Bellini ruined this book for me, simple as that. I don't think I've ever hated a character so much before in my life. She was absolutely horrid! And the sad fact is, she wasn't even the main character, just a bitchy secondary. A secondary character should not be able to ruin a book so much for me, but Bellini overshadowed the romance and story of Paisley and Reese to the point I just couldn't ignore her.

I think Bellini was supposed to be so crazy that it was funny, but for me she was just so crazy I wanted to choke the ever loving shit out of her. Then bring her back to life just to do it all over again. She made me so frustrated I had to stop reading multiple times just to calm myself down.

I love story around sports, but I didnt love this story, I enjoyed it, thats about it.

This book was a DNF, hard for me to get into, but I am sure other readers will love.

Found this book a bit it hard to get into. Ok story an characters but will try again in the future with this author as I normally like her books. Thanks for letting me try your book.

DNF’d after Chapter 3

An Olympic swimmer and model and a girl acting as assistant to a reality TV star who is thought to be his girlfriend? It sounded like a light and fun romantic comedy by an author I’ve heard good things about.

I was expecting something light, fun, and sexy and it’s possible that it does become that, but after encountering the three narrators- Paisley, Bellini, and Reese, I was just not feeling this story. None of them held appeal and Bellini was over the top evil, self-absorb Queen B. She’s a caricature of of entitled and rich and the other two are the long-suffering pair who must press on around her while growing into a romantic relationship.

I suppose it was all meant to be funny (after all, that’s why I chose it), but I must not be in the right mood for this style of funny because I just have no desire to see where this story goes after meeting the characters.

So, I’ll bail and move on.

This is obviously not going to be one where I say ‘avoid this book’ because really I think a lot of folks will get a kick out of it. I’ll just leave it as ‘not for me’ and do read the other reviews to get an idea if it is for you.

For the most part, Stroked is a fun, light-hearted affair. Blazing chemistry, an in-depth look at Olympic swimming, and several sources of conflict made this an enjoyable, rollercoaster ride of a read for me.

Although the premise is a bit far-fetched (not a deal-breaker), the author does a superb job of establishing chemistry between the two main characters. The narrative's focus on the publicity angle of Olympic swimming added another layer of depth to the sport that I enjoyed learning about. The sources of conflict are well-managed, meaning that angst didn't overshadow the story's positive, more heartwarming moments.

I've seen in other reviews that readers are divided when it comes to Bellini's chapters. Personally, I thought they were hilarious and that they really stood out as a different "voice."

As for constructive criticism, I have to admit that the narrators sometimes went off on tangents that took me out of the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed Stroked and would definitely read Meghan Quinn again.