Review: Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd

Title: Loser of the Year

Author: Carrie Byrd

Length: 361 Pages

Category: Contemporary Romance

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Loser of the Year is a little sweet, a little spicy, and gave me a couple to cheer for when the going got tough.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Mattie Belman’s life has gone from dismal to desperate. After the loss of her acting career, her marriage, and her usual optimism, she’s back home teaching high school theater. Maybe it’ll be a fresh start.

St. Rita’s arrogant soccer coach Jillian Reed sees Mattie’s musical as an outrageous distraction for her champion players. When Jillian declares war, Mattie is far too stubborn to back down.

But as Mattie discovers there might be more to Jillian than spectacle, fire, and ego, she gets dangerously close to her iron-willed colleague. Can she avoid temptation? Or will the growing flame in Jillian’s dark eyes ignite them both?

Review: Ugh, this book is so adorable. As debuts go, it doesn’t break down barriers or reinvent any wheels, but it does give lots of feels—some conflicting, some sensitive, some shared, some sharp, some funny and some warm—as the relationship between Mattie Belman and Jillian Reed evolves.

Religion serves as an instigator and antagonist in Loser of the Year, and the fact of the matter is that there’s no guilt quite like holy guilt to shape a person into someone miserable. It’s sharpened who Jillian is from the moment she realized she wasn’t entirely straight, and so much of who she is projects outwardly from that place inside that whispers her feelings for and attraction to women isn’t moral.

That the story takes place at a Catholic girls’ school, with a morality clause built right into the staff’s code of ethics, gives Mattie no small amount of grief as her story unfolds. She’s out, has been for years, and going back into the closet at work for the sake of a steady paycheck becomes an internal conflict that eventually projects outward in rebellious ways as the school year progresses. Much to the benefit of her students, but not without consequences.

Whether they’re butting heads or sharing a moment of communion, watching Mattie make Jillian’s walls increasingly brittle gives some great emotional payoff. Jillian’s disaffection is largely a facade but make no mistake, her ego and arrogance are authentic. They also serve as armor that gradually becomes more transparent as Mattie challenges Jillian and endears herself to the bombastic soccer coach.

Loser of the Year is a little sweet, a little spicy, and gave me a couple to cheer for when the going got tough.