Cuffing Season is a contemporary romance novella by Luna Whitney. This holiday romance is about two long-time friends, Ava and Grayson, who have been tiptoeing around each other for too long, finally crossing that line into steamy territory. But was shaking the friendship foundation worth it for something that couldn’t possibly be anything more than a hookup?
I found it very hard to connect to Ava; she seemed the type of person who thought herself to be confident in herself but showed so much glaring insecurity that this couldn’t possibly be true—she just confused me regularly. It was abundantly clear that she didn’t know her worth from how much energy she spent on Scott, and I was glad Grayson pointed it out for me, the reader. The fact that after seventeen years of knowing Grayson, of him coming to her house every Christmas for dinner, and yet Ava still hadn’t learnt to be comfortable in his presence astounded me. She seems to revert to her high school mindset, thinking he’s out of her league due to his looks and personality, but in this regard, at least Grayson thinks the same way about Ava’s appearance and intelligence. The way this novella is written, at times it felt like I was reading Ava’s diary entries just with how her thoughts were expressed to the reader. At points, I started to actively dislike Ava for the way I knew Grayson was having to behave around her. The topics they discussed during pillow talk made it very clear his feelings for her, and he had to almost walk on eggshells scared he’d freak her out, so this angered me. I do understand that there was only one thing he could have said that she wanted him to say, but his actions and the other words he spoke to her made it very obvious his intentions were not to keep their relationship brief. Also, there was one point that made me pretty uncomfortable. Ava was almost stubborn, forcing herself through a section of spice; she wasn’t enjoying it, and yet she persisted when if she had said stop, he would have immediately. Even though she carried on, and she enjoyed the rest, I still felt a little off by the whole interaction. In spite of all of this one of my favourite things about this ‘smart’ character is that everyone knew that Grayson liked Ava, she has even been told this, and yet they were all waiting painfully for her to finally clock onto it as well.
Grayson has such a high opinion of Ava that no woman he could be with would measure up, so high of an opinion that he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of her, so he tries to be in his own quiet way. He’s truly such a good man. I loved the way he was honest with her, about how he felt, how he saw her, how he struggled to work her out, how he unfurled his emotions and desires, telling her to just say anything to stop it, one way or the other. And despite some of his cringe lines, he was honestly my favourite part of this whole novella, but I really could have done without half the dialogue in the spicy scenes and the role-play he had in mind. Grayson had a fairly late dyslexia diagnosis, so this was a key stemming part of the conversation of intelligence that is brought up throughout Cuffing Season, and while it made perfect sense, the word smart was used far too often for my liking. I loved it when he finally did lose his composure and was almost pleading for Ava to make him stop before he went too far. Despite how urgent the need was to go through with his desire, it was such a heated and emotionally pulling scene and the standout scene in the Cuffing Season for me. But this got tainted by how frustrated I became with both of them as the novella went on. It was clear to everyone that Grayson was all in; the things they both spoke about made it clear this was never going to be a hookup, but neither of them spoke the words when their time came to an end. I understand that from Grayson’s point of view, it needed to come from Ava, but I would have been happier if we never had to deal with the third-act break-up, even if it was brief.
Sadly, this was a very easy novella to rate, as I became increasingly unimpressed while reading Cuffing Season, it was only made lighter by having it be a buddy read. I did love Grayson’s personality traits, but I wasn’t too keen on Ava as a character so it being from her POV made it disappointing. Unfortunately, my main gripe with this book was the writing. I found it to be somewhat awkward: a lot of lines and scenes were cringeworthy, one topic became repetitive, and the spice took a very fast nose dive as well after the initial scene between them at her family home, with uncomfortable dialogue and role-play that I needed to skim through, and I found the characters started to frustrate me when it was very clear they both wanted to be together but neither of them was going to admit it first, and then finally a very predictable grand gesture ending. It was honestly such a shame because I could really see the potential for this novella; it touched on some really good topics, and that initial spice was so good! Therefore, I’m rating Cuffing Season Two out of Five stars.
If you are looking for a quick, friends-to-lovers holiday romance with some steam to it, Cuffing Season could be an easy choice. It holds two people who have tiptoed around the other, Ava completely blind to Grayson’s clear intent and Grayson struggling to find a way to impress her for so long, the longing desire to blur the lines between friends and give into a clawing desire knowing it can’t last long, the unravelling explanation of the distance that has separated them from drawing closer before now, and grand gestures times two. Cuffing Season touches on the topics of cheating and selfish lovers (past relationships), has a dyslexia representation, and whether inadvertently or not Luna Whitney briefly drops Ava into subspace.
Favourite Quotes
“I have realized modern dating is a hell that Dante himself was not unfortunate enough to experience.”
– loc 76
““Because whenever I look at you, I can’t stop.””
– loc 280
“”Tell me something. Tell me anything. Just set me free from not knowing.””
– loc 348
““If I can’t have you entirely, nothing less will be enough. So, it doesn’t matter.””
– loc 358
Finer Details:
Title: Cuffing Season
Author: Luna Whitney
Pages: 111
Publisher: Luna Whitney
Publication: 2023
Language: English
Rating: 2/5