Author: Meagan Brandy
Genre: Sports romance, football romance, college romance
Pages: 552
Release Date: February 16, 2022
My Thoughts on Say You Swear
Say You Swear has pretty good reviews on Goodreads, and I saw a Youtuber I follow say she loved it, and it got her out of a reading slump. So, I read it. And… I was unimpressed.
The book starts out the summer before Arianna’s freshman year of college. Her twin brother (Mason), his bestie and Ari’s secret love (Chase), Ari’s bestie (Cameron), and Brady (other friend of group) are all at the beach for the summer. Their parents gave them a beach house – superrrrr normal. They’re enjoying their time before school where the boys will be busy playing football.
Ari is in love with Chase (yes, it’s brother’s best friend romance – kind of), but her brother has always blocked anyone from trying to date her. Eventually, Ari and Chase end up hooking up, and the next day he says it was a mistake. Ari leaves the summer early, heartbroken and depressed knowing she’ll have to see him once school starts.
At school, Ari ends up meeting Noah. He’s the star quarterback. He’s quiet, kind of a loner even though he lives in the football house and is super nice. Overall, an amazing guy who cares about his mom and respects Ari. It’s a bit of a slow burn for them which I didn’t hate. They were friends first, and he slowly taught her to cook which was cute.
Unfortunately, there’s an accident and Ari loses her memory which creates a “love triangle,” because Ari doesn’t remember Noah. This book is freaking long. And it didn’t need to be. This half of the book was drawn out – stuck in a who will she end up, will she remember, what will happen cycle. It’s honestly just kind of sad and depressing the more you learn about what actually happened, the circumstances, and the dishonesty.
Ari’s brother, Chase, sucks. He’s so overprotective that it’s annoying. The stuff he says and does when it comes to Ari and her relationships just falls so in-line with weird familial misogyny and patriarchy, and I didn’t care for it at all.
Overall, I gave this book 3 stars, but it’s probably closer to 2.5 in hindsight. I finished it, because I wanted to know what happened in the love triangle, but I found the book sad and frustrating.
Farewell Thoughts
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