Review: Tussle

Tussle by Jacob Chance
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jacob Chance is an author to have popped up on my radar a handful of times, yet I was never overly inclined to grab any of the books. Sure, they interested me – however, there were books that interested me a lot more. When I saw Tussle was labelled as a sports romantic comedy, I decided to take the jump – both sports and romcoms appeal to me, so I thought this would be just my thing.

Although I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t quite what I had been hoping for. I kept turning pages, I couldn’t wait to see how everything came together, and yet I was left with the feeling that I had wanted more. Not just in the usual sense of being addicted to a book and wanting to spend more time with the characters, but also in the sense that I wish there had been more to the story than what we were given.

I’m not sure what it was exactly, but I felt as though something was missing with this one. We had an interesting storyline, yet I never really felt the connection to the characters and their story as I had hoped. I was enjoying the events, but I felt as though I was at a distance. I much prefer it when I feel the emotions alongside the characters, but in this one I felt a step removed. I’m not sure why I did not connect with them, I’m unsure as to why I was never sucked into their story to the level I had hoped, but there was something preventing me from slipping completely under the spell of this one.

It doesn’t help that I feel as though the romantic comedy label was false advertisement. There were a couple of moments that got a smile from me, but there were no belly chuckles like I usually expect from romcoms. I’ve read books without the romcom label that have had me laughing a lot more than this one. I feel without the label, had it simply been labelled a sports romance, I would have been much happier.

I will certainly tip my hat at Jacob Chance for choosing wrestling as the sport of choice, as it is not something I have read before. I’m not a fan of wrestling, but it was a nice change from the usual sports you find within this genre. It allowed for different interactions to what we are used to, a different approach to the sports romance genre. It was certainly a nice change to the usual.

Overall, this wasn’t quite what I had been anticipating. However, it has left me intrigued about the author’s other work – it’s more than possible I will pick up more Jacob Chance in the future.

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