Review: Game Changer by Piper Lawson (King of the Court #1)


Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author via Valentine PR.

It's been a minute since I last read a Piper Lawson book--I still need to catch up on her most recent work, the Off-Limits series--but I couldn't have chosen a better "welcome back!" than her newest series starter, Game Changer. This is the first in her King of the Court series, and it's a sports romance, specifically one focused on professional basketball. It's also a continuing series, so the three already announced titles need to be read in order because book one ends on a cliffhanger, and I suspect so will the next one. The wait time in between each doesn't seem too terrible--a couple or so months--but hey, I'm not exactly known for my patience, so we shall see where my frustration level lands, especially since I'm already a wee bit emotionally invested in the main characters and I really need them to figure their you-know-what out ASAP.

Nova (whose last name I don't recall being mentioned) is twenty-three and decides to head to Denver, Colorado to help her older sister with wedding preparations. The timing couldn't have been better to leave Boston, given that things haven't been all that great, either personally or professionally. It's also an opportunity to spend some much needed time reconnecting with her sister and getting to know her soon-to-be brother-in-law. The problem? She's not a fan of flying, and it doesn't help when she happens to be seated beside a gorgeous, tatted-up grump who doesn't seem the least bit interested in acknowledging her presence. But it turns out the guy isn't all that bad, and when they part ways, they both think that's the end of that. Only, her seatmate is none other than twenty-nine-year-old Clayton Wade, star player and part of the Denver Kodiaks, the basketball team her sister's fiancé's manages. Talk about a game changer.

When I think unlikely coupling, Nova and Clay would have been a no-brainer on paper. The thing is, these two were unexpected in ways that make them actually a perfectly imperfect pair. Clay loves the game, but he doesn't necessarily love where he's playing it, and having Nova in his life comes with a complication he wasn't wholly prepared for. A quick FYI: This does end on a cliffhanger, so be prepared to wait for their happily-ever-after, especially given the fact that there are supposed to be two more books after this series starter. I'm familiar enough with this author's work that I wasn't surprised by the cliffy, but I'm still super eager to get my hands on the continuation of their story. You know what they say about a woman scorned, and I'm curious to see how much growing up Nova does from book one to book two, and what realizations Clay is going to experience post-cliffhanger. Where a second book in a trilogy tends to feel like filler, I'm going to keep my hopes high for the King of the Court series. Game Changer gets five stars.

Release Date: 25 April 2023

Date Read: 22 April 2023

Learn more about Piper Lawson.

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