Hedgehog Harry

Courtside by Taylor E. Weston follows grad-student-serving-as-men’s-basketball-team’s-team-manager Sage and former-team-captain-turned-head-coach David. The novel shows two characters learning how to be vulnerable with each other and trust both each other and themselves. Which is what I loved so much in Weston’s most recent book Making Time.

First of all, Taylor E. Weston (yup, I’m fulling naming here), how dare you torture me with the slooooowest of burns! That first kiss is great but soooo far in. I really, really appreciate that the wait made the relationship above board power dynamics wise. I also love me some yearning and Sage and David yearn away for each other.

The side characters shine. The most important side character of course is Daisy – David’s adorable muppet of a dog. I especially loved David’s friend group from college. Their yearly trip to a lake house reminded me fondly of my own college friends with whom we try to do at least a gathering per year. The one paragraph about Tommy and Chuck had me ready to read Poolside immediately.

Finally, it’s not often I have to pull out the physical book tabs but needed to here:

“You know you don’t have to have it all together with me right?”

Sage stopped. She looked at him, really looked at him, and saw nothing there but trust and care and all of the things she’d never let herself need from another person.

Fully worth the read. Five stars!