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The Official Blurb
“Look, I’ve had it bad for the girl with all the curves next door forever. She turned me down in high school and since I’m not a total douchecanoe, I lusted after her all by myself in my shower, and we stayed just friends for years.
Now she’s the adorkable librarian next door and I’m the star quarterback of the best pro football team in the league.
So when she asks me to be her fake date to her all-girls school reunion I am totally down to show her off to the mean girls who bullied her back then so they can see just how incredible she is.
I’ll be the best boyfriend they’ve ever seen. The best fake boyfriend that is.
Until I find out from her slightly-stalkery classmates that she still has her v-card. I don’t see how that is even possible. Not with how sexy and sweet she is. Could it be because she knows she belongs with me?”
The C🍆ck Down the Block by Amy Award
Book: The C🍆ck Down the Block
Author: Amy Award
Series: The Cocky Kingmans, Book 1
Published: 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance, Football Romance, Romantic Comedy
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Fake Dating, He Falls First
Spice Level: Habanero
The Main Characters
Chris Kingman is a professional football player for the fictitious Denver Mustangs.
Beatrix “Trixie” Moore is a librarian who manages the teen and YA section of her local library.
Chris and Trixie have been friends since childhood, when Trixie’s family moved in next door to Chris’s family when they were 10 years old.
The Plot
Trixie is back in the Denver area after going to college in Wisconsin (woot woot!) and is now renting the house her parents used to own. Chris owns the house next door, so the childhood friends are neighbors once again.
Trixie is helping with fundraising for her 10-year high school reunion at the all-girls private Catholic school she attended. Unfortunately, some of the same popular mean girls who bullied her back in high school are on the reunion committee — and some of them are still just as bitchy as ever.
After Trixie goes to a fancy restaurant opening with Chris as friends, one of the mean girls insinuates she must have paid him to take her. So Trixie does what any reasonable person would do and announces Chris is actually her boyfriend.
Oops.
Now she needs Chris to show up at the reunion as her boyfriend to make the whole thing believable. Chris agrees to fake date her because, after all, friends help friends.
Except Chris has been secretly in love with Trixie since childhood. So while Trixie thinks they’re fake dating until the reunion is over, Chris sees the arrangement as a pretty excellent opportunity to turn their fake relationship into a real one.
And adventures ensue.
Spice Level
Habanero
There’s a delightful amount of spice in this book and I’m not complaining.
Things I Loved
I listened to the audiobook on my most recent drive up to Wisconsin, using one of my Libro.fm credits. (Friends, we are official Libro.fm affiliates, so when you get your audiobooks through our affiliate links, you support the podcast and can choose your favorite independent or local bookstore to support as well. Link below!)
The audiobook was dual narration by Christian Fox and Stella Hunter. I personally prefer duet narration but Christian and Stella did a fabulous job with the dual narration. I would 100% listen to either of them again on other romance audiobooks. Their flow was natural, their comedic timing was fabulous and they didn’t do weird voices for the other gender.
And the comedy in this book? I loved it. I was seriously laughing out loud throughout the book. I’m sure people who saw me driving were probably wondering what the hell was wrong with me because I was laughing so hard.
There was also a delightful amount of spice in the book.
I loved Trixie’s chickens — although I feel like she stole some of my chicken names! I had an entire flock of Star Wars-themed chickens when I lived in Wisconsin. I had Chewbawka, Princess Lay-a, Hen Solo, Kylo Hen, The Hendolorian (aka Hen-do) and Jar Jar Beaks.
Well, Trixie has Kylo Hen, Princess Lay-a, Chewbawkbawk and Luke Sky-Cocker.
Anyway, I loved it.
There’s also some great body positivity in this book. As someone who has been struggling with post-menopause and middle-aged weight gain, it reminded me to be proud of my curves and the body I’m in.
Challenges
I really only had two challenges with this book.
At one point, Trixie is up for a national librarian award … and then we never hear if she actually gets it. I would have liked to have known how that finished out. I need closure, people.
The other one is very specific to me. Trixie went to college in Wisconsin and, as a UW-Eau Claire Blugold, I wanted to know which college she attended or at least which city she lived in.
But truly, those were my only challenges.
Final Thoughts
I thought this book was fabulous.
I’m giving The C🍆ck Down the Block 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads and the audiobook gets top marks from me as well.
I went into this book with absolutely no idea what to really expect from a title like The C🍆ck Down the Block and it turned out to be a genuinely fun, funny and spicy romance.
If you like friends-to-lovers, fake dating, sports romance, football romance, rom-coms and a hero who has been secretly pining for the heroine for years, this one is worth checking out.
Where to Find It
The C🍆ck Down the Block is available in print and ebook, and the audiobook is available through Libro.fm.
Want More?
If you want to hear more of my thoughts on the book, you can listen to the podcast episode on your favorite podcast streaming service. Or click here for our in-house podcast player.
Have you read The C*ck Down the Block? Let me know your thoughts on this book in the comments!
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