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Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Trope: best friend's sister, ONS
Angst: 😱😱😱.5
Smexy: 🔥🔥🔥

Seraphina's sanity has been hanging on by a thread. She's changed schools to be closer to her mom who's working through a cancer diagnosis, she doesn't know what she wants to pick for her major, and her ADHD is doing her no favors. Tyler is also going through a difficult time, walking the fine line between grinding hard and burning out. He's dealing with heavy expectations from his team, himself, and his entire family when Seraphina aka his one night stand from 3 months ago walks into his apartment - newly introduced as his best friend's little sister who's temporarily moving in. The pressure is getting to both of them, somehow they have to survive living together while acting like they've never met and simultaneously fighting the attraction neither of them forgot.

Just wow! Avery's writing just seems to be getting better and better. Shutout has a great storyline that paced really well. It gave me some serious laugh out loud moments - a la an awkward audio book accident in the car - while also pulling on my heartstrings with some deeper, heart-rending issues about love, loss, and accepting what's beyond our scope of control. Shutout is really a character driven story though, and her character development was en pointe. Sera was just awesome. She really struggles with her ADHD, but she's smart, funny, and loves at full blast. Tyler is just like her in some ways and totally opposite in others. He's also struggling with anxiety about all the pressure he's under, but rather than flaking out, he hyper focuses and obssesses his problems to burnout. But he's also intense and sweet and thoughtful. The two of them just really work together. It was sweet to see how she gets him to chill out while he seems to know exactly what she needs to center herself. The chemistry between them is super hot and while they get tortured with their attempt to be "just friends", it really allowed their relationship to develop organically considering they started off as a ONS. Shutout is a total hit for me and sure to please anyone looking for an angsty (but not too angsty) sports romance.

Shutout is the second book in the Rules of the Game series by Avery Keelan. It can be read as a complete standalone, but best enjoyed when read in series order. It is told in first person, from dual perspective.

⛔️ My bookshelves can sometimes be spoilers