Saved by Love- Review
Saved by Love
By Toni Aleo
Genre: Contemporary, Sports Romance
Series: Bellevue Bullies #7
Publication Date: June 28,2022
Source: Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 4 Stars
Description:
Evan Adler can’t get out of his own head.
Worthless.
Broken.
Failure.
Those are just a few of the words he uses to describe himself now. Medically retired from the NHL before he even had a chance to live up to the Adler legacy, Evan has returned to his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, to focus on his mental health. But he never expects his journey of healing to lead him to the University of Bellevue and a position as the athletic trainer for the women’s gymnastics team.
Bellevue’s star gymnast Callie Pearce is the ultimate teammate. She is driven, resilient, and when it comes to the people she loves, she loves harder than she hits the vault table. She grew up with only her older sister in her corner, but it’s easy for her to be caring to anyone she meets. She wants to give everyone the kind of love she has, and she makes sure they know their worth. When Callie finds out Evan Adler is suffering, and at Bellevue, she will stop at nothing to get to know him.
That first time Evan tapes Callie’s ankle, she realizes nothing is going to keep her from taking her shot with him. And together, they’ll use the love they’ve been so richly blessed with in their pasts to save each other’s future.
Review:
Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault Accusation (minor characters)
I love books with good mental health representation and Saved by Love is one of them. Evan struggles with his anxiety to the extent that, prior to this book, he leaves professional hockey. His mental health and the role it plays in his life is all too familiar and really hits home. His big supportive family, most of whom have their own books, can sometimes feel too much and add to much pressure to him. Evan ends up joining the University of Bellevue as athletic trainer for the women’s gymnastics team where he meets Callie. Callie’s sister also has a book and, though I’ve read Toni Aleo’s entire backlist, I feel like I need a family tree to keep everyone straight! Despite my confusion, I do like cameos from other characters and the additional mental health rep from Nico.
Callie and Evan hit it off right away and their growing relationship is beautiful to watch. Because the age of the characters and the college setting, I’d call this book New Adult and at times, there were communication issues between Callie and Evan that stemmed from their age. Despite that, their chemistry was fire and I really loved seeing them fall for each other.
*There was something about this book that did make me a little uncomfortable and that was the alleged sexual assault by one of the hockey players. The story has that the event wasn’t sexual assault , and to me it wasn’t, but how the storyline played out with the woman being portrayed as wrong about the SA and that the event was unfair to the hockey player just left a bad taste in my mouth.
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