Having read several of Hazelwood’s other STEM-based romcoms (the reviews of which can also be found on this website if you’re choosing between them) I was slightly amused at how even in a romcom where the setting and reason for the two main characters meeting is through their highly competitive athletics – Scarlett is a diver, and Lukas is an Olympic-level swimmer – they are also both biology geniuses doing the same impressive extra-curricular study at Stanford. And they’re both perfectly into exactly the opposite / other side of the slash BDSM kink. Hazelwood does a great job (oop, could be a line of dialogue from a scene between Lukas and Scarlett) of inviting the general reader into their kink dynamic, and it feels accessible to the general spicy romcom reader – there aren’t any unusual or edge fetishes here, though they are winked at in their flirty dialogue. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the sex scenes are all variations on Lukas being dominant and sometimes rough, with praise, and Scarlett being the willing sub and recipient of this. My suspicion is that many readers will be skipping through the ‘Scarlett is stressed while studying’ scenes of this novel to just go to the sex scenes, and fair play! But for those also interested in the relationships, I think it’s a nice choice to have the mutual friend Pen – who is Luk’s ex, and Scarlett’s new synchronised swimming partner – be nothing but positive and supportive of their sexual and romantic relationship from the get-go, as it would feel far more typical for this to be a source of conflict in the novel.
Basically, if you’re interested in reading a supernaturally well-suited couple have some Ds sex, and not fussed about suspending your disbelief in the competitive academic and athletic environment, get on in – the water’s fine!
A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships - at least, that's what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It's how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...
Ali Hazelwood is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, Love on the Brain and Love Theoretically as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).
