Review: Coach Me by Shanora Williams

Note: An advanced reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author via Wildfire Marketing Solutions.

Coach Me is a standalone romance with a taboo element to it, and it’s penned by Shanora Williams. Thirty-year-old Joaquin Torres is an assistant coach for Bennett University’s track team, and he’s been living in darkness for years. When he meets Amber Lakes, she’s like this beautiful spark, a light to brighten his days and nights—someone he both wanted and needed. But theirs is a relationship that could cost Joaquin his job because Amber isn’t any ordinary girl. She’s only nineteen, a student-athlete with BU, and a member of the track team—the very same one whose coaching staff Joaquin is part of. Getting caught isn’t an option but it’s too much of a possibility. But he isn’t the only one at risk of losing something. Amber has worked hard to get her scholarship, and she fears the team's lack of diversity could end up hurting her. How far will these star-crossed lovers go for their once-in-a-lifetime love?

On the surface, Shanora Williams's newest novel seems like every other teacher-student romance out there, but if you're familiar with this author's work, you know she gives more than the usual. The background stories involving the main characters made them even more interesting, providing rich histories that had me curious and eager to get to know them even better. Stories that have a touch of taboo to them, as this one does, may seem to be more about sex than anything else, but Williams does a notably remarkable job making it more THAN just about sex. Yes, the more lustful angle of the relationship between Amber and Joaquin is what brings them together and it's an important element, but it goes beyond that. I enjoyed seeing the development of their relationship, realizing that it was more than just about the physical and coming to terms with what remaining a couple would mean to both of them. These two were already established as individuals, but once they got together, it was as if they had found more focus and a greater reason to be better and have something worth fighting for. I'm giving Coach Me 4.5 stars. ♥

Date Read: 14 May 2020

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