Review: Teardrop Shot by Tijan

Teardrop Shot by Tijan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an advanced copy of this via the author in exchange for an honest review.  This released today June 24, 2019.  I sat down yesterday and read all but the last few chapters in 1 sitting.  This book is fairly long, but I just couldn't put it down.

I really enjoyed this. It had just the right amount of humor, heartbreak, emotional baggage, romance, steam, and serious content to balance it all out. In the beginning I wasn't sure I was going to like it. As the description mentions, Charlie is a bit out there with her ridiculous questions to hide from the reality of life. At first I thought it was a bit much, she's kind of over the top at times, but really give Charlie a chance. You come to realize that behind some of the crazy stuff she says internally and outloud, she really is a great character. She develops slowly and I really came to love her by the end. I quickly came to appreciate Charlie and what she's been through. It takes a good portion of the book to find out what she's hiding from and why she's hiding it from all of her friends. Give her story time to unfold and you won't be sorry. Then there is Reese, I won't say he was perfect, but he was a decent guy. He has his moments, but he's got his own baggage to deal with and he's quick to take the blame when he makes a mistake.

Charlie finds herself fired from her current job and heading back to the summer camp she used to work at in her teens. She is also heading back to the friend group she abandoned due to undisclosed reasons that she isn't ready to tell them yet. Charlie has been hiding from some fairly tragic and traumatic events that have occured in her life and she's only just beginning to try to get over them. With no job, she heads back to the friends that are more like family to try and mend fences and see if she can rebuild the friendships she once had. Fortunately her friend group is awesome and they welcome Charlie back with open arms as if she never left. They give her all the time she needs to tell them what happened and are there for her when she needs them as her story unfolds. What Charlie doesn't know is that the "campers" are just any regular campers, the camp has been rented out by her favorite NBA basketball team and her favorite player is also going to be there. Once Charlie stops fangirling enough to function, she and Reese strike up a friendship after she asks him a series of very odd questions. They fall into a fast and easy friendship finding comfort in each other as they both have some pretty unfortunate things happening in their lives. They quickly move from just friends to something more, and that something more progresses to meaning something. This was a bit of a slow burn romance but I really enjoyed how their relationship progressed.

I think Tijan really handled the very heavy issues discussed in this book with great care and respect.

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