A review by abinthebooks
Out of Bounds by R.S. Grey
Did not finish book. Stopped at 55%.
2.0
DNF @ 55%
I picked this one up on a whim last night after reading the description and finding out it was about a gymnast training for the Olympics. I always gravitate towards stories that have gymnastics at their forefront, mainly because I was a gymnast my entire childhood (fuck you knee injury that made me quit) and I love reading about characters that childhood me can relate to. However, this one was kind of a bust.
I think my main issues with Out of Bounds were both of the MC’s. Our FMC, Brie is literally broke (like $100 in her bank account broke) and she has been training for the Olympics since she was a young kid. But she literally spends her money on so many useless things and fucks around in her training, not at all taking it seriously. She yells at her coach—our MMC, Erik—for correcting her mistakes and gets mad when he doesn’t praise her. She was so irritating. Girl, you are going to the Olympics, at least take it seriously.
I also didn’t like Erik who was a grade A alphahole. He was such an asshole to Brie, and I honestly couldn’t understand why she was so attracted to him? What happened at the 52% mark was also insane??? Mainly one of the reasons I DNF’ed tbh. Anyways, I love the coach/athlete trope so much (as long as it’s legal obviously), mainly for the angst and the silent pining and the will/they won’t/they aspect of it. I love the coach character who keeps telling themselves they have to stay away from their athlete bc they’re teaching them, it’s not right, ect., Literally none of that is present in here. Erik is literally fucking around with Brie the entire book and not even thinking about the consequences. Dude, you are literally an Olympic coach. I’d think that the forbidden aspect of it would double but none of it was present at all.
I thought Brie and Erik had chemistry, don’t get me wrong. Their fighting and Brie defying him at every turn made sense. But honestly because of their respective situations, I found their arguing more annoying than hot? Their relationship just ended up giving the ick tbh, especially Erik and his advances towards Brie. I really think the only aspect of this book I enjoyed was the gymnastics (which I came for so at least I received lmao). Even then, the training scenes were far and few between, covered up Erik and Brie (obviously it’s a romance, so I was expecting that), and Brie’s fellow gymnasts gossiping about her relationship with Erik.
I think I was just too technical reading this book, especially because I was a gymnast as a kid, and I did compete a lot. It’s just, I know how serious training for the Olympics and as a gymnast can be. If I was in Brie’s position today, I wouldn’t be fucking around so much and actually try to focus on my training. I think my main issue with this was just how immature both Erik and Brie were. Anyways, after reading this book, I realized I had read another book by R.S. Grey called Scoring Wilder which I gave 3 stars. My issues were exactly the same from this book and that one, so this will probably be my last book from this author.
I picked this one up on a whim last night after reading the description and finding out it was about a gymnast training for the Olympics. I always gravitate towards stories that have gymnastics at their forefront, mainly because I was a gymnast my entire childhood (fuck you knee injury that made me quit) and I love reading about characters that childhood me can relate to. However, this one was kind of a bust.
I think my main issues with Out of Bounds were both of the MC’s. Our FMC, Brie is literally broke (like $100 in her bank account broke) and she has been training for the Olympics since she was a young kid. But she literally spends her money on so many useless things and fucks around in her training, not at all taking it seriously. She yells at her coach—our MMC, Erik—for correcting her mistakes and gets mad when he doesn’t praise her. She was so irritating. Girl, you are going to the Olympics, at least take it seriously.
I also didn’t like Erik who was a grade A alphahole. He was such an asshole to Brie, and I honestly couldn’t understand why she was so attracted to him? What happened at the 52% mark was also insane??? Mainly one of the reasons I DNF’ed tbh. Anyways, I love the coach/athlete trope so much (as long as it’s legal obviously), mainly for the angst and the silent pining and the will/they won’t/they aspect of it. I love the coach character who keeps telling themselves they have to stay away from their athlete bc they’re teaching them, it’s not right, ect., Literally none of that is present in here. Erik is literally fucking around with Brie the entire book and not even thinking about the consequences. Dude, you are literally an Olympic coach. I’d think that the forbidden aspect of it would double but none of it was present at all.
I thought Brie and Erik had chemistry, don’t get me wrong. Their fighting and Brie defying him at every turn made sense. But honestly because of their respective situations, I found their arguing more annoying than hot? Their relationship just ended up giving the ick tbh, especially Erik and his advances towards Brie. I really think the only aspect of this book I enjoyed was the gymnastics (which I came for so at least I received lmao). Even then, the training scenes were far and few between, covered up Erik and Brie (obviously it’s a romance, so I was expecting that), and Brie’s fellow gymnasts gossiping about her relationship with Erik.
I think I was just too technical reading this book, especially because I was a gymnast as a kid, and I did compete a lot. It’s just, I know how serious training for the Olympics and as a gymnast can be. If I was in Brie’s position today, I wouldn’t be fucking around so much and actually try to focus on my training. I think my main issue with this was just how immature both Erik and Brie were. Anyways, after reading this book, I realized I had read another book by R.S. Grey called Scoring Wilder which I gave 3 stars. My issues were exactly the same from this book and that one, so this will probably be my last book from this author.