Curvy fitness influencer Crystal Chen built her career shattering gym stereotypes and mostly ignoring the trolls. After her recent breakup, she has little stamina left for men, instead finding solace in the gym – her place of power and positivity.

Enter firefighter Scott Ritchie, the smug new gym patron who routinely steals her favorite squat rack. Sparks fly as these ultra-competitive foes battle for gym domination. But after a series of escalating jabs, the last thing they expect is to run into each other at their grandparents’ engagement party.

In the lead-up to their grandparents’ wedding, Crystal discovers there’s a soft heart under Scott’s muscled exterior. Bonding over family, fitness, and cheesy pick-up lines, she just might have found her swolemate. But when a photo of them goes viral, savage internet trolls put their budding relationship to the ultimate test of strength.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

At every opportunity, Dad warns me of the dangers of posting my whereabouts on Instagram, lest I be kidnapped and sold into sex slavery, Taken style. Except Dad is no Liam Neeson. He doesn’t have “special skills,” aside from his legendary sesame chicken recipe.

The window rack is close enough to the industrial-size fan to savor a stiff breeze mid-sweat, but not close enough to succumb to wind-induced hypothermia. It’s also in the prime position for gawking at the television, which, for unknown reasons, is cruelly locked to the Food Network. I worship this squat rack the way Mother Gothel regards Rapunzel’s magic hair. It gives me life. Vigor. Four sets of squats and I’ll be high on endorphins for at least a day, fantasizing about the strength of my thighs crushing the souls of a thousand men.

… he still pinches pennies, to the extreme. Tara and I even signed him up to be on TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates. When the producers called him and asked him to be on the show, he declined and refused to speak to us for five days.

His body is a work of art. It belongs in a Parisian museum, protected by velvet rope and an armored guard.

“Isn’t it funny, though? Grandma has a more active dating life than us.” She stares at the space on her finger where her massive princess-cut diamond used to sit. I’m half convinced one of the worst parts of her breakup was giving up the ring.

Even from an upward angle, the man is so hideously attractive, I’m convinced sorcery is at play.

 

My Review:

 

This was a fun read with endearing and quirky characters and a soul-pleasing message for those of us with a stacked rack. The storylines were engaging and jam-packed with sparkling humor and wry wit, as well as sprinklings of delectable bits of spice and scorching sensual scenes that had me seeking libation to rehydrate and calm my heart rate.

I waffled a bit on the star rating as while I enjoyed and savored the original and authentic cast and their engaging story threads and reveled in the effervescent jocularity, I could have done with less angst and far less gym workout details as I find repetitive inner conflict tedious and I am basically a slug and could care less how many torturous squats and vile exercises were completed. I confess to being inherently lazy and so far removed from the gym fitness culture that I needed to consult with Mr. Google for the definitions of swolemate and fitstagrammer.

However, when I rechecked my highlighted passages and favorite quotes I was again reminded of the cleverness of this perceptive scribe’s keenly overarching humor in her storytelling and incisive comical detailing, which balances out and overrules my petty complaints and personal pet peeves.