Book Review: One on One by Jamie Harrow

Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Contemporary Sports Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Jamie Harrow
Publisher: Dutton
Release Date: September 24th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

They call it March Madness for a reason: Anything can happen on the way to a national championship.

Eight years after graduation, Annie Radford is not happy to be back at her alma mater in her old job with the Ardwyn Tigers’ basketball team. Worse, her coworker from back in college, Ben Callahan, is still on the Tigers staff, and he’s annoyingly wholesome, hot, and clinging to a grudge against Annie for abandoning him and the team their senior year.

But as Ardwyn becomes the season’s Cinderella Story, things start heating up between Annie and Ben, too. And while neither of them can deny this could be something special, Annie’s afraid to tell Ben the truth about why she left basketball—the thing she loves most—in the first place. She’ll have to learn to trust him if they have a shot at being together.

In addition to being funny, romantic, and sexy, One on One examines the pressure put on college athletes, challenges the sexism in the world of sports, and exposes the dangers in whole communities idolizing the big men on campus. For readers of The Hating Game and The Ex Talk, a workplace, enemies-to-lovers debut for anyone yearning for a courtside romance, perfect for anyone who can’t get enough sports rom-coms.

WELL…

As a former basketball girlie I am always on the hunt for a good basketball romance (send help, where are they?) so I jumped at the chance to read this book aaaaand, it was fine. There’s plenty of basketball (but neither of them are players) and it feels immersive to that atmosphere at least.

Though I thought the portrayal of March Madness didn’t work. It felt very scripted for the book and honestly that took the fun out of it. I was not inspired by this “miracle” team and think that plot point could have functioned better.

There are some good and important themes and discussions that felt relevant and informative. I wish Annie hadn’t lied and kept secrets from Ben for as long as she did though.

The romance is there, but it didn’t feel all that romantic. I kept waiting to feel the swoon and it wasn’t really there. The rivals to lovers trope worked well and there were tender moments woven throughout.

Overall audience notes: