli and Becca took time to heal themselves before getting back into the relationship..

I tried to rate the book here solely for the story itself and not the audiobook, which I would rate a 3. The narrations were good but I would have preferred that it was a duet narration instead because I feel that more of the emotion comes through as opposed to a dual narration.

All in all - good book and looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

I think this just has a bunch of tropes I don't particularly enjoy. Insta lust and second chance being the mains. However, neither were annoying enough to have me dnf. I REALLY didn't like either character for the majority of the book either and that just kind of killed a lot of the enjoyment for me. I found the FMC annoying and inconsistent and the MMC... there was a lot about him that I just kind of hated.

Anyways! She has her audience that will love this! I am just not her biggest fan! I wanted a more relationship development on page and the ending felt rushed despite me thinking "Dang this book is a bit too long"

This series was engaging enough for me to read all the books, BUT this one, like the others was a little uneven, and as always with adult romances, the conflict comes from basic non communication, which can get frustrating. narrators were good!