Amie Knight

There was something about that first score, and not just on the football field. I loved all of life's firsts, which was why I'd been saving mine for one girl, my older sister's best friend-Hazel Jones.She was tough and sarcastic with walls around her heart as tall as a football stadium, but I knew she was the one for me.Desperate times called for desperate measures and I'd have done anything to make her mine. Like create a fake online persona. Lie about my age. Pretend I wasn't some naive virgin. And catfish the hell out of the love of my life.

A Best Friend's Brother Sports Romance

The First Score

Candyce Kirk

The First Score is an emotional slow burn romance. A slow burn romance can be a hit or miss for me, but Amie Knight did this one right. Our main characters Hazel and Ollie have known each other most of their lives (Hazel is Ollie's sister's best friend). I love a good best friend's sibling romance and this one met my expectations.

Hazel is a guarded person. Her childhood was less than perfect and that's hit her hard and made it hard for her to trust people and relationships. This was such a raw character and the emotions were really there. Going through so much and still being strong isn't an easy task, but Hazel did it. I loved that she was a gamer (we don't see many female gamers in romances), but I do wish we would've learned just a bit more about the game she developed. I loved seeing the story progress for Hazel though. She slowly lets her walls down and lets herself love. Which isn't easy at all!

Ollie has always been the little brother, but he knows from an early age that Hazel is the one for him. What I loved about Ollie is how caring and protective he is. Even though he knows the relationship probably won't go anywhere, he's always there for Hazel no matter what. It was interesting to see that everyone thought of him as someone who was popular with the woman. Yeah, he's a football player, but his eyes were on one woman. Ollie made me laugh and want to hug him and that's a good thing for a book-boyfriend.

I do have to talk about the cat fishing element. While I understand his thoughts behind it, he could've handled it differently. I'm a big one for honesty, but we do find out in this story it's not all as it seems. I would've loved a little more time spent in them gaming together though. That was such a fun element of the story.

Okay, now let's get to the romance. The First Score is definitely a will they, won't they story. I loved that Hazel didn't jump right into a relationship, because I do feel like she needed to deal with some things on her own first. Ollie and Hazel definitely had chemistry and Amie knows how to write a steamy scene of two. Also, it was a nice change to see that the male main character was a virgin and not the other way around. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and worked perfectly in The First Score.

Also, I have to mention the amazing cast of side characters. Hazel's best friend and Ollie's sister Scarlett is just so much fun. My favorite of them all was Hazel's grandfather though. He was so much fun and had me laughing out loud and I loved how much he loved and cared for Hazel. There were characters with minor parts that I really would love to see have their own books as well, so who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and Amie will write more books in this series!

The First Score A Best Friend's Brother Sports Romance

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