Finding a Keeper (Sports #4) by Nicole Pyland
- Publisher: Pyland Publishing LLC, October 22nd 2020
- Genre: Romance, LGBTQ+
- Format: Ebook (eARC)
- Page Count: 304 pages
- My Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
Content warnings: death of parent, mention of conversion therapy, disowning
This is my eighth Pyland novel, and I have learned by now to never start reading her books on a busy day because they are impossible to put down. Clear your schedule, and get ready for Sloan and Marley’s cute, slow-burn, best-friends-to-lovers romance.
Sloan Rossi (18, 1/4-Black) has just moved back to the US from the UK to attend college for soccer. As a striker in U18 Premier League (stated as EPL Youth League in the book), she doesn’t want to be a goalie. But when her new friend junior goalie Marley Nichols (20, lesbian) injures her rotator cuff, Sloan becomes the backup goalkeeper. With their strengthening friendship over the course of a year as they both stay by each other’s side through difficulties in life, Sloan and Marley become virtually inseparable. When people start assuming they were dating, Marley could only wish they really were as Sloan reevaluates her own sexuality and what Marley truly means to her.
This is the first Pyland book featuring a teenage as well as a non-white main character I have read, and it might also be her youngest pairing ever. While the preceding but unrelated book The Unexpected Dream has more fluff, this one deals with much heavier subjects. The overall romance is very slow-burn with Sloan previously identifying as straight. This is an adorable best-friends-to-lovers romance I needed and my heart ached for them to be together. I love how there is almost no angst between the main characters, no disrespectful pushing nor internalized homophobia. But note that both characters are dealing with heavy issues.
As much as I often cry while reading, the heavy scenes in the book weren’t too painful. It was the sense of loss that brought Sloan and Marley together as they navigate their new adult lives through life-changing events. I love Sloan’s journey of discovering her sexuality and that what she has been feeling for Marley probably isn’t what a best friend feels for one another. I love all their intimate physical contacts and how their conflicts are fully relatable. Some of the other events were rather random, but what is life without uncertainties?
Pyland always creates amazing mains with great character growths and beautiful romance, and that’s the main reason I love her works so much. Finding a Keeper is no exception. I love how every one of Sloan’s and Marley’s friends are loving, supporting, and sometimes unwanted matchmakers, how nothing between Sloan and Marley was contrived. There were no forcing as a person’s journey of figuring out their sexuality is theirs alone—no one should pressure anyone else to come out—so Sloan’s storyline is beautiful and adorable to read. I love how physically close Sloan and Marley are throughout the whole book, even though their actual relationship doesn’t begin until much later, I fully feel that their friendship is part of their love story and romance.
Most of Pyland’s works feature the life journeys of the main characters as individuals as well as a couple without very important secondary characters, but in Finding a Keeper, we have a prominent f/f couple who are close friends with Sloan and Marley and play a big part in the story. Also, in true Pyland fashion, the epilogue takes place a long time after the last chapter, allowing us to believe in their HEA.
Though Finding a Keeper is the fourth and final book in the Sports series, this book is a standalone and does not have any preexisting characters that I know of. Whether or not you have read the previous three books will not affect the reading experience of Finding a Keeper. But if you are a sports romance fan, I highly recommend you check them all out. [18 Oct 2020]
I received an e-ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Read my reviews of other books in the Sports series:
- Always More ★★★★
- A Shot at Gold ★★★★★
- The Unexpected Dream ★★★★
