Book Review: Dethroning Crown - Lila Felix

Title: Dethroning Crown

Author: Lila Felix

Synopsis from Goodreads:   

Number ten is plastered on his team jersey and on his ego. In his own mind, Crown Sterling is the shit. He dates the prettiest women, he dominates on the soccer field, he pours money out of his pockets like it’s water. Until a debilitating knee injury puts him out of commission on and off the field. He’s sent to an isolated town in Louisiana to recoup, undergo physical therapy and heal. But it’s when you’re down that you find out who your real friends are, and what they value in you, if anything at all.

All Lyra wants out of life is peace and quiet. She grew up with a regular, everyday family. When she turned sixteen, rummaging through her grandmother’s hope chest in the attic, she discovered a secret that would turn her simple, normal life into a ball of chaos that revolved around her. But while she seems to face her fears head on in her career, she lives a life that’s secure and well hidden.

A new neighbor moved in next door and he’s decided that everyone needs to listen to his rap music, shattering Lyra’s quiet existence. Enraged, she stomps to the next townhouse over and who should open the door but a man whose good looks and charming smile knock her breathless.

How good looking? Just ask him.

How charming? He’ll tell you that too.

The king must be dethroned.

And a small town girl who’s been through hell is just the one to do it.

My Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dethroning Crown,  so much that if I had the time I probably would have read it all in one sitting.  When I first started the book I wasn't sure I was ever going to actually be able to like Crown by the end of the story; he was just too much ego and honestly, silly with entitlement issues, but as aspects of his life are revealed and you start to understand him, he is easy to fall for.   His sensitive side was wildly attractive. (And honestly, any time you pair a guy with a kitten, even for a short time, it's bound to be attractive. But that's just my opinion).  Lyra was such a sweet person even from the onset, I was ready for great things to happen for her right away.  So basically, these two characters got under my skin and I wanted to make them my friends.

I loved that the heat between Crown and Lyra was a growing process throughout the book and that the characters were not pinning for each other within the first few chapter.  Lyra and Crown may have appreciated each other's appearances from the start, but anything beyond that had to be cultivated, they had to learn to like each other before there was anything more.  The supporting characters helped out a lot with this too,  especially on Crown's side, as he was figuring out his life and the fact that he was basically a big ball of arrogant soccer player, and that was about it.  There was also Lyra's fears to work out and understand, and ienjoyed how even though we knew the reason why Crown was who he was pretty quickly, Lyra's whole story came out and bits and pieces.  All of these things made this story of two people that, from a distance should seem bigger than life, just regular people with issues that needed to be fleshed out.

Rated:  PG-13; Mild cussing, some sensuality but mostly clean

Genre: New Adult - Romance

Rating:  5 Stars