This story is beautiful. The pacing, plot, characters; they’re all fantastic. The struggles are real and the story is heart wrenchingly addictive. I’m so in love with it.

4.5 ⭐️

My head says 3.5 - 4 ⭐️ but my heart says 4.5 - 5 ⭐️, and I would never disobey Roxette.

Kris Ripper and sports romance are two of my favorite things, so it's no surprise that I loved this. (Although this is less sports romance in the jumpy-runny-skatey-kicky sense than in the backdrop/ context sense.) BUT: I also suspect that this is one of those books that will not work for everyone, and that some people will bounce off hard. And my 5-starring it does not imply that there aren't flaws -- there are. Overall, though, this book sucked me in from the first page and didn't let me go until I finished at 1:30 in the morning; and Des is such a flawed, funny, ultimately sympathetic narrator that I couldn't help but root for him and Orion.

This book is based on a huge ask, which we get hit with in the first chapter; no hidden surprises here. Des, our (1st person) POV character, is tasked by his boss/ fairy gaymother -- the only other queer in his corporate branding firm, where he is an entry-level grudge -- to recruit Orion, a retired and reclusive professional soccer player, to be the spokesperson for a client's campaign to encourage LGBTQI+ kids in sports. Great, right? The catch: Orion's retirement and reclusivity was caused by an article Des wrote as a college journalist that intentionally outed him -- an article that Des regretted immediately after it published, and which was the last thing he's ever written.

The ask, then, is whether the reader can see a path to forgiveness and redemption for Des. And if you don't think you can, then I would advise giving this one a miss. Des's motives for writing the article -- which we never get the text of, but which we are made to understand is more broadly about the challenges of being queer in professional sports, but which includes a non-consensually taken/ published photo of Orion kissing his then-boyfriend -- are muddled even in his own articulation. Ambition, idealism, and an almost unbelievable naivete all factor in; he somehow convinced himself that he was doing Orion a service, only to discover that his actions looked more like self-righteousness, malice, and jealousy. In shame and horror at his own blindness and stupidity, he didn't just abandon journalism, but also isolated himself from his friends (many of whom, we get in an aside, were dumbfounded and dismayed by his actions, which is a nice, realistic touch). Des is a character who caused irrevocable harm to someone else, and who has been living with that ever since. His reasons, at the time, may have been genuine -- if, again, head-shakingly naive -- but he has grown up enough to realize that this doesn't really matter. Good reasons or bad, he still ruined someone's life.

So, yeah, a big ask for the reader in terms of rooting for Des and also believing in the eventual romance. Much like (past) bully romances (a la Alexis Hall's Pansies or Gregory Ashe's Hazard and Somerset series), this lives or dies on whether the reader can buy into at-fault character's redemption.

(While I'm at it, the premise is also absurd. Why would Vix, Des's fairy gaymother, think he was the right one to try to convince Orion to join this campaign? She knows about the article; the rational response would be to send a straight, cross your fingers, and hope Des and Orion never cross paths. And given Orion's notorious reclusivity -- Des is given the name of a town and Cold Snap Cabin, but no phone number or address -- why does Vix think that springing the guy who ruined his life on Orion with no warning would be an ethical thing to do? We do eventually get a kind of reason for Vix's thinking (which involves collusion with one of Orion's friends), but let's face it: this premise makes no logical sense. File it under Romance Reasons and move on.)

So given that we have a ridiculous premise and a huge ask, how did this work so well? It boils down to Des, who is a likeable, funny, smart (but also incompetent in a "city slicker in the mountains" kind of way) character who genuinely wants to make amends (and, he admits to himself, to explain his actions) but also knows that he is not entitled to forgiveness. It also boils down to Ripper's clever, tropetastic setup: meet-cute (no, really: Des and Orion have a very flirty, adorable first encounter before Des springs the campaign on him and Orion realizes who he is), snowed in/ forced proximity, sickbed (caffeine withdrawal is a thing, man), and ONE-EYED DOG RESCUE!! Like all great romances, Settle the Score both leans hard into and transcends these tropes to bring us an emotionally resonant exploration of what it means to make amends, and the difference between things that can be forgiven and things that can only be accepted. And whether making a mistake -- even a massive one -- precludes all possibilities for redemption, (self-)forgiveness, liking, and love.

No spoilers here, but suffice to say that a large chunk of the book is dedicated to Des and Orion being snowed in -- with no phone or internet service -- at Orion's cabin, during which their relationship evolves from Orion's extreme (understandable) antipathy to a kind of grudging cooperation to tentative flirtation to (fade-to-black) intimacy; while the latter chunk explores the aftermath, both professional and personal, once the cabin bubble is broken. Orion's journey from hatred to liking (loving?) Des during their six enforced days together is not entirely explicable (and here is one of those things that I wish was done better, but which is difficult in the context of 1st person POV); I can very well see that some readers won't buy this switch, especially as Des himself is extremely sceptical that Orion could feel some for him other than detestation, so we're getting Des's disbelief added on to our own. For me, it worked as a combination of the initial attraction, Des's care and determination in rescuing the dog, Des's acceptance of Orion's feelings (after his initial attempts at apology and explanation, Des does not keep advocating for forgiveness), and Orion's discovery that Des gave up writing after the article; that is, that Des's actions show genuine remorse even if Orion doesn't want to hear self-serving excuses about his motives. Orion is also honest enough to admit that he wasn't happy living the closeted life he felt forced into. To be clear: he does not thank Des for "liberating" him from the closet, nor does he think that his past unhappiness justifies Des's actions. Orion is not out to absolve Des or wash away his sins. But some distance from his past life has enabled him to see all the ways he was sacrificing himself, and what that did to him; while meeting Des helps him realize that, just as his own story is complex, so to is his "enemy's", and that neither of them are served by living without nuance or compassion.

This is not a perfect book. For some people, this will be an absolute no -- and that's ok. Forced outing is abhorrent, and Ripper sets zirself a pretty hard task in making this a story people will want to read and believe in. And while I think it was smart to keep us in Des's head the whole time, this means that Orion remains somewhat elusive: we never really get his side of the story, whether it's the emotional journey during the time at the cabin, or the life-changing decision Orion makes for both of them (albeit with an out) in the aftermath. Like I said many thousand words ago when I started this review: my head recognizes the flaws. But I really loved this despite (because?) of them. Not just because of the gentle, self-deprecating humor, and the familiar fish-out-of-water feeling of being simultaneously very smart and very dumb. And not just because of Des's resilience and (belated) self-awareness. But also because the big ask prompted some real reflection over what it means to forgive. And to not forgive, but to still see some goodness in someone and acknowledge past harm while accepting the possibility of a different future. This is a generous, empathetic book about what we owe each other and ourselves, and understanding the difference between the two. Can't wait to re-read.

Read as part of the Trans Rights Readathon to spotlight books written by authors who are trans, genderqueer, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and 2Spirit.

I got an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

STOP. Des is such a disaster, I can’t get over it. Everything he does is so dramatic it had me rolling. He’s so head over heels for Orion and he doesn’t even fully realize it. But if I’m being honest, Orion is head over heels for Des too.

Unfortunately, I found that the events moved to swiftly, especially by the latter half of this book. The first kiss came out of nowhere. I thought this was going to be a slow burn, and I was really enjoying the slow burn, until it wasn’t slow burn. Also, the miscommunication fight was so bad. It was probably one of the worst miscommunication fights I’ve ever read.

BUT! Don’t let this turn you off of this! It was super cute, super sweet, super adorable. I wanted more Orion and Des because of how cute they are!! And the way the book ended was just perfect to me.

This was a mess. A mostly entertaining mess, for sure, but a mess nonetheless. I picked this up because I've enjoyed some of Kris Ripper's other work a lot. And I did again really enjoy the writing, which was super fun. But I liked the actual romance a lot less.

I was afraid I'd have trouble rooting for the main character, considering he was the one who outed the love interest in the past, but I was hoping this would be adequately resolved. It isn't. I never felt like the main character truly redeemed himself, and he always centered himself in every (very sparse) conversation they had about it.

I did understand why the MC was attracted to the love interest, but never did it become clear to me what the love interest saw in our MC. Had this been dual POV, this would have been a real problem for the book, but as it is, it's easy to get distracted by the fun writing to actually consider if the romance holds up. The love interest goes from saying he "detests" the MC to kissing him over the span of a few days, when nothing has really seemed to change between them, which really confused me. The story kind of lost me there, and it lost me even more after the snowed-in-together situation ends and our MC goes back home. This part of the book took way too long and was way too boring to read.

This book was a treat. It's been too long since I read Kris Ripper—must fix that—and I'd forgotten how delightful zir writing is. This was a book I absolutely didn't have time to spend all day reading and yet did anyway.

There's plenty of OTT rom-com foolishness in this story, but underlying that is so much true emotion. I loved the growth and redemption and overall hopefulness, and I read most of the book with a foolish grin on my face. I can only hope this might be the start of a new series, as there were plenty of side characters I'd love to learn more about. Highly recommended!

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

Des Cleary, once an inspiring investigative journalist, works for a marketing firm in LA. His decision to leave journalism for good during college was the result of the public outing he wrote in an article of a professional soccer star, Orion Broderick. Orion ended up losing his career, sponsorships, and his boyfriend. Now Des is tasked with bringing Orion back into the spotlight by teaming up with. a sports company for a Pride Campaign to help bring more LGBTQ+ kids to team sports. A surprise visit from Des to Orion's cabin leads to a forced proximity rom-com reckoning during a snowstorm that strands them together.

I enjoyed this novel immensely. This was my first novel by Kris Ripper and went in with no expectations. I really felt the writing style fit Des as a character. This book had. a singular first-person POV, Des, and it was a definite peak into his rambling thoughts, insecurities, and ultimately his triumphs. Although I do read more dual POV books, having the POV of just Des made the story. I didn't feel that anything was missing from the story--mainly a more thorough examination of Orion's response to the article at time of publication--because, yes, the story was about their romance, but it was fueled by Des's story and growth as a person. I found myself smiling through the comedic moments at the cabin and appreciated that some time needed to occur before this couple could get their HEA.

I will gladly pick up another of Kris's books. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this story.

Ah I loved this so much. Such a great story about love, redemptions, and forgiveness.
Plot: Des was tasked to recruit former pro soccer player to join a Pride campaign that his boss was doing to get kids into sports. Unfortunately he outed this player in a college paper years ago. And soon after Orion left soccer and lived in the mountains. Des finds him and planned for a quick turnaround home, but unexpectedly got stranded in the cabin for days in a snowstorm.

The interaction between them was beautiful. I found the story to be humorous at times due to Des. I loved Des. I felt for him and yet wanted to shake him at times. Orion had every right to be upset. Yet, I don’t understand why he didn’t sue his soccer club of sexual discrimination. It was maddening that nothing happen to the upper management that “fired” Orion. I also love any love story with a dog in it! The ending was adorable! I definitely wanted more. Overall, this was a special gem of a book that I highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my review.

Thank you to NetGalley for enabling me to read an arc of this book

This is the first book by Kris Ripper that I’ve read but I’ve heard of xir other books before so I was excited to give this one a try.
The premise of forced proximity and enemies to lovers is always a fun trope and it was also a fairly short book so it was easy to read and get to know the characters. It wasn’t one of my favourites, but it was still an enjoyable read