Rating: 👍🏻

I have to admit I was skeptical going into this one. And it’s not because golf isn’t an attractive sport (though it’s not, and I 100% stand by that). Instead it’s because—while Tessa Bailey used to be an auto-read author for me—I’ve found that some of her books do not hold up to a re-read. (For instance, I first rated It Happened One Summer 5 stars, but after rereading it for book club a year later, I updated my rating to 3 stars.)

But I put Fangirl Down on hold at the library back in July (Disability Pride Month) after finding out the heroine has type 1 diabetes. While we don’t share an illness, I love reading disability rep done well in books—and I think Bailey pulled that off here.

The tl;dr here is that Josephine Doyle is Wells Whitaker’s number 1—and maybe only—fan, even though he’s been self-sabotaging his golf game the last few years. After he has a big whiny man baby meltdown on the golf course and quits the Tour, she abandons him to deal with her own problems: namely, the fact that her family’s struggling golf club business thing is literally underwater (thanks to a hurricane) and she didn’t have flood insurance. So when Wells shows up and asks her to caddy for him, she can’t turn him down. And yeah, the rest goes as you’d expect a sports romance to go.

I had two main issues with this one. First off, Wells is, as already stated, a giant man baby who needs to get his shit together, but that’s kind of the point of the story. I was ultimately able to forgive some of his shortcomings thanks to his character growth, but I definitely don’t think he deserved Josephine. Though I think he’d agree on that note.

Second, and one of the reasons I am unsure of Bailey’s books these days, the dirty talk was a bit cringe at some points. Bailey likes to write overly obsessed heroes (which I can get on board with) who have very dominant bedroom language—even when it doesn’t make sense for the character imo. I did think Wells made sense as dominant in the bedroom, but I did find myself forcibly suspending my disbelief at some of the things that came out of that man’s mouth. While some other reviewers point to the butt stuff scene (because there is one, and not in the way you’d expect), I was unbothered. It’s not for me, but I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum.

Josephine made this book for me. I loved her. She was sweet and held her ground. I loved the reveal (mild spoiler) that she had a better swing than Wells. And while I haven’t had the same experience as her with disability, I did appreciate her journey of not wanting to be known as a sob story or as inspiration for doing things despite her t1 diabetes.

I also laughed a lot in this one, and I appreciated so much that the jokes were not at the expense of Josephine. I feel like some rom-coms find their humor in humiliating the heroine at every turn, and this was not the case here.

So, yeah: funny, heartfelt, and just a good time. I still think golf is boring as hell, but it was also refreshing to have a new sport enter the mix.