Long Shot: A Forbidden Basketball Standalone Romance (HOOPS Book 1)

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It's a reminder that there's always love, trust, and loyalty in this world full of evil. That persevering and believing in yourself will lead once again to a place full of happiness and moments to cherish rather than fear. There's a great man in this book who serves as a testament to true strength in uplifting a woman and letting her soar. There's a great man in this book who facilitates a transition from fear into something extraordinary thanks to his kindness, his patience, and his incredible heart. His strength and depth of character make this great man a man who for whom you'll forever be in love. This is a love story. A deep commitment of a feeling when you meet someone and can’t get them out of your mind. But, as there is always a but, life’s timing or the choice we choose can make life not as expected. And that feeling, has to be pushed aside until hopefully life’s timing can be on your side. August and Iris. The characters draw you into their lives. You feel their joy, their struggles, their pain, their successes, their loss and their love. "Oh, the feels." They are so real. They're human.

Loaded with very human emotion possible. Lust, love, bravery, endurance, persistence, courage, sacrifice and motherhood. Motherhood is THE most powerful of all emotions in this book. And in a smoky room filled with shadows, those parts of me Caleb scattered, I reconvene. All the pieces he splintered, I mend. And everything he stole from me like a petty thief, those things, every single one of them, I repossess.❞

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With no escape in sight, I seek the only freedom left to me—my thoughts, my dreams, and my memories. I remember a magical night under the stars, under a streetlight on the eve of greatness. A night filled with laughter and confidences, pregnant with promise. And I see him so clearly, my prince, asking for a kiss. Sometimes, we stand at a juncture on which our path, our very life can turn. A fork in the road. Sometimes the heart speaks in whispers, and by the time we hear, by the time we listen, it’s too late and we don’t know. We don’t know that we should have turned right instead of left. Chosen one instead of the other. But now, in the retreat of my mind, I know. And I kiss him. In my dreams I choose him, my prince, instead of the fraud. In this parallel universe, at this second-chance juncture, I turn right instead of choosing wrong . . . and there, only there, we are together.❞ The last thing I wanted to be was a poster child for domestic abuse, not with the way our culture finds a way of blaming the victim but none of that was the deciding factor in why I finally spoke, I spoke because maybe there's some girl like me, young, vulnerable, naive, flattered by his attention, maybe she thinks that jealousy means he loves her more or that's cute but she realises slowly, surely, shes being cut off from her friends, isolated from her family, being moulded into something shes not, into what he wants her to be. The heart speaks in whispers but sometimes by the time you listen, its too late"

The conversation is so fluid and immersive that August West doesn't notice he's past his curfew for tomorrow's game, and then comes the magical moment we're all waiting for! THE KISS😍 And everything explodes... because Iris Dupree has a boyfriend. 🤦🏻‍♀️Their love gave me hope. It also helps that it made me swoon so bad. With the connection these two have, you won't even have any space in your heart to deny they're meant to be. And I so wish I could get my hands on Caleb! I'd choke him with my bare hands and gouge his eyes out. One thing to note, he didn't change throughout the story, his venom never diluted, just distilled to potency and for which I must applaud Kennedy. She never gave him an out, or attributed his vehemence to obsessive love. Nope, he was pure evil through and through! Kennedy Ryan is officially on my list. Not only did she go the extra mile and put in that note and throughly explained why domestic abuse is wrong through her characters story's but she clearly did her research. I want to throw my metaphorical hat up in the air and rejoice because you can see that this woman is passionate not only about writing, but loving what she writes. It's not just some bullshit - it's a story within a story, where she took different testimonies and put it together to create what we now know as Long Shot. Their story is fiction but it could be your own story. Ok, maybe not being a basketball superstar, but that adds to the depth of the story. I don't want to tell the secrets of the story, but there are parts that will shred you. It will make you really think. Have I ever judged someone before for this very thing? Have I missed something in someone I know? Would I recognize it and how would I handle it? What if it was me?

August and Iris have an unexplainable bond from the moment they meet. Things are difficult for them and it seems impossible that they will find their way to each other, but it’s meant to be. The thing I loved most about August and Iris’s relationship is the fact that he let her shine. He built her up and her hopes, dreams, and wants were important to him. Iris deserved that more than anyone. Iris’s story is important. I wish I could explain how much this book touched me. These characters, their stories, and my girl Iris… the way she fought, sacrificed, and found herself. She is the hero of this story, the shining star. As much as I loved August (and I really loved August) Iris stole the show for me. I loved watching her come into her own. Her story broke me at times, it felt so real, because it is real for a lot of people, but it gave me hope. I loved her relationship with her cousin, Lo. I loved the bond they shared with their MiMi. I loved the sisterhood in this story.

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I’ve sworn off men altogether, but so what? I’ve never m Iris Dupree is a smart, beautiful, and determined. She has survived so much and has turned out to be a survivor. She will not be like her mother, she has plans and dreams. Caleb Bradley is a star college basketball player and Iris’s boyfriend. But a chance meeting with August West, a fellow rival of Caleb’s, changes something in life’s cosmic plan. Long Shot (stand-alone). A bad decision, years of regrets, a love that could never be, but for the dream that kept them alive! Many times August and Iris cross paths, and even when they are apart he thinks of Iris. August has no idea what Iris is going through behind closed doors he sees only what the media see's, the golden boy of basketball and his new fiance but he was taught one thing by is father and goes by has gut and that is, when the time is right he needs to take a shot. Instalove: Kind of. They connect strongly and instantly. They don't confess love to each other or themselves until later though.