Outmatched by Kristen Callihan and Samantha Young | Review

Publisher: self-pub
Release Date: November 19, 2019 (out now!)
Source of my copy: Social Butterfly PR
Series: standalone
My rating:


Synopsis
What happens when a boxer finds chemistry with a geek?

Parker Brown can’t believe she needs to hire a fake boyfriend. When she landed her dream job in renewable energy, she thought she’d be entering a world at the forefront of progressive thinking. But the head boss prefers to promote employees who are “settled.” Thankfully, she’s found the perfect candidate, a fellow intellectual looking for some quick cash. What Parker gets is his protective big brother—Rhys Morgan. The tall, muscled ex-boxer with a foul mouth shows up just as her boss does, and now she’s stuck with the manipulative jerk.

Responsibility weighs heavily on Rhys. Now permanently out of the ring, he’s trying to hold together his late father’s gym and keep his younger brother, Dean, on the straight and narrow. To save Dean from himself, Rhys takes his place, ready to give this society girl a piece of his mind. Instead, he finds an opportunity. Even though they can hardly stand each other, posing as Parker’s boyfriend is a win-win deal. She gets to keep her job, and he’ll charm her star-struck boss into sponsoring his gym.

Problem is, they can barely keep their hands off each other. And what started as an easy deal isn’t so easy anymore. Because what future can a rough ex-boxer, afraid to open his heart, and a polished society geek, who has sworn off real relationships, possibly have?

Kristen Callihan and Samantha Young co-authoring is a dream come true because I love them individually and some of their books are an all-time favorite of mine. Outmatched also had so many of the tropes I love--hate-to-love, fake dating, opposites attract. With all that said, I had pretty high expectations going in and I'm happy to say I was not disappointed. Outmatched met all my expectations and I had a great time with Parker and Rhys.

As soon as I started reading Outmatched, I knew I was going to like it. Things were happening pretty quickly, and I really enjoyed that because we got to the fake dating portion right away, which is one of my all-time favorite tropes. I really enjoyed Rhys and Parker individually--Rhys is this rough and tough ex-boxer hunk trying to save his late father's gym and Parker is basically a nerd-girl with a trust fund she refuses to touch, preferring to work for her money. Hence, Parker ends up hiring Rhys to play her fake boyfriend so that she can get a promotion at her job. Parker's boss is this misogynistic jerk I want to knee in the nuts, but he's also a Rhys fanboy so Rhys is hoping he can convince him to sponsor his gym. And the story goes off from there...

Like I said, I had very high expectations and they were all met. Outmatched was a super fun, very entertaining read. It had the right amount of swoons and steam, and I am so excited for future books co-written by these two authors.

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