I enjoyed Love & Sportsball so much. It is a refreshingly adult workplace romance between a newly hired athletic trainer and the star player on a women’s pro basketball team in Atlanta. The two have a one night stand and then are surprised to meet a couple of days later at work. Shae is delighted and ready to start a romance. Dijah is horrified and wants to keep it professional. Here’s the wonderful thing about this book: Shae is disappointed but she doesn’t try to change Khadijah’s mind. She tries to include her and get to know her better, but she doesn’t try to seduce her. Dijah, on the other hand, struggles with her own boundaries because she is very attracted to Shae. I love that Meka James gives us spice, pining, and the building of a friendship all at the same time.
One of my favorite things about the conflict in Love & Sportsball is that neither Dijah or Shae are wrong. They are two fully formed people with different approaches to life. As much as they like each other and as compatible as they are, their expectations about how relationships happen are not in synch. It takes them several misses and conscious adjustment of the way they communicate before they get to a point where they can have a romantic relationship. It would be easy to paint one of them as the bad guy, but Meka James has made them complex and charming characters. Dijah’s need for stages and checkpoints in a relationship are given as much weight and value as Shae’s laid back “we’re good together so let’s go.” To Dijah it feels like Shae is being reckless. To Shae it feels like Dijah is blowing hot and cold. The conflict is so relatable.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Afterglow Books and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
