Review: Say You Swear

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Arianna Johnson has been dreaming of what college life might bring, and it's finally coming over the horizon as she and her friends plan one last beachside summer together. So much has changed over the years, but there's always been one constant. The boy her heart returns to no matter where her imagination runs: her brother's best friend, Chase.

This is the summer she'll finally tell him how she feels. That it's him. It's always been him.

Until suddenly, it isn't.

Ari's heart is in splinters when she meets star quarterback Noah Riley. His friendship is exactly what she needs after Chase's rejection, but from the start, Noah wants more. Even when their path is blurry, even when tragedy strikes, even when Ari doesn't know her own heart, Noah will fight for the feelings he knows they both have…no matter what it might cost them.

They say first love lasts forever. Ari is about to find out if that's really true.

Genre: contemporary romance

Publication date: March 2024

Mature content: yes

Review: I really wanted to like this book, but in the end I had too many issues with the plot and the characters to make it work. I did like the romance between Noah and Ari, but that is mostly on Noah's side for a significant part of the book. 

Say You Swear's story can be basically broken into three parts. For the first part, Arianna is chasing Chase (no pun intended), in the second part she seems to be playing both with Noah and Chase, and only at the end (with a lot of hiccups in between) she finally decides she wants Noah. So, while I did love Ari and Noah together, the whole love triangle thing was a bit over the top. 

I also felt the book had a lot of necessary detail, a lot of secondary characters thrown in with little explanation, and a significant amount of inappropriate behavior.

So, while there were some positive aspects, Say You Swear is not a book I can bring myself to actively recommend. 

Happy readings otherwise!

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