Review: Settle the Score by Kris Ripper

SiriusB Reviews / B Reviews Category / Book ReviewsAdvertisement / Contemporary / contemporary m/m romance / soccer2 Comments

Lost goals make way for new dreams. Two enemies must face their cold past and find new warmth in this wintry, forced proximity rom-com from Kris Ripper, author of Book Boyfriend.

Aspiring investigative reporter Des Cleary had dreams of a better world—one more accepting of people like him—when he broke the story of Orion Broderick’s relationship. A story that kicked Orion out of the soccer halls of fame and sent him careening into obscurity. Racked with shame, Des abandoned his own career for good.

Now working at an LA marketing firm, Des gets a daunting assignment: recruit Orion for a Pride campaign aiming to get LGBTQI+ kids into sports. But this is no shot at redemption—how could Des ever make up for what he’s done?

Des finds Orion’s cabin in the snowcapped mountains. His strategy? Keep it professional and get out quick. Nature has other plans. Snowed in together, Des and Orion have a chance to address past wrongs and lost goals. Time and shame have changed them both, but winter has a way of clearing the way for fresh beginnings.

I GOT THE BOOK FROM KU

Review:

Dear Kris Ripper,

DA Commenter DiscoDollyDeb recommended this book on a Books recommendations thread and despite contemporary romances being my least favorite subgenre (there are of course some exceptions to this rule of thumb, but more often than not it holds for me), I was intrigued.

In general, I very rarely find the theme of remorse in romances done well to my satisfaction. More often than not, if a great wrong was done to one of the characters, I am left grumbling that the other man or woman needs to grovel more, show more remorse, etc etc.

This book was compulsively readable (even if I thought that the last two or three chapters were a little overdrawn) and it definitely satisfied my cravings in that department. I thought that Des greatly wronged Orion no matter what his intentions were. Of course, of course Des was not the only one who wronged Orion and Orion should not have his professional and personal life destroyed over being in a relationship with a consenting adult only because that adult was also a man. All of what followed was society’s fault, not Des’ fault. But Des was the catalyst to all that followed and I thought him beating himself up over what he did was completely deserved and I was glad that he showed so much remorse. We see that remorse. Before even meeting Orion, we know that Des does not expect anything good for himself out of this meeting (well, he did have some hope of convincing Orion to participate in the campaign but he was fully prepared to receive a rejection), so I was intrigued as to how their meeting would go.

And then the two of them are forced to spend the few days together in Orion’s cabin.  I was ready to roll my eyes because I thought that we will get an insta-love story where all past wrongs will be forgotten.  Well, in a sense it was an insta-love story, even if for me in a book time it felt as if it was a slow burn story. The interesting part was I thought that even if Orion shows that he is attracted to Des as well, he cannot forgive him for destroying his life and I thought that somehow it made sense. Orion can see that Des is not a bad person, but after all very very little time passed so why would he forgive so fast? I could easily imagine that the more time they would spend together the easier it would be for him to forgive and see how much Des changed. And for Des, it was the opposite, he wants to be with Orion but he is not sure how can he do it after he destroyed Orion’s life. It just all worked for me and at the end I did think that I could believe in their future.

A small criticism – Amazon lists this book in sports romances. Real football a/k/a soccer is my favorite team sport. This book sure name checks it and as the blurb mentions one of the main characters is a former soccer player, but I am not sure if this is enough to call this book a *sports romance*.

Grade: B

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Sirius

Sirius started reading books when she was four and reading and discussing books is still her favorite hobby. One of her very favorite gay romances is Tamara Allen’s Whistling in the Dark. In fact, she loves every book written by Tamara Allen. Amongst her other favorite romance writers are Ginn Hale, Nicole Kimberling, Josephine Myles, Taylor V. Donovan and many others. Sirius’ other favorite genres are scifi, mystery and Russian classics. Sirius also loves travelling, watching movies and long slow walks.

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