Review: ☆The Hook Up☆ by @Kris10Callihan

The rules: no kissing on the mouth, no staying the night, no telling anyone, and above all… No falling in love

Anna Jones just wants to finish college and figure out her life. Falling for star quarterback Drew Baylor is certainly not on her to do list. Confident and charming, he lives in the limelight and is way too gorgeous for his own good. If only she could ignore his heated stares and stop thinking about doing hot and dirty things with him. Easy right?

Too bad he’s committed to making her break every rule…

Football has been good to Drew. It’s given him recognition, two National Championships, and the Heisman. But what he really craves is sexy yet prickly Anna Jones. Her cutting humor and blatant disregard for his fame turns him on like nothing else. But there’s one problem: she’s shut him down. Completely.

That is until a chance encounter leads to the hottest sex of their lives, along with the possibility of something great. Unfortunately, Anna wants it to remain a hook up. Now it’s up to Drew to tempt her with more: more sex, more satisfaction, more time with him. Until she’s truly hooked. It’s a good thing Drew knows all about winning.

All’s fair in love and football…Game on
4.5 Stars


Love, when it came for me, did not creep. No, it walked up to me, bold as you please, you know, just in case I wasn’t paying attention. It did, however, slap me upside my head.

If you’re looking for your next NA Romance that’s guaranteed to make you swoon, make you sweat, and make you smile, then you have definitely found your next read. Kristen Callihan is a new to me author, but will now be gracing my auto-buy shelf because she weaved a story that technically should have been ‘been there, read that’, yet managed to suck me in so thoroughly that I couldn’t bring myself to put it down.

Now if you’re a half-assed blurb reader and occasionally make assumptions like me, you probably read this:

The rules: no kissing on the mouth, no staying the night, no telling anyone, and above all… No falling in love.

and just assumed that this was referring to another man-whoring hero as opposed to the heroine. No? That was just me then? Well…this is awkward. But I digress…

Meet Anna Jones

Anna just wants to finish college and figure out what she wants to do with her life. She’s not looking for a relationship, and she tends to have a type…of the poetic and emo variety. So when the school’s football golden child and resident playboy starts sending her the lusty eyes, she wants none of it…or so she tells herself.

Meet Drew Baylor

Star quarterback, and the hot commodity on campus that can have any girl he wants without even trying…except Anna. Inexplicably drawn to the prickly redhead, Drew finds himself tongue tied and blushing whenever their cross path, and it certainly doesn’t help that Anna never spares any feelings to cut him down at the knees. He’s not her type, he gets it, he just can’t seem to stay away from her.

But chemistry like the one they have, can only be denied for so long, and when something burns that hot it’s bound to explode eventually, right?

What first begins as a scorching hot hookup, soon begins to develop into something so much more, something that Anna is not ready to face.


He’s slowly carving his name into my heart. And it hurts.

The author did an amazing job building a sexual and emotional tension and chemistry that is so palpable you can almost taste it. It’s not often when I’ll pick up a book where the MCs are going at it pretty much straight away, but that sexual tension continues to not only remain but build between them. The writing was that good.

Drew was such an endearing character, I fell for him straight off the bat. He wasn’t perfect, and he wasn’t at all what he seemed. He was not the asshole playboy that Anna assumes he was, he’s sweet and charming and at times his emotional struggles never failed to pull at every heart string I had.

Anna was a different story. This is a girl that due to her dysfunctional family dynamic avoids relationships as a rule…especially with guys like Drew. Throughout much of the book she attempts to keep him at arm’s length and with a very clear ‘hook up only’ label. But before she knows it, she begins to see the man beneath her initial assumptions, and she can’t help but start to fall for him.


Dizziness swamps me. There is no up or down, just Drew. I want to sink into him, drown in his touch.

I was not expecting this book to be as hot as it was, but the sex was never too much. The chemistry between Drew and Anna was absolutely sizzling, and the best part? It was like that every time they get together.


His mouth crashes into mine on the next breath. And my body goes supernova. His tongues slides deep, his lips bruise, and it feels so good that I moan behind it all. It’s always like this. I can’t get enough of him.

Their path to a real relationship was not easy and not without struggle, and I just gobbled it up. Luckily all of the emotion and angst was fitting and there was no manufactured drama that ever took away from the story. By the second half I was so invested in their relationship, I couldn’t bring myself to put the book down.

This is definitely a book I would recommend to any fans of the NA genre, and a series I can’t wait to continue with. Really looking forward to Gray’s book next. But don’t just take my word for it, read this book and find out for yourself what all the fuss is about. You won’t regret it, I promise.

ARC courtesy of author in exchange for an honest review

Kristen Callihan is an author because there is nothing else she’d rather do. She is a three-time RITA nominee, and winner of two RT Reviewer’s Choice awards. Her novels have garnered starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and the Library Journal, as well as being awarded top picks by many reviewers. Her debut book FIRELIGHT received RT Magazine’s Seal of Excellence, was named a best book of the year by Library Journal, best book of Spring 2012 by Publisher’s Weekly, and was named the best romance book of 2012 by ALA RUSA. When she is not writing, she is reading.

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