Unstuck Pages

As an Olympic rookie, Andie Foster has spent far more time in her cleats than between the sheets. For 21 years, her Friday nights have consisted of blocking shots rather than taking them. But now that she's landed in Rio, she's ready to see for herself if the rumors about the Olympic Village are true: The athletes are all sex-crazed maniacs... The committee passes out condoms like candy... The games continue long after the medals have been handed out... As Andie walks the line between rumor and reality, she's forced into the path of Frederick Archibald, a decorated Olympic swimmer and owner of a sexy British accent-too bad he's unavailable in a way that "it's complicated" doesn't even begin to explain. In other words: "off limits." It doesn't matter that he has abs that could bring peace to the Middle East and a smile that makes even the Queen blush; Andie fully intends on keeping her focus on the soccer field. But the Village is small. "Suffocating." Everywhere Andie goes, Freddie happens to be there-shirtless, wet from the pool, and determined to show her a whole new meaning of the phrase "international affairs.""

I liked how this started out – I did after all, read in the news what a horny pit the Olympics village tends to be – with a spunky voice of a sportswoman blasting clear and true, determined to win while battling some raging hormones when meeting other members (with equally raging hormones) of other sports teams. There were some funny bits and I did learn to appreciate early on, the commitment it took to be a sportsperson in today’s hyper-competitively, pressurising world.

It didn’t take too long though, until the story all but devolved into very juvenile shenanigans worthy of a reality series or a soap opera that came in the form of a blame game that everyone threw around as freely as a fault-finding javelin. I cursed the stupidity of the characters, rolled my eyes at the wicked-witch stereotype and the teenage-moments better suited to high-school students and asked myself if I should have bothered to even continue reading.

I thought Andie behaved as abominably as Freddie; stepping into a so-called relationship when it wasn’t clear whether Freddie was taken or not seemed as irresponsible as Freddie who didn’t bother to level the playing field before pushing for something more. Perhaps the most frustrating element here was the utter lack of realisation – and we’re talking fully formed adults who are supposed to have brains here – that every action breeds consequences, which conveniently, didn’t seem to be something that both protagonists had the good sense possess because lust had them firmly in its goggly-eyed, moisture-inducing grip.

Wish I could have liked this much better, but my sympathies for both Freddie and Andie were long exhausted before their HEA arrived.

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