Tropes:
Sports romance
GrumpyXSunshine
Forced proximity
One bed

I adored this book. I’ve never really been in to tennis or Wimbledon as a whole but I may have to watch it now.
The characters were so relatable with their struggles through life and love.
Good amount of spice in this story and the banter between the MMC and FMC had me laughing hard at times. Other times got me feeling sad and I could feel the heartache the characters were feeling.
Great book overall and can’t wait to have a physical copy

I LOVED THIS BOOK
FROM THE FIRST PAGS TO THE LAST, I DEVOUR AND ENJOY IT WAYYYYYYY TOO MUCH
A ND THE GOOD THING ABOUT IT?
ZENDAYA’S CHALLENGERS IS COMING OUT AND THIS CUTE TENNIS ROMANCE IS ALL I NEED RIGHT NOW
I FEEL THE BOOK TOTTALY FEEL IT WITH MY WHILE HEART
ITS SO PERFECT

ARC REVIEW ✨

Match Point - Katherine Reilly
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎾Wimbledon 🎾Pro tennis X Artist
🎾Forced proximity 🎾One bed 🎾Enemies to lovers

Firstly a big thank you to @netgalley & @itskatherinereilly for the ARC 🫶🏻 I absolutely loved this! I'm a London girl myself so really appreciated the setting & British slang 🤭 I absolutely loved Flora as our FMC, after all the heartbreak & trauma she's endured she's so strong & determined. She's got such a cutesy personality I can really relate to her! Also love her relationship with her bestie Iris - what a babe!! Kieran - oh my! Looks like a CK model & he's an Irish pro tennis player 🥵I loved the forced proximity aspect and their banter! Kieran has his fair share of trauma baggage but I loved how they both came to lean on each other, overcoming their own hurdles - bringing out the best of each other. Their chemistry & the spice 🥵🔥EVERYTHING!! Loved the tennis player trope & Wimbledon setting, really enjoyed the tennis side of things & the strawbs and cream 🤌🏻loved it! I want to go! The ending was straight outta a romcom! I was OBSESSED!! The bubbles 🥹 utter perfection & that epilogue everything! Would love to read Iris' story next 👀🤞🏻 would highly recommend this beaut story, I couldn't put it down! Currently in my tennis era!!😍🎾

Releases - June 20th 🫶🏻🎾

To be clear, this was not an enemies to lovers romance. It wasn't even rivals to lovers. They mildly disliked each other for about 3 days at best. SO, if you're going into this wanting an ermines to lovers, this isn't it.

Usually, one of my big criticisms of sports romances is there isn't enough of the sport but I thought the tennis scenes were well done. They were engaging, fast paced and had just enough detail for the reader to understand the rules of the game without info dumping all over us. The culture of Wimbledon was interesting to read about and the silence of the crowd during the tennis scenes helped to boost the tension.

Plot wise, some things felt really silly and contrived. The prologue and the epilogue were the worst of it for me. The scale of drama reminded me of a telenova or something. The middle chunk of the book was enjoyable though and the plot seemed slightly more realistic. The pace moved quickly which helped to keep it engaging and fun.

Part of the disappointment around this book was definitely a me problem. 'Match Point' is more Hallmark than it is 'Challengers' but the latter was more what I was in the mood for. Any casual romance reader will probably like this but these things I've mentioned really dampened the enjoyment for me. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 for Goodreads and netgalley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Tropes:
🎾Forced Proximity
🎾Grumpy x Sunshine
🎾Enemies To Lovers

Do I like tennis? No. Do I love this book? Yes.
Flora is going through some big changes, she lost her job and her boyfriend (who we hate) so the natural thing for her to do is to escape to the Lake District to work on her graphic novel because things can only get better, right? Wrong. Plans fall through and long story short Flora is stuck in her flat with her tenant who is none other than the bad boy of tennis, Kieran O’Sullivan.

Flora is figuring her life out and is trying to make her dreams a reality, Kieran however has the dream, is living the dream and just wants one last win, Wimbledon.
The chemistry was unstable and I loved Flora and Kierans dynamic a lot, they were electric together. Flora despite Kierans grumpiness, keeps showing up for him in the ways that matter and I found the way she led Kieran to some profound self discoveries admirable. Kieran is rough around the edges but over the course of the book I may have also fell in love with him.

I really hope we get a spin off with Iris because my goodness, I loved her character so much and really enjoyed the way she kept pushing Flora to do the things she loves ( yeah the girls).

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the opportunity to read the ARC I was up until 2am because I simply had to finish it once I started.
This was such an easy read and it dragged me out of my weeklong reading slump.

Rating: 4/5
Spice Rating: 3/5
Tropes: enemies to lovers, one bed/one flat, forced proximity
Release Date: June 20, 2024

Overall the story of Flora and Kieran is a delightful summer romance that was easy to read and indulge in the world of tennis, with a wonderful friendship between the FMC and her best friend.

Flora and Kieran were a wonderful pairing of typical enemies to lovers brought together by unusual circumstances. As goes with all enemies to lovers romances, the relationship between the two main character is loveable with some wonderful banter. Flora overcomes her previous relationship betrayals as well as losing her job to become a writer. Kieran, as the theme of Tennis suggests, continues his own personal battles to try and win Wimbledon.

Flora is a little annoying in the beginning due to her attempts at getting Kieran to leave and blaming him for all the mishaps, however, she gets better as the relationship falls into a truce.

The one thing I did not like about this book was the epilogue being rather cliche, I feel it could have been left out and it would've ended beautifully.

<spoiler>"He has the body of a Calvin Klein model, he has an Irish accent and there's only one bed in your flat. Obviously you fell for him." </spoiler>

WARNING mentions of:
<spoiler>alcoholic parent, death of family member, off screen drug use/overdose</spoiler>

Thank you to Netgalley, Aria and Katherine Reilly for providing me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

"Match Point" is a sport romance written by Katherine Reilly. A light, effervescent and fun novel characterized by fantastic grumpy x sunshine and excellent forced proximity! A super cute book that made me laugh, smile and swoon repeatedly, giving me a few hours of total joy!

The story follows Flora Hendrix, a woman who is going through a difficult time after being fired from the magazine she worked for and discovering the betrayal of her longtime boyfriend. Longing for a break and a fresh start, Flora plans to spend the summer away from London, renting her apartment in Wimbledon in anticipation of the prestigious tennis tournament. However, the last thing she expects is for tennis player Kieran O'Sullivan, a notorious bad boy with a grumpy temper who has apparently rented her apartment for the tournament, to show up at her door. That is until, at about the same time, Flora receives a call that throws a wrench in all her plans for the summer, forcing her to stay. It couldn't be worse, or maybe it could, since Kieran, with his cocky, spoiled attitude, refuses to leave, suggesting to Flora an alternative accommodation paid for by his team. But Flora refuses and this leads to a sizzling forced cohabitation made up of spite, ironic banter and paparazzi lurking outside the door. However, the longer the forced cohabitation continues and the tournament approaches, the more Flora and Kieran begin to get to know each other, leading to unexpected developments.

Flora, protagonist with her only first person pov, convinced me! Sunny, ironic, determined and talkative, she always tries to face life head on, hiding behind a smile. Marked by a difficult family situation, which adds to the sentimental and work situation, Flora actually feels deeply inadequate, wrong and a loser. A lone person, to the exclusion of her best friend, who loves to draw and has the desire to create a graphic novel. On the other side is Kieran, a tennis player as skilled as he is unsteady, marked by a declining career, who seeks redemption at Wimbledon. A grumpy, proud, quiet and reserved man, tormented by his own personal problems. Flora and Kieran could not be more different in appearance, so much so that initially their forced cohabitation is a disaster. However, little by little, the two begin to get to know each other, becoming friends, confidants and perhaps something more. I loved the evolution of their relationship, made up of jokes, wry banter and sweetest moments, with sizzling chemistry and a spicy that made me swoon hard!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After losing her job and discovering her boyfriend is cheating on her, Flora is at rock bottom. She decides to rent out her flat during summer and go write her graphic novel. By when the house she chose to stay in become unavailable, she’s left in a predicament as the person she rented her flat to has arrived. And he’s the grumpy and hot tennis player, Kieran. He’s in town for the Wimbledon tournament.

This is a cute strangers to enemies to lovers, forced proximity sports romance that will leave you wanting strawberries and cream, and wanting to attend a Wimbledon match.

Flora and Kieran have a fun dynamic, leaning on one another and giving the other all the emotional support they need. His history is riddled with sadness, and you can’t help but feel for him, and it explains his grumpiness well. But he’s a complete softie for her. The tension, drama and steam all play out wonderfully, and the tennis drama is perfect.

Thanks to @itskatherinereilly, Aria and Aries, and @netgalley for the e-ARC of this book. A wonderful, well written and easy read.

This book is to be published 20 Jun, just in time for Wimbledon.

Cute little story set around the world famous All England Club, or Wimbledon to you a me. This is a typical I hated you but now I loved you. I didn't really enjoy it, I'm not a huge tennis fan but thought I'd give it a go.

Maybe it be someone who loves sport perfect book but not me, sorry!

I love that the FMC is 29, I feel like a lot of the books I read always have a really young FMC and it’s nice to relate to someone my age.
I loved the forced proximity even if it was a bit unbelievable how it came about. This was a nice easy read. I loved how he supported her in her graphic novel journey and the way she helped him relax on his tennis journey. I enjoyed this cute little sports romance, perfect for tennis lovers. 3 stars from me 🌟🌟🌟

Love all. Not much to fault with this ace of book.

Enough with the tennis puns! I really enjoyed this Romance. Flora hasn't been having a good run when she decides to rent her flat in Wimbledon during the tennis championships. It's rented by tennis bad-boy Kieran and when Flora's alternative accommodation falls through, they are forced to share the one bedroom flat.

The set up was classic Rom-Com material, but I really appreciated the depth to Katherine Reilly's character work. Flora and Kieran, both share heartache and hang-ups from their family situations and past relationships. They work through these things and grow together in very tender way. They're was a good amount of tension and considerable chemistry and spice between them.

Thanks to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for the opportunity to read this ARC

I LOVED this book!

Flora is an aspiring artist who has plans to rent out her place in Wimbledon during the tennis and go on holidays to work on her graphic novel.
When her holiday rental falls through last minute, leaving her with nowhere to go and the man renting her home in Wimbledon (Tennis star Kieran) refuses to find elsewhere to stay.

✔️Enemies to Lovers
✔️Forced Proximity

I can’t wait for this book to be released. It made me cry, giggle, scream and everything in between!

Read Time ⏱️ 4 hours

******

“It's easy to believe someone's opinion about you when you already think it about yourself.”

“When you're in the room, Flossie, there's no one else.”

“Life is short, bitch, wear the dress.”

Read if you like: Family drama, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, sports romance, OM drama

Flora Hendrix is forced to share her flat with bad boy tennis player Kieran O’Sullivan. Stubbornly they both refuse to move out, so they bicker and rile each other up to try force the other person to leave.

Flora and Keiran’s bickering was so funny, it was setting up for a great enemies to lovers romance. Honestly I was fully on Kierans side, Flora was literally causing all the issues and she kept blaming him 😭

Their first kiss was absolutely perfect. I loved their unwavering support for each other, the drawings, connection, character growth, and their chemistry. Their romance developed at a good pace, I loved that they actually got to know each other and spend time together (I forget that it’s only 4 weeks of knowing each other because it felt longer)

Also Iris is the best friend in the world. She goes above and beyond for Flora and I love her so much. I really hope she gets a book.

If you want a sweet sports romance I would give this a go! 💚

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of tennis. I do not find it interesting. I've never watched Wimbledon. I barely understand the scoring system. However, this book sounded fun and I'm so glad I requested it.

It's the sort of book that, when you reach the HEA, you need more HEAs immediately.

I loved how the characters were written and even found that the bits about tennis caught my interest.

Flora and Kieran are fabulous and flawed and I love them both. The side characters are well formed and the relationships between all of the characters was very comprehensive.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book and read it in one day.

I would definitely recommend this book, for lovers AND haters of tennis!

Tropes:
• Forced proximity
• Fake dating
• Sport romance
• Grumpy x Sunshine

Really love the idea of this book, as soon as I read the description, I knew I had to give it a read! Only just started but really liking so far, will update as I progress in the book 😌

I am a huge Wimbledon fan and I enjoy a sports romance, but can't say I have seen many revolved around tennis, so it intrigued me to finally read a sports romance that I actually understood the rules for. The book revolves around the two characters Flora Hendrix and Kieran O’Sullivan. After Flora loses her job and find's her boyfriends of three years cheating, she decides to take time away from the busy city of London to the lake district to focus on writing her graphic novel and rent her flat out as it was near Wimbledon, however, Flora's plans don't work out and her travel plans don't work out and she needs to stay at home, but, the person she rented the flat out too turns out to be tennis star, Kieran O’Sullivan, who is rude and has a diva attitude and refuses to leave, long story short, the two are forced to live together and feelings start to develop.

I loved a forced proximately and enemies to lovers trope, and let me tell you, the banter in this book was SO good. When I tell you I could not put this book down, I literally couldn't, I finished this book in twenty-four hours. It was so fun and light-hearted and the spice was 10/10. I am telling you, tennis romance beats hockey romance.

I would highly recommend this book, it is the perfect summer read and you will have a new book boyfriend in Kieran O'Sullivan.

Match Point follows Flora and Kieran, a professional Tennis Player - strangers who suddenly find themselves living together. Set in beautiful Wimbledon, we are immersed in a world of Tennis and 'Strawberries and Cream' - a typical British summer. The pacing is perfect and allowed me to fly through the book in one sitting, constantly turning the page and wanting to know what happens next - a perfect summer, feel-good read.
Katherine Reilly balanced the Romance to 'Spice' perfectly without it being overly cliche leaving you feeling 'warm and fuzzy'. The use of the setting of Wimbledon was done so cleverly and has left me dying to visit.

Overall a very well-done romance, I thoroughly enjoyed and I can imagine that many others will do too!

This was just so cute! Who knew that I would come to care about tennis? Kieran blowing his bubbles will forever win my heart. I like how these characters grew together in such a short period of time. As someone who lives so close to Wimbledon and never checked it out, I feel that this book is great advertising for the strawberries and cream. VERY tempted to go watch a match just for those.

Moral of the story, if you want a feel good sports romance look no further! Although there's nothing exactly original or ground breaking about this book, it's a great safe comfort read.

ARC via NetGalley

"I can't believe...
...you're mine.
...we're here.
...I'm falling."

"I was an absolute idiot who got caught top in the forbidden romance and I fell for a guy who didn't exist."

📚forced proximity, flatmates
📚grief
📚he falls first
📚he is a celebrity grump
📚finding yourself again
📚fixing parental relationship

Title: Match Point by Katherine Reilly

Release Date: June, 20th, 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Stars

Get your champagne, strawberries and cream ready! There is a new tennis romcom is town!

As Wimbledon heats up with the prestigious tennis tournament. Kieran O'Sullivan, the sport's infamous bad boy, is chasing his last shot at glory, while Flora Hendrix plans for a fresh start, renting out her flat. But when her plans flop, she's stuck with an unexpected house guest—none other than Kieran himself. As sparks fly between them, they must decide whether to let their budding romance derail their dreams or embrace the unexpected connection between them.


I devoured this book in one sitting—it was just too good to put down. The chemistry and spice between the characters is great, and the tension keeps you on the edge of your seat. It was also realistic which is what made this a great read.


Tropes:

Grumpy meets sunshine
Romance based in London
Forced proximity
Fake dating
Spicy
Sports romance

If you're looking for a quick and enjoyable read that hits all the right romantic and spicy notes, "Match Point" is the perfect match for you!

Thank you to The Publisher Aria & Aries | Aria , The Author Katherine Reilly & NetGalley for an advanced reader copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review.