The Ex Games by Jennifer Echols

The Ex Games by Jennifer Echols
"Brace yourself for the battle of the exes....

Hayden and Nick used to be a hot item, but their brief affair ended with a highly publicized breakup. Now the two are "just friends," excluding the occasional flirtation.

When Hayden wins the girls' division of a local snowboarding competition, Nick is unimpressed, claiming that Hayden wouldn't have a chance against a guy. Hayden calls Nick's bluff and challenges him to a head-to-head boarding contest. Their mutual friends quickly take sides, the girls on Hayden's and the boys on Nick's, making for an all-out battle of the sexes. This friendly competition is bound to get heated -- and they might end up igniting some old flames."- summary from Amazon

Echols has written yet another amazing book, which is really no surprise seeing as how amazing her previous books were, particularly Going Too Far. What I love about her RoCom books is that they're always much more than just strictly RoComs. The stories and characters have depth and there is always some big drama happening (not of the petty kind though). In this book, Echols takes on gender roles in sports and does an amazing job with talking about the issue without becoming preachy or hitting you over the head with it. Hayden is a great, multi-faceted character and I loved reading about her life. Her friends are hysterical and I loved reading their interactions.

The romance is, of course, absolutely amazing; lots of books have love/hate relationships between the MC and his/her love interest, but she manages to take it to the next level and I felt like this romance was even more sizzling than others similar to it. Nick is way hot, and I want him to be mine (and also be real, lol). At one point, I even shook my fist at the book because several times throughout the book, it looks like they'll get together and then something goes wrong and it all blows up and then they hate each other again. I got so invested in these characters and hated to see the romance be ruined for a little bit by a little incident. The ending though was really great and I absolutely loved it. This is a perfect book to be reading while sitting next to the fire as the days start getting colder.