Settle the Score

Settle the Score cover

RELEASE DATE: 13 August 2024

Lost goals make way for new dreams. Two enemies must face their cold past and find new warmth in this wintry, forced proximity rom-com from Kris Ripper, author of Book Boyfriend.

Aspiring investigative reporter Des Cleary had dreams of a better world—one more accepting of people like him—when he broke the story of Orion Broderick’s relationship. A story that kicked Orion out of the soccer halls of fame and sent him careening into obscurity. Racked with shame, Des abandoned his own career for good.

Now working at an LA marketing firm, Des gets a daunting assignment: recruit Orion for a Pride campaign aiming to get LGBTQI+ kids into sports. But this is no shot at redemption—how could Des ever make up for what he’s done?

Des finds Orion’s cabin in the snowcapped mountains. His strategy? Keep it professional and get out quick. Nature has other plans. Snowed in together, Des and Orion have a chance to address past wrongs and lost goals. Time and shame have changed them both, but winter has a way of clearing the way for fresh beginnings.

The heart of this book is that Des publicly outed Orion three years before the beginning of the book. I totally get if that’s a trigger! It’s a trigger for me as well, which is one of the reasons I felt so compelled to explore the idea of building a relationship of any kind with someone you have profoundly wronged–or by whom you’ve been profoundly wronged.

I have also been a young, dumb activist queer, and older-me feels very differently about so many hills younger-me would have gladly died on, and felt heroic for doing so. Thankfully I lived long enough to recognize the complexity of a world that pits marginalized folks against each other and keeps the people in power at the top…

There’s also not nearly enough actual soccer. Sorry, soccer folks!

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