About the Book

JADE Jennings is tired of her day-to-day life—from the boring, senseless boys at Dayton U to the repetitive beats her editor assigns. She's looking for excitement, novelty, a good story to sink her teeth into, and a boy she can write home about.

She's a driven and ambitious journalist, and she has an innate love for the game of football. She's also the younger sister to an NFL superstar, which means she's not interested in the aimless, student-athletes at her school.

But maybe, for entertainment purposes, she could spend just one night trying them on for size.

THEO Westman-Cooke, aka "West," has one goal in this life: to be drafted into the NFL. But his coach doesn't support an early declaration, his grades (and scholarship) are slipping, and he only has one more year to make his college career count for something.

Oh, wait.

There is one other thing that West might want—a chance to spend the night with his favorite red-headed cheerleader. When the opportunity suddenly strikes, it's nearly impossible to pass up the perfect trade.

In just a few months, Dayton U's football team is hosting their annual spring banquet. The catch? Players must go home with another teammate's date. To the rest of the team, it's a simple, secret trade. But for Jade and West, it's the night that everything changed.

Review

Three books in and I’m starting to realize that Ki Stephens will never have a book that completely blows me away. Like with Spring Tide and Fault Line, The Trade left me feeling confused. Because I think I liked the book, but it’s a very neutral liking to it. I don’t have this strong hatred for it, and I enjoyed parts of it.

For example, I liked the characters. West wasn’t some stereotypical jock, and that’s something quickly introduced to readers within his first chapter. I didn’t necessarily love that he was the one who had issues communicating but in the concept of the story, I think it worked. And the miscommunication didn’t bother me. I do think he was more developed than Jade. Readers are constantly told she’s so funny and sarcastic, but there is really any moment for her to shine. I did enjoy her reporter arc, and I found that to be a little bit more interesting to read than her romance with West. But she wasn’t a bad character. I liked reading in her POV.

Final Thoughts

The Trade has interesting ingredients, but I personally felt like they hadn’t been mixed well. It had likable characters, but at times their special qualities were told rather than shown.

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