I’m glad to see Kristen Callihan publishing again, even if I can’t recommend this particular book. Only on Game Day is very much in keeping with her new adult Game On series. I suspect this is the start of a series centering the Luck family. Three Luck brothers, January, August, and March are at various stages in their football careers – January sidelined after a career ending injury, August the first round draft pick quarterback, and March a college star. There are Luck sisters too – May, June, and possibly a third sister that isn’t named after a month. I know as little about football as I can manage, so I have no idea if the football is reasonably accurate.
August Luck, ably narrated by Teddy Hamilton, is a rookie quarterback who is also the starting quarterback for the LA team. The stress is causing him to act out and it’s pissing off the coaches and fans. Penelope Morrow, nicely narrated by Maxine Mitchell, has known August his whole life because their mothers are best friends. She is finishing college in LA. She has just inherited her grandparent’s LA home, but she can’t afford the taxes. August suggests a fake engagement to clean up his image and he’ll give her breathing room on the property taxes. As a basis for a fake relationship, it’s not bad, and it’s extremely clear to the reader that they have each been secretly in love with the other forever. As a book, it’s fine, with the exception of my condom issue discussed below. August and Penelope are mostly entertaining, though I thought Callihan went way overboard on the persecution Penelope faces from friends, family, the school, and strangers.
Here’s my condom complaint. I am seeing a very disturbing trend in contemporary heterosexual romance in which the main couple will have a quick conversation mid fooling around about STD status and use of a contraceptive device (pill, ring, iud, etc) as a precursor to choosing not to use a condom the first time they have penetrative sex. I’m seeing it a lot and from authors who have stated they are in favor of reproductive choice. I have multiple problems with this as a trend. One, mid foreplay is no time to be making these decisions the very first time you have sex with a new partner – even if it is a shortcut to demonstrating a high level of trust. Two, not every STD panel tests for every STD. For example, HPV, herpes, hepatitis, and Trichomoniasis are often not included in a standard test panel. Condoms plus another form of contraception is the best, most effective way to protect yourself and your partner from STDs and unplanned pregnancy. Three, reproductive freedom is under attack. These are books written and published post-Roe. The reproductive freedoms of people who can get pregnant vary according to their state and country. For Americans, the policy makers for the political party currently in power have stated explicitly that they want to take reproductive freedom away from all people with uteruses. There has been a significant push to ban abortion care nation wide, eliminate access to mail order abortion pills, and deny access to contraceptives. In this climate, I find the number of contemporary romances forgoing condom use terrifying. From here on out I will explicitly state how birth control was handled in all US set romances published after 2022. Only on Game Day fails the condom test, so I’m taking off a full star, taking this from a three to a two star review.
I received this as an advance listener copy from Harlequin Audio and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
