Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Showstopper
SERIES: Vino & Veritas Book #17
AUTHOR: Regina Kyle
PUBLISHER: Heart Eyes Press
LENGTH: 226 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2021
BLURB:
I swore I wouldn’t do this again. Mix sports, school, and sex. But right now the only thing standing between me and the NHL is six feet of frenemy packed into a pair of formfitting jeans that have me thinking all kinds of things I shouldn’t. Mostly how to get him out of them.
I don’t just want Kolby. I need him. Because I’ve got to pass this theater class–yeah, I said theater–if I’m going to keep my spot on the team. When tutoring sessions turn into dates-not-dates over Shipley Cider at Vino and Veritas, I realize it’s going to be harder than I thought to keep my hands on my stick and off of Kolby. Worse, I think I might be falling for him. But I’m not ready for that. I want to keep this thing between us on the down low for now.
But Kolby hates secrets. Especially his own . .
REVIEW:
Occasionally, I come across a book that I enjoy but struggle to review. The words don’t come readily because I don’t have much to criticize. However, I also don’t feel I have much noteworthy to say. Regina’s Kyle’s Showstopper, the latest entry in the extensive Vino & Veritas multi-author series, has put me in precisely that quandary, and I can’t quite identify the source of my malaise.
Showstopper certainly provides a diverting M/M romance. Ms. Kyle is a new author to me and she clearly demonstrates solid writing chops. She gives us two well fleshed out male leads in Kolby and Adam, with plenty of dimension and complexity to explore.
Ms. Kyle provides an unusual meet-cute which serves as a good hook to pull the reader into the story. Adam, newly transferred to Moo U, desperately needs to drop the improv class he’s been assigned. Kolby, who works in the registrar’s office, handles his request but refuses to do so. Kolby says it’s not that he doesn’t want to help; he simply can’t because it’s the only class available. Adam, however, doesn’t believe him, assuming Kolby is passive-aggressively punishing him due to some prejudice he harbors against “pampered jocks”. Kolby does in fact presume Adam is a pampered jock. However, he also was in fact telling the truth when he told Adam he couldn’t switch the class.
From that rocky start, Kolby and Adam develop a frenemies to friends to lovers relationship progression that is well-paced and makes sense. Ms. Kyle creates a push-pull dynamic between Kolby and Adam that keeps their interactions lively and their relationship engaging. There’s just enough tension balanced with resolution to keep the reader satisfied. Some twists are built into the story, although nothing truly unpredictable.
We also see some oft-used patterns play out, like Adam and Kolby both struggling to read people correctly. Both have come out of toxic relationships and have suffered substantial consequences from the betrayal of their exes, men who were supposed to love them but turned their backs on them in devastating ways. Erosion of trust serves as a significant impediment to Adam and Kolby’s burgeoning romance. Ms. Kyle effectively weaves their respective struggles with that issue throughout the narrative.
As you can hopefully tell from my comments, there’s nothing ostensibly wrong with Showstopper. The story arc is fine. The romance is fine. The male leads are fine. It’s. All. Just. Fine.
The problem for me, and retrospectively likely the source of my reviewing malaise, is that I really craved more than just “fine”. Maybe that’s because this book comes as the second to last in an eighteen-book collection of stories derived from Sarina Bowen’s True North universe, and I’m experiencing some series fatigue. That of course is not Ms. Kyle’s fault. However, Showstopper’s position in the series lineup and simultaneous release with four other books in the series doesn’t do it any favors.
In my view, to overcome this, what Showstopper needed to deliver was something really different, remarkable, exceptional … something that would make it stand out from the sixteen other Vino and Veritas books that have been released. Stated differently, to be successful for me, Showstopper really needed to be a showstopper – and it wasn’t.
That being said, I’m just one voice reading this book under a certain set of circumstances that may not apply to you. Perhaps read as a true standalone, separated in time and space from the other series books, I may have experienced more engagement and excitement about it. This is precisely why Showstopper still receives a recommendation from me. Make no mistake, I did enjoy it. I suspect, however, you may enjoy it even more as YMMV.
RATING: 
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