Genre: Contemporary, Sports
LGBTQ+ Category: Lesbian
Reviewer: Estora
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About The Book
Rumor Has It is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance about fake dating, real feelings, and the chaos of falling for the last person you should.
Riley Carter has one rule: stay away from Jordy Bennet. The star basketball player with a bad reputation and a grin for every situation is the exact kind of disaster Riley avoids. But when a viral Instagram post forces them into the spotlight—as a couple—Riley agrees to fake date Jordy on one condition: no feelings, no drama, and definitely no falling in love.
Jordy’s used to rumors. She’s built her entire reputation on not caring what anyone thinks—until Riley. Until the girl who knows her too well starts to see through the act. And suddenly, pretending doesn’t feel so pretend anymore.
With tutoring sessions, shared secrets, and a spark they can’t seem to shake, Riley and Jordy are walking a very fine line between faking it and feeling everything.
The Review
Riley Carter has spent her entire high school career avoiding Jordan “Jordy” Bennett, the hot lesbian basketball champion who humiliated her at a pool party 6 years ago. But when she’s tasked with tutoring Jordan in Biology so that Jordan’s prospects for a basketball scholarship aren’t threatened by a bad grade, she has no choice but to allow the infuriatingly hot athlete into her life, and is forced to realise that her assumptions about Jordan’s unserious playgirl reputation might not be correct. When a bitter ex of Jordan makes a viral post on Instagram that Jordan and Riley are dating, Jordan and Riley agree to lean into the ruse to protect both their reputations. The fake dating very quickly becomes real, but both Jordan and Riley are in denial about their feelings for each other – even when things get hot and physical. And when I say hot, I mean HOT.
Rumor Has It is Jasmine Simone’s debut novel, and it is a fascinating read in how it draws on the stereotypical straight jock-and-nerd fake-dating romance genres only to transform it entirely by making it queer. Jordan being a butch lesbian with a playgirl reputation instead of a male playboy jock was so much fun to read, because it established a sense of normalised queerness in the world. She’s an out and proud lesbian and no one seems to have an issue with it. She’s got a reputation for being a player, but in order to have a shot at a college scholarship for basketball, she has to show the recruiters that she’s serious, and that involves a serious romance after a slanderous lie told by a one-night-stand girlfriend. The fact that this is so easily accepted by college reps, school students, friends, and family without any hint of homophobia was a breath of fresh air.
What follows is a burning hot romance between Jordan and Riley, who go from being semi-enemies to forced associates to friends to fake girlfriends to lovers. There are some supporting plotlines involving Riley’s emotionally absent mother and physically absent father, including a harrowing scene where her mother strikes her, and Jordan’s emotionally unavailable parents who failed her when her twin brother died 6 years prior to the start of the story. I wish these elements were given more weight, as I feel they deserved more focus for the characters and their journey – or cut out entirely, as ultimately these backstories were hastily resolved at the eleventh hour
However, where the story truly shines is undoubtedly in Jordan’s and Riley’s shared scenes as they get to know each other. The chemistry between Jordan and Riley started off a bit juvenile for my tastes, but as they spent more time together and started to fall for one another, I came to enjoy their dynamic and undeniable physical attraction – and the extremely hot (and explicit!) love scenes between them.This isn’t a complex story, and that’s OK. Sometimes one is in the mood for something with low stakes and a straightforward plot and a lot of sex and heat. if you’re looking for a sizzling hot and raunchy lesbian romance where the stakes are low, the emotions are high and the smut is scorching, Rumor Has It by Jasmine Simone is the read you’re after.
The Reviewer
Estora is a long-time reader and writer of LGBT+ speculative fiction.
