AHHH I DNFED!!!! I wanted to love this so much guys I really did!! I managed to push to 56%.
So they’ve already started ‘fake dating’ but I don’t see it anywhere. This really bored me and I was just not into it.
Colt and may have NO CHEMISTRY whatsoever. I’m dying.
Guys please the cover was so cute and don’t even get me started on the blurb but ahh i cannot. I should have listened to the reviews, they warned me

Thankyou netgalley for this ARC

This book was like a little ray of sunshine?! I've never read a lacrosse sports romance before, and it was so refreshing. The balance of sports to romance was excellent, with a fake dating, 'second chance' kind of theme going. It was sweet, a little spicy, and the kind of book that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

- sports romance (lacrosse)
forced proximity
-fake dating
-second chance

This was an enjoyable read. I found the characters May and Colt likable and relatable, although I felt their relationship lacked chemistry. Additional backstory would have enhanced the narrative. I appreciated the departure from typical sports romance tropes, particularly the focus on a less common sport and the inclusion of both characters as athletes. While the miscommunication trope, present in this book, is not a personal preference, readers who enjoy this trope will likely find it satisfying.

Overall, this was a pleasant and engaging read.

As a romance fan, I appreciated that Cross My Heart delivered on the happily ever after, even though it took me a little while to get into the story. The beginning was a bit slow, but once the love interests reunited, the pace picked up, and I found myself flying through the rest of the book.

Colt was definitely my favorite character—his tenderness and determination to prove himself made him so easy to root for. The story’s theme of chasing your dreams without regrets added depth to the romance, making the payoff even more satisfying. The writing style was light with plenty of inner dialogue, which gave insight into the characters’ emotions but also contributed to the slower start.

Overall, Cross My Heart is a great pick for readers who love quick, feel-good romances with a predictable but comforting storyline. If you enjoy stories about second chances and personal growth, this one is worth picking up!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book.

Cross My heart

‘All that matter is that I am unconditionally and unabashedly in love with her.’ m

May Velasco knows a few things in life, the most important one being lacrosse, after working towards it for years, May knows this is her last chance with her scholarship if she wants to declare at the end of the season, and after the rough season she had last year, she’s ready to give it her all. Enter Colt ‘CJ’ Bradley. May has tried very hard not to think about him since he left to play lacrosse at New Haven 5 years ago. But when e returns after an injury puts his career at risk to help coach her team, May finds letting go of the past more difficult than she can imagine, and when her and Colt look like they’re sharing an intimate moment in a bar, the post goes viral. May wants to shut the whole thing down, but the press it’s bringing to women's lacrosse is something May can’t deny. They can put the past behind them and pretend a little longer, right?

I really enjoyed this book. In general I am a big fan of sport romances, and my sport tends to be F1. The most I really knew of lacrosse was watching Teen Wolf, but having this sport be a forefront meant that it was a really refreshing read. I enjoyed learning more about a sport that I know nothing about, and it gave me a greater appreciation for it. One of the things I think I underestimated was how adrenaline racing playing it can be, and the writing during the games was so good at making you feel like you were in the middle of the action, and I was desperate to keep going to find out if they were going to win or not.

I love May’s character. May and Colt together have that grumpy/sunshine vibe which is an absolute weakness of mine. Having May be this strong character and be so protective of her loved ones, that you can see that she is ready to give up on her biggest dream to stay and make sure that they are okay is one of her best traits. I love seeing strong female characters in the books I read and May is one of the best. You can see how caring she is for everyone around her. Her stubbornness definitely got in the way in some cases but it made the moments between her and Colt so much sweeter.

Colt is a whole other matter. I loved him so much! The way he was so down bad for May just melted my heart. Going down injured and her being your first thought? Just absolutely perfect, that he fully set the bar. One of the sweetest things about him is that it’s rarely ever just May to him, in his inner monologue, he calls her May Velasco so often, it’s as though he doesn’t want to deprive himself of her name. Sometimes I feel like it can come across as cringey but with Colt you can tell that its very genuine and it just had me rooting for them even more.

I really enjoyed the way that it being women in a male dominated field (quite literally) was written. There was no shade thrown at men lacrosse, and it wasn’t trying to be like we’re better than men because we’re women. It was written with such care that you could tell that they didn’t really think about the fact that there’s a difference, and more that it was empowering for these women to be playing a sport that they loved, and you could tell that they were playing for the love of the sport. You can also see the difference that although many people showed up because of Colt initially, many people stayed because of the sport because of the team , and it just left me with such a feeling of hope that it was so enjoyable.

There are a lot of my favourite tropes in this, grumpyxshunshine, second chance romance, not quite enemies to lovers, he falls harder, and they are written so well. I’m a sucker for these tropes and when they are written well, like they are here, they are just some of my favourite tropes to read, and I was tearing through it.

All in all, this was such an enjoyable read, and it’s another book by Esha Patel that just knocks it out of the park.

So I guess I’m into lacrosse now. It was bound to happen eventually, but like this book made it seem like so much fun and now I will actually look into the sport. Good times good times.

Cross My Heart is a solid sports romance with an engaging premise, but it didn’t fully engage or impress me.

*2-2.5 stars*
So I think this book is wrongly marketed as almost enemies to lovers, fake-dating. It's actually more second chance, and if I knew this I probably wouldn't have read it, although people who like that trope might enjoy it. Also the miscommunication in this book is BIG (and also sooo repetitive).

My main problems, except for the mismarketing, was just how out of proportion and dramatic the main 'problem' was. It seems everyone in Colt's hometown is mad at him for...leaving to go to college elsewhere?! I kinda understood May's frustration but not enough for it to constantly be bought up every chapter and for being the main obstacle to their relationship. This repetitiveness also made the book feel longer than it needed to be.

To be fair, I did like the south-asian representation and women in sports rep too. But sadly just not enough for me to enjoy the overall book.

Personal side note: Since Colt broke his ACL, I would have a liked a book centred around women in sports to at least bring up the big ACL problem in women's sports. (unless I missed it)

Thanks NetGalley for the eARC!

This was cute!

At first, I was very confused as to the ages of the main characters. And this carried on for a few chapters, I believe. But eventually, that was cleared up. I'm still not sure about those first few chapters, but eventually they switched to not being confusing. (I am aware that explanation was confusing, I have no idea how else to explain what I am trying to explain. Sorry.)

And this was a forced proximity, fake dating situation (and I always love that premise), so that was fun! But their chemistry wasn't always there, so it was a bit stilted at times.

We do get both of the main POVs in this, which is also great. I know a lot of people love when romances have that. Although, sometimes the POVs were weird because they would describe things in a way that I do not think someone their age would. (I don't know how else to explain that.)

Overall, this was cute, but sometimes it fell quite a bit flat.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

May and Colt are cute. I like them both a lot as characters. I wanted more chemistry building between them though. It would have also been nice to get more information about their past, families, and other aspects of their lives. I felt a little thrown into the plot.

I didn't realize this book was going to be so heavily sport based. The lacrosse element was cool though and something new to me. I liked the authors note at the end describing the origin of lacrosse, and that would have been a neat element to add into the story. This read as a little more YA.

I had the pleasure of reading Cross My Heart as an arc!

I loved that this book surrounded Lacrosse which was refreshing since most sports romance books surround hockey or football! I enjoyed that they focused on the women's side of sports since you don't see that all too often. I think the fake dating trope was fun but maybe a little unrealistic for social media to be following a college lacrosse players relationship. You could tell they had feelings for each other but they didn't give into those feelings right away. There was drama and a break up in their relationship before they could come together. I loved how Esha portrayed female empowerment and the challenges women go through while living in a "man's world".

This is my first read from Esha Patel and it was written well. The story was heartwarming and an easy read. Overall it was a 4 star book and if you love a fake dating, sports romance - you'll likely enjoy this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Esha Patel for the opportunity to read this arc!

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

May achieves her ambition to be a college lacrosse player, only to find Colt is going to coach the team .will romance develop? Ideal reading for all lacrosse lovers.

I LOVED THIS! I am so excited that Lacrosse women finally get some representation in the book industry! I was so into this book and the fact that the author really knew about the sport was really awesome. THANK YOU!

this is probably my favorite of esha patel's 3 sports romances that i've read. it was sweet and i kept coming back to the dedication at the beginning of the book, and how that really felt like it was proven out.

this wasn't an abnormally short book by contemporary romance standards but i found myself wanting... more? i wanted more about may and colt's past, i wanted more may and colt moments in the present. i wanted more of may and her family and her culture. i honestly did not care much about the lacrosse bits, and this book got fairly detailed about the lacrosse (especially for a sports romance novel, where usually it's like oh hey someone plays sports! here's a tiny bit of what they do and then we're gonna talk around it for the rest of the book~), so if it was a page length issue, i would have muchhh rather had more romance than lacrosse bits. you're telling me that they basically lived together for 3 months and all we got was one scene where they slept in bed together?? i feel shortchanged.

i did think it was v interesting to see the reference about the indigeniety of stickball. part of me wishes there was more talk about it in the plot (there is more discussion about it in the author's note tho!), and part of me is like, this author is prob not the best person to do that, so it's probably a good thing they did not.

I would say finally not a hockey sports romance but in all honesty I love them though I will say it was super refreshing to read a new sport for once!!
This is a second chance romance troupe// forced proximity// fake dating
In my opinion this book has all the ingredients for a gripping romance book, you know the ones that make you giggle and kick your feet but also have you feeling for the main characters? Yepp that’s the one.

I really enjoyed seeing the characters progress in this story. The story was well paced and well written. I was hooked from the beginning and devoured it in just a few sittings.

I had a bit of a rocky start with this book. For the first 10%, I was a little confused about the characters’ ages—there seemed to be a mix between high school and college students, which threw me off at first. It also took me a while to figure out the setting, as the book didn’t clearly mention the location. I found myself wondering if it was in New Haven, Connecticut, but there was no confirmation until later. A simple mention of the state would have made things much clearer.

That said, once I got past the confusion, I really enjoyed the book. The focus on female sports was refreshing and empowering, especially as it revolved around lacrosse—an underrepresented sport in the professional world. The idea of women playing professionally in a sport like lacrosse was an interesting “fantasy” concept that I really appreciated, even if it did stretch the boundaries of realism a bit.

The protagonist’s stubbornness did get a little frustrating at times, as it felt like she was her own worst enemy in some situations. Still, it made sense for her character’s arc and added depth to her personal growth.

Overall, the book was a unique and engaging read once I got past the initial confusion. If you’re a fan of sports fiction with strong female leads, this might be right up your alley!

Out May 22, 2025

Thank you to net galley for providing me with this ARC!

As a college lacrosse enthusiast for years, I was excited to read the novel. The storyline helps to move the plot, but parts seem unrealistic (lacrosse hotbed in the midwest, fans suddenly showing up for college women's lacrosse games, and social media being all over a lacrosse relationship). At times, the main characters are underdeveloped over time, with Colt being fixated on May and May being stubborn. However, I do appreciate May's diverse heritage and representation of person of color on a college lacrosse team.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was cute!!

Fake dating done well in this sports romance!

I loved that both the FMC and MMC played lacrosse. That added an element of connection to their relationship. Both characters were lovable but a little under developed.

I didn't feel incredibly connected to either character or their connection. Butttttt this was a lovely lighthearted read,