🏳️‍🌈👩‍❤️‍👩📚⚢📽️⛰️🧗‍♀️🎞️👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩📖👭🏳️‍🌈

That’s in exchange of an honest review that I received an ARC of "Calculated Risk" by Katherine Rupley from Bella Books (via NetGalley).
So, here it is !!!

My rating : 2.5 ⭐️

The story sets in California (2 main locations : Los Angeles and Joshua Tree National Park) and focuses on Leslie McAllister, an ex-US national rock climber & on CJ Broadmore, a stuntwoman. They met when CJ, with her big dreams and big problem (she needs to learn to climb, and fast, if she wants to do stunt work on a new movie), pushes the door of the gym where Leslie works and is refered to her after her first cession with another coach… Leslie agrees to teach CJ how to climb, well, at least as best as she can in the short time-frame they have at their disposal.


➕ The "Pros" :
°the originality of this story involving a movie in the (almost) making and stunts against a backdrop of climbing as the sport of choice to make the MC meet;
°The good rock-climbing descriptions, at least they look good from my POV (knowing I never climbed so I can only guess), which makes me think that the author either knows about this sport or did some serious research to render the discipline as realistic as possible;
° the awesome Joshua Tree National Park settings for what seems to be, at least 1/3 of the book.



➖ The "Cons" : (non exhaustive list)
° Thank God it didn’t last for too long !! And by ‘‘it’’ I mean the ‘is she gay?’ question coming right from the start & CJ’s stalker-ish/ obcessional behavior. Both were infuriating and bordering ridiculous … Seriously … Why would Leslie’s sexual orientation matter so much ?? They are supposed to collaborate for a week only so, who cares ?? When you meet someone new in real life, at least from my POV, their sexual orientation or marital status is NOT what comes first in mind;

° the too predictable & not (at all) convincing romance, if you can call this a "romance" since it’s more a case of insta lust/love. I didn’t feel their deep connection, their lust, yes since the story is overflowed with it, but the rest nope !!! In the MCs' relationship, all definitely happened way too fast to even come close to being plausible. Yeah … Just like that (without spending a lot of time together), they kiss and become an established couple, in less than 2 days, whereas they know each other since less than a week !!! But that’s not on lust you can build a solid relationship. Hence the lack of credibility;

° the weak storyline, whereas, based on the blurb, it was full of potential. The plot layout was good, but sadly it doesn’t seem to have been develop enough to reach what it could have been. The subplots (especially AZM’s proposition to Leslie fora new position in Boston, Leslie’s ex-girlfriend or CJ’s famous parents who don’t agree with their daughter's choice of career) could have added interesting developments into the story but because of the lack of, well, development, they just felt like they dragged the story down by bringing a forced angst & an absurd drama caused by the arrival of Leslie’s ex right on set (because, like by chance, she seems to be best pal with the producer’s daughter);

° the rambling about the trust issues that both MCs suffer from (even if that’s for different reasons) was tiresome & the lack of a serious character development;

° the rushed time frame and the hasty end;

° a more thorough edition work would have prevented (at least, I hope so) a bunch of typos and inconsistancies (like, for example, in chapter 21 when you learn that ‘‘(…) CJ got in the truck and adjusted her seat belt.’’ And, then, just a few lines later she did this : ‘‘(…) CJ climbed into the passenger seat, muttering as she fastened her seat belt’’).



Since, this short novel is the author’s debut one, it’s hard to forge a rock-solid opinion so I’ll make sure to follow Ms Rupley’s career and give her, at least another try (or two).


If I had to make a very short and quite different version of my review, it’d be something like this :
- Did I enjoy this book? => Sadly, not much as I wished I would …
- Did I find the characters believable? => Not really because of the lack of a serious character development.
- Is this book now included in my "must be re-read"-list? => Nope
- Will I purchase the paperback? => Nope
- Would I read another book by this author? => Yes. Since, this short novel is the author’s debut one, I want to see how she’ll improve her work.
- Would I recommend this book => I’ll let people use their free will to read the novel, or not …

🏳️‍🌈👩‍❤️‍👩📚⚢📽️⛰️🧗‍♀️🎞️👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩📖👭🏳️‍🌈

Calculated Risk piqued my interest because climbing is a big topic. I went climbing twice at a climbing gym and it was huge fun, even though I could barely lift a glass the next day from sore muscles.
Katherine Rupley's debut novel was entertaining, it wasn't all good, in my opinion, but for a first book, it was OK.

CJ Broadmore is a stuntwoman who needs to learn to climb as fast as she can so she can get a part in a movie with one of the best stunt directors. She wants to make a better name for herself in this genre, and in the future, she wants to lead a team herself as a stunt coordinator. And Leslie McAllister is the key to that. Leslie is faced with a big decision regarding her future and her job. A great offer lures her to Boston, and all her debts from college would be water under the bridge. But at the same time, CJ enters her life and shakes up her emotional world. Should she stay and risk getting her heart broken?

I liked all the stuff about climbing and movies. The author did a great job describing the climbing, that part of the story was really good, the camaraderie among the climbers is great, and the climbing scenes were exciting. What I also liked was all the filming, the enormous amount of effort that goes into capturing a few minutes of the film. The fact that the fragile ecosystem in Joshua National Tree Park was a major theme was something I liked.

But unfortunately, I have to say that the romance was not convincing. It all happened a bit fast and there was almost no intimacy between the two MCs. There doesn't always have to be a lot of sex scenes in a book, but in my opinion one or two helps to build chemistry and intimacy and make it more believable. I couldn't really feel the connection between the two.

Also, some issues were brought up, like trust, betrayal, and also sabotage, but none of the issues were really resolved, one part was even suddenly not an issue anymore. But despite this criticism, I will definitely look at the next book by Katherine Rupley, because some of it I liked very much.

My rating 3 stars
Thanks to Bella Books and NetGalley for receiving an ARC for an honest review you

The potential for a good and fun read was there but for me something was missing. I enjoyed the rock climbing and the Joshua Tree location. I wanted to like the characters but I felt no real connection to them. In regard to the romance, the fade to black was a miss because I did not feel I knew the characters well enough to get a sense for how they felt about each other. More interaction between CJ and Leslie in addition to the climbs.

CJ Broadmore wants to continue being a stunt woman working in movies and she believes she has a pretty good chance if she can only learn how to climb a mountain or even make people think she can. She needs help. She decides if she can find an instructor willing to help her with only a week to train.
National climber Leslie McAllister thinks everything is going great, that's until her company is sold. Luckily the new owners want her to go with the deal even though it would mean moving to Boston. The big reason she might not accept the offer, even if the money is good, is her family and having easy access to some great climbing places close at hand.
While she thinks about the offer she is approached by CJ looking for someone to train her, so Leslie said she will do it. Now we have two women meeting for the first time and the attraction between them is strong.
This is the first novel by Ms Rupley so I’m pretty sure she will become a best seller with time. Right now the plot is a little choppy and the MC’s didn’t make me like them enough. Not something I enjoyed but I still look forward to reading her next book. I have a feeling I’ll like it better than this one. All in all not too bad and the story was enough to keep me reading, at least until I got to the 19th chapter.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bella Books

I enjoyed this story although it does beg the question about lesbians, first dates and uhauls.

Fully developed, mature, career focused stunt woman needs to become an expert rock climber overnight.

Fully developed, mature web designer, rock climber extradinaire faces a life changing career choice.

The two women meet and have immediate chemistry. But is chemistry enough to survive two ambitious career goals, past relationship complications and controlling family?

I enjoy reading sports books and jumped at the chance to read a WLW romance featuring rock climbing. Stuntwoman CJ Broadmore has a chance at working in an upcoming movie if she can quickly learn how to rock climb. Leslie McAllister used to be a competitive climber but now splits her time between an IT job and training climbers at an indoor gym called Zero G. She reluctantly agrees to train CJ when she sees how determined the stuntwoman is to achieve her goals. Let the climbing and romancing begin.

What I liked:
-the rock climbing. The author’s knowledge of rock climbing and rock climbing locations were a highlight for this reader. I learned so much and was swept up in the wonder that must be Joshua Tree National Park for climbers.
- the setup of this story. The story flowed and it is clear Rupley has natural storytelling skills. The backstories for CJ and Leslie were interesting and kept me reading, hoping they could find some common ground.

What didn’t work as well:
-the romance itself. With fade to black sex scenes and few intimate moments between CJ and Leslie,their connection lacks depth. While Leslie and her worries remain consistent, CJ seems to fall into the background. It doesn’t help that it feels like CJ is taking advantage of Leslie’s talents to further her own career. It’s hard to buy into a mutual love when the reader begins to dislike one of the main characters.


Calculated Risk is this author’s debut novel. Rupley shows a lot of promise as a writer of WLW romance and I look forward to reading her next book.

A copy of this book was received with thanks from the publisher via NetGalley for review.

This story was like a lesson for me. I'm not a fan of rock climbing but I sure learned a lot from reading this book. On the other hand the story was well written and enjoyable. I recommend 4 stars

My first by this author but it definitely won't be my last. Which is good as I understand this is her debut novel.

I enjoyed this book. It was light hearted and fun. I also learned a lot about rock climbing. I say this because I know zero about the sport.

The chemistry between the characters is a little abrupt but it seemed to work for this book.

Yes, I would recommend this book. If you want something not too serious this is for you. A nice afternoon in the sun.

Enjoy!

An interesting new sports theme to the wlw sports romances out there. Living in one of the flattest countries in the world you can imagine that rock climbing is not the most popular sport over here (although we do have climbing walls), so I have zero knowledge on rock climbing. Reading a book focusing on climbing was fun and the author clearly knows a lot about it, it was very detailed and interesting. As a whole this book was an OK debut for me, the climbing was super interesting, the pacing and the storyline were fine, but I couldn’t connect to the characters.

The major storyline is about CJ, a stuntwoman, who needs to learn to climb for a movie, and she needs to learn fast! Private coaching from one of the best climbers in the field is the solution for her predicament. Leslie is a part-time coach and will give CJ a crash course on climbing, but they quickly learn that they are often losing focus on the climbing when they are together. They have to make some choices and set priorities in their private life versus professional life though, which could stand in the way of their budding romance

The main issue I had with this book is that I felt an enormous distance to the characters. It was as if everything that happened was told at a later moment in time as a chain of events and thoughts. As if it already had happened instead of experiencing it together with the mains. Because of this distance I didn’t always understand the choices of the mains and where their priorities (appeared to) lie. As indicated by other reviewers as well, the choice of the author to not display intimacy also did not help to feel the chemistry or attraction between the mains. A couple of smaller bumps I noticed were that I was missing some punch to the drama near the end and there were some inconsistencies.

In summary, this book had some debut bumps and it didn’t pull me into the romance the way I would have liked it to, but I did enjoy the climbing parts.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Don’t know this author’s work but would read more of her books.
Leslie has been offered a new job which suits her safe, structured work life but she is also a rock climber which is a risky past time which seems to contradict her work life. So when she has an opportunity to use her climbing skills for a job offer she is torn as to what to do.
CJ wants to be in a stunt team in a movie but needs to be able to climb. She goes to Leslie for instruction. Which is how the job came about.
Since I don’t climb I have to assume the descriptions of climbs are correct.
The story of Leslie and CJs romance.

Ex-US national rock climber Leslie McAllister is a coder/programmer by day and coaches rock climbing at the Zero G gym in Southern California in her spare time. She connects with Stuntwoman CJ Broadmore at the climbing gym with CJ hiring Leslie to teach her some climbing moves for a movie. The pair spend time together at the climbing gym and eventually at Joshua Tree National Park with Leslie teaching CJ some of the critical elements of climbing in a real world environment.

Although I know nothing about rock climbing, I found this book to be technically well written. My biggest concern with the book is that it lacked chemistry between Leslie and CJ, especially before they kissed or developed a physical relationship. One minute they were climbing, the next they were back at the RV and kissing without anything to lead the reader in that direction or make the reader feel that these two people should be together.

The portion of the book about Leslie’s ex-girlfriend also felt highly superficial. 3 stars for this debut book.

I received an ARC from Bella Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

I really enjoy books involving movies, stunts, and a bunch of things that I’ll likely never come close to. That made this book an instant grab for me. I was lucky enough to get an eARC through Netgalley from the publisher.

I have complicated feelings about this book. There were certain things that I thought worked very well, but then there were other things that just didn’t work the same way.

The rock climbing was easily the best part of the book. It was clear that the author either knows climbing or put in a lot of effort to get the climbing as realistic as possible. It was descriptive without feeling overdone. It was very well balanced, and it makes me want to try my hand at a climbing gym.

The relationship between the two was kind of “eh” at best. I really enjoyed them at the beginning. I thought it was cute and I really do like instant attraction stories. The problem that I had was that there never seemed to be any actual time devoted to developing the relationship between the two. I don’t mind stories where a relationship starts very early in the book, I just need there to be something else. These two characters didn’t really grow together or go through things with each other. Also, they were cute at the beginning but then it felt like their spark died at some point.

The storyline is another point of contention with me. I thought that the actual plot layout was pretty good, but it didn’t seem to live up to what it could have been. The AZM plot could have been interesting and added another layer of drama to the story, but it just didn’t do that for me. Same with the ex-girlfriend plotline. Both could have added interesting elements if they had been given better, fully fleshed out plots, but as they are they just felt like they dragged the story down.

This was a decent book. It’s not amazing, but I’m not annoyed that I’ve read it. This appears to be a debut novel by this author, and I hope to read more from her in the future.

this is not what I expected tbh. I did not feel like there's any chemistry or I did not feel the feeling develop at all between the characters, in fact what they had, started so fast in my opinion and could not connect to them. however, I enjoyed the climbing - which by the way you can tell the author knows great deal about, and the book in general. to my understanding this is a debut so I wont skip this author for any future books.

𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗴.

This debut should excite readers who enjoy climbing as a sport. It is obvious from the writing that Rupley is familiar with the topic. The climbing scenes are descriptive but easy for people like me who know absolutely nothing about rock climbing to picture it in my head so I enjoyed reading those scenes.

I thought the storyline was good but the delivery didn't quite match up. The characters are brought together because as a stuntwoman, CJ needs to learn to climb to secure work on a new movie and she engages Leslie, a former US national rock climber, who also teaches part time at a climbing gym, to help and the help eventually extends beyond just classes. While Leslie helps CJ, there is also a lot that goes on in her actual day job as a computer programmer and this adds a layer of complication to the relationship.

Rupley did well developing backstories for the characters that lets us understand them and some of their considerations better. I enjoyed the mild banter between the characters at the start and their initial interactions felt sweet, innocent and shy. And while the dialogues were not stilted, I think the writing wasn't as sleak as it could have been. Because of that, I wasn't able to be as invested in the romance storyline as I thought I would be. At some point, CJ rubbed me the wrong way and I thought she was self-serving and being a bit too pushy about Leslie making certain career choices even though she does back down. Moreover, the author made this a PG book and glossed over a lot of the intimacy, making it even harder for me to feel the connection between them.

This didn't work out well for me but no worries. This is a debut and is a good effort. I'd definitely be keeping an eye out for the author's future works.

After watching climbing and bouldering as an sport during this years Olympics this books blurb caught my attention. Rock climbing is one of the stars of this book. The author is either a climber or did great research to get the details correct (from my limited knowledge). Leslie McAllister is a climber. She took 2nd in nationals years before and now climbs for her own enjoyment and teaches lessons on the side at her favorite climbing gym. CJ Broadmore is a stunt person for films. To get her next big break she needs to learn to climb in just a week. She is willing to work hard and is teachable. She doesn’t have to actually do all the climbing but know enough to look good on film and be able to coordinate the stunts for set up and safety. CJ needs Leslie’s help so she can become the stunt coordinator for the upcoming big budget movie. Leslie on the other hand is actually a computer programmer. The company she works for has just been sold and she is being offered big incentives to relocate to Boston. Of course all this happens in the same short time frame.

I feel like a lot of the story is told to me more than is shown. I was being told they were flirty but I didn’t read flirtatious dialogue. I read the insecurities in their thoughts but not the conversations or usual attractions that bring the a couple together. The author chooses to keep intimacy off the page, But by not having touching or caresses or intimate conversations it was another way I didn’t connect to Leslie and CJ as a couple. Then the story kind jumps the shark with he movie filming but I don’t want to give specifics away. I still enjoyed the book but wish I made the connection to love as much as I did the climbing. Thank you to NetGalley and Bella Books for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.