Summer may be over, but she’s ready to bring the heat.When her boyfriend shattered her universe last spring, Addy convinced herself that if only she were a little hotter, then she could have kept him. Which is why her senior year goal is to get revenge.Step one: Join the swim team and get seriously fit.Step two: Find some gorgeous new arm candy to take to ex’s big Halloween party and make him … party and make him crazy with jealousy.
Step three: Try not to fall super hard for said arm candy.
Gray Turner is a California transplant with goals of his own: get the swim team to regionals, get the scholarship he needs, and get out of this town. Too bad some girl with zero swim skills just joined the team. Private lessons seem like a good idea…until lessons start to feel like something more.
Addy and Gray started the season with specific plans, but falling for one another wasn’t one of them.
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Spanish & English Opinion :: 4
ESP ::
Me encantan las series de Sweet YA Romance. Este libro es el perfecto inicio de la historia de 3 amigas que están haciendo metas para su último año de prepa.
Addy es encantadora. Es muy chistosa, tiene la parte teen de superficialidad y un poco de inmadurez pero es bien intencionada y linda.
Gray es un bombón. Poco a poco encuentra en Addy cualidades que le hacen imposible ser indiferente hacia ella.
Conocemos también a Nora, Lucy, Max y Simon, quienes parece que tendrán papeles importantes en los siguientes libros.
ENG ::
I’m a fan of Sweet YA romance series, and this book is the perfect introduction for this one. It’s about three friends that are making goals for their senior high school year and how it works.
Addy is charming. She’s funny and has this awkward sometimes superficial streak that is common for teenagers, yet she’s genuinely nice and she’s not trying to be mean or hurtful.
Gray is a darling. He has his own story and at the beginning he definitely cannot see Addy’s charm, but little by little he will discover all the beautiful qualities she has, making it impossible to reman indifferent towards her.
We also get to know Nora, Lucy, Simon and Max. They seem to be key characters in the other books
The cover model is exactly how I envisioned Addy in this book, and the narrator did an excellent job bringing her to life. She’s bubbly, peppy, energetic – nothing can get her down. Gray is quiet, hard working, determined to win a scholarship.
In this friends to lovers story (the clean, highschool version) Addy and Gray learn a lot about themselves, each other, and the goals they set. I liked that this story was really about their relationship and personal growth and wasn’t all about the physical as so many of the books in this genre are.
It is book 1 of a trilogy about three friends; the epilogue is a teaser for book 2. This book can be read as a standalone.
This sweet book has a romance that makes a person wish everyone had that high school experience.
Addy is sweet and identifiably flawed, but not in the roll-your-eyes 90s rom-com type of way. Grey is hot, but not in the cheesy-romance “Yeah. Right!”, kind of way. Together they are golden, even if swim team gold might be asking for too much.
A perfect coming of age story.
I received an art copy of this audiobook, and I’m leaving a voluntary review.
What a delightful, feel-good story!
I had a lot of fun getting to know Addy and Gray – their quirks and hangups felt real, and I liked how their friendship (and more) developed over the course of the story. There were laughs, and swoons, and just the right amount of drama to keep the story going.
After finishing, I immediately bought the other two books in the series. 🙂
” And I never wanted to come up for air. ”
OMG! What a cutest book! I have not read a YA who takes my heart and makes me love everything for a long time. It is exactly the kind of book I like, full of friendship, smiles, achievements and a beautiful romance.
Addy is heartbroken after watching her ex with another girl. For thinking that the reason Mitch dumped her and date Cassie was because Addy isn’t a hot girl, she’s going to come up with a plan to win the guy back.
Gray is also heartbroken but for different reasons, the talented swimmer joins the school swim team willing to get a scholarship to return to California.
Addy and Gray know each other when she subscribe her name to be a competitor too but Gray and the other colleagues don’t like the girl for thinking that her inexperience will lead the team to failure.
Addy wants to earn Gray’s trust to make him her jealous element and to teach her how to swim.
Between workouts and cute dates, these two become fond of each other and what was just a friendship ends up becoming something more.
I loved the writing of the authors and especially the light, fun and romantic way that they led the romance between the characters. The book brings great important lessons about overcoming and teamwork.
I loved the cover and already want the love stories of Simon and Lucy, Nora and Max.
Terrific, G-rated, YA, sports romance
Just before the beginning of her senior year, Addy Altman participates in an annual ritual with the “squad,” a coterie of herself and her two best friends, Nora and Lucy. They each set a goal for the year. This time around, Addy’s goal is to become so hot by Halloween, that her ex-boyfriend Mitch will rue the day that he dumped her last spring for another girl, after two whole years of dating. Addy’s plan doesn’t include a complete makeover. She already knows how to do her hair and makeup and dress well, and she doesn’t need to lose weight. But she wants to become more healthy, with a toned, fit body, and she decides the best way to do that is to join the school swim team. The second part of her plan is to find a gorgeous boy to date, because she is positive that would drive Mitch crazy with jealousy.
Gray Turner was forced to leave behind all his friends and a championship swim team in California, where he had an excellent chance of earning an athletic scholarship to his first-choice school, the University of California at Berkeley. He had to move because his recently divorced mother received a job offer as a nurse at a rural hospital in a town in Minnesota so small, its swim team is a farce. Anyone who wants to can join the team, even if they can barely swim. A major case in point is a girl his age named Addy. She is an utter novice who is hopelessly clueless as to what is required to swim competitively.
If Gray can’t get to regionals, he has zero chance of being seen by a university scout and winning a sports scholarship, which is his only chance to pay for college and get out of this dumpy town and back to his real home, in sunny California. But since the coach refuses to cut anyone from the team, realistically Gray is left with only two options: Convince Addy to voluntarily drop out of the team, or give her lessons so she can greatly improve her performance.
Unfortunately, it becomes immediately apparent that there is no way that Addy will quit the team. She may be a dud at swimming, but she is stubborn as a mule and absolutely refuses to give up. Lessons it will have to be.
This is a delightful, G-rated version of a classic romance plot, “enemies to lovers.” The premise initially sounds like this story will involve another tried-and-true romance formula, the makeover plot. I was delighted to discover, however, that the makeover in this book is not the classic one, which involves going to a salon and getting a fancy hairdo and makeup tips and buying a bunch of stylish clothes. Instead, the makeover in this story is approached from a health angle, eating a better diet and getting fit. Since anything to do with a healthy lifestyle is virtually never a focus of YA novels, I found it a delightful change to encounter it in this story.
Poor Gray has had a very rough row to hoe, with a bum of a father and seemingly losing all he holds dear when transplanted to Minnesota. However, he has a wonderful, loving and supportive mother, whom he is very close with. And it is a pleasure to read how he and Addy slowly progress from adversaries to friends as he helps her improve her swimming skills. Addy’s sunny disposition brings Gray out of the doldrums, and Gray’s expertise in swimming allows Addy to gain a great sense of confidence and competence as she drastically improves her swimming skills.
I love a romantic relationship where the two partners amplify each other, inspiring each other to grow and change in really positive ways. This couple is all of that and more. The fact that in personality they are opposites provides many humorous and also many poignant moments in this extremely appealing story.
I love the swim team plot, both Addy’s dedication to becoming a better swimmer, and her emotional support of Gray, which helps him to achieve a vital, personal goal of his own as a swimmer.
I also enjoyed the subcharacters, including especially Addy’s quirky younger brother, her two friends, and Gray’s mother.
I particularly appreciated that, in the long-time tradition of adult romance novels, this book alternates between the point of view of both protagonists. This approach allows the reader to deeply get to know Gray, who is a very sympathetic hero.
My only slight complaint with this novel is that I wish the epilogue had been set farther in the future, rather than only a few weeks after the end of the story. I would have liked to find out what happened to Addy and Gray after they graduated from high school.
Overall, this is one of the best YA books I’ve read this year. I am hoping this is the first book in a trilogy, and there will be a Squad Goals book for each of Addy’s two best girlfriends. There is a strong hint in this book that one of Addy’s friends may form a romance with Addy’s brother, who is 13 months younger than Addy. What a fun twist on the adult-romance-novel “cougar” plotline that would be!
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Swimming Plot: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars