Ce Ricci

It's not stealing if he's meant to be mine. Let me tell you how Holden Sykes operates. As the campus playboy and one-and-done king, he doesn't do strings. Or repeats. Or names, for that matter. So when he tries making my best friend the next notch on his bedpost, I react poorly. Some would call it jealousy or an unrequited crush, but friends protect each other from making mistakes. The same ones I've already made. Which is why driving Holden away seems like my only option. Too bad he's not giving up without a fight. Each prank leads to another until he turns this into a game far more precarious than intended. One filled with stolen moments and heated glances, drawing me into his orbit. But the undeniable attraction simmering between us leaves me caught in the crosshairs of an impossible decision. Loyalty...or love. *Caught Stealing is the second in a five book standalone college sports romance series featuring a road-tripping rubber ducky, two guys fighting for the upper hand, and enough cock-blocking shenanigans to make your cheeks flush. Not suitable for anyone under 18 years of age*

Caught Stealing

aleksandra

2/5

The review contains spoilers!

CE Ricci was right when she said at the beginning that this book would not be for everyone, because unfortunately it turned out that I belong to that group. When I saw the blurb, I was already skeptical, but I told myself that I would try to read the whole series, because that's a rare occurrence these days, as I usually skip some books. I really thought I was going to like this book somehow, but of course I didn't, as you can probably see. At least I'm closer to my goal of finishing this series. 

About the story. Phoenix or "Nix" had a one night stand with Holden which end up poorly for them as Holden was too drunk to remember anything about it, leading to them not talking about the incident for half a year. Six months later, Phoenix's best friend is on the verge of making the same mistake with the school playboy, so he decides to stop him. The problem is that he falls in love with Holden along the way. Without telling a thing to Kason. His mentioned best friend.


My rating is pretty low, so let’s move to the things that didn’t worked out for me in this book. Only at the beginning. These are my thoughts and opinions, so of course not everyone will agree. 

While I didn't particularly like both of the main characters, with more of a fondness for Holden, I couldn't like Phoenix. Even a little bit. The author was right when wrote that "not everyone will agree with their decisions." because I hated most of Phoenix's decisions. I know he wanted to help Kason, but he chose the worst way to do it. Lie. Kason even asked him if there was anything between them, but he lied. Holden wanted to tell the truth, but Nix didn't, until Kason found out in the worst possible way. Seeing them after a hook up. The worst thing happened when he did that with Holden, when Kason was still in some sort of relationship with him, although they were not exclusive. That’s not what best friends do.

The next thing, Kason and Phoenix's friendship. He and Kason were best friends/ family/ brothers since they were kids. They were supposed to be their favorite human beings, but they lied to each other. Not once. Imagine you have a best friend who invites his hook up to your trip, or sees that you're in a relationship with a shitty person and doesn't tell you to end it even though he sees that it could end in heartbreak. Plus, I'm not even talking about Phoenix judging Kason for not going to a university that was better for him because of the baseball program. Kason was "begging him" to come to Leighton instead of going off to Foltyn for college. The problem is that it was still Phoenix’s choice and final decision. He could say no. At least in the end, he chose his happiness and put himself first. Finally. 

The third thing. I hated how many times Phoenix mentioned and judged Holdens' s*x life. He liked hooking up with people so what? It's his life and his decisions. Why judge?

About this weird love triangle, or whatever it was. It might be me, but I thought it would be done a little differently. If you don't have a problem or like, when the love interest tries to date/ hook up (no exclusively) with the other MCs bestie, calls him handsome, goes on a date, s*x-texts with him, kisses him or the bestie him and dances in everyone knows what way with him, you will probably like it. It ends with Holden catching feelings for Phoenix in the middle of the book, but everything I mentioned happens. So be aware, if you don't like it.

I rarely complain about smut scenes because I don't focus on them that much and sometimes even skip them, but the fact that it was suggested that they might switch and that didn't happened, was disappointing.

I liked the writing style, which is one of the reasons why I finished the book in basically one sitting. But there were a few sentences that, shall I say, were questionable to me. The example:


  
    "he keeps swiping his finger over my prostate like a fu*kboy on Tinder."
  


What does that even mean?


Moving to the things I liked.

When Phoenix and Holden were finally together, albeit unofficially at the beginning, they had some cute moments. That's probably why my rating didn't end up being one star. 


  
    “You have to stop looking at me like that.” My eyes follow the lines and planes of his face as I murmur, “I wish I knew how.”
  



I debated whether I should rate it a star-and-a-half or two stars, but I still liked some parts, so I went with the second option. This book turned out to be probably my least favorite in the series, but I still can't wait to read the rest. Especially the third and fourth books, the third book is about Hayes and Kason, the fourth is about Theo and Madden. Hayes was my favorite character in the previous book, he was described as "wicked smart, always studying, lives-in-the-library nerd", so I can’t wait for him and Kason, who is a virgin football player. Theo was my favorite character in this book. He was the most reasonable and smartest one here. Madden was not mentioned yet, as I remember, but probably will be in the next book. I can’t wait! 


   Leighton U Series 

1. Iced Out (Leighton U, #1) 3 stars
2. Caught Stealing (Leighton U, #2) 2 stars
3. Fair Catch (Leighton U, #3) tbr
4. Playing Dirty (Leighton U, #4) tbr
5. Fake Shot (Leighton U, #5) tbr

Caught Stealing

Reviews