The Striker by Ana Huang

Here is a summary with spoilers for The Striker by Ana Huang

Asher Donavan, famous football player, recently changed teams mid-year and is now playing for the Blackcastle Football Club. One problem: the captain of the team, Vincent DuBois, hates him. Their feud has gone on for years, and the two are constantly trying to one-up each other. Their feud finally catches up to them when, during the final match of the season against Asher’s old team, Vincent doesn’t pass the ball and the Blackcastle team loses. Frank Armstrong, their coach, has had enough—they are to start cross-training together during the off-season. Their classes will be taught by Scarlett DuBois, Vincent’s sister. That night, at drinks with the team, Asher meets a cute girl, but she instantly turns him away, making him want her even more. The next morning, he finds that the girl is Scarlett DuBois.

Scarlett DuBois is now a former prima ballerina, still haunted that her career was cut short, but happy that she can still teach. She is not excited to spend her summer with two football players, even if one is her brother. When Asher arrives, he immediately starts flirting with her, but she has a past with football players and has no interest in going down that road again.

During one of their sessions, Vincent gets a call—he needs to go back and take care of his father for the summer, leaving Asher and Scarlett to train together. However, paparazzi are constantly following Asher, and one gets into the building. Asher decides to build a fancy ballet studio in his home so they can continue in peace. One day during their break, the two go outside, and somehow paparazzi manage to get a picture of them together. Asher takes him down and gets rid of the picture. As Scarlett is hiding in the house, they get the news that roads are closed due to a flood, and the two spend their first night together.

The next few weeks go back and forth between the two; both of them start to have feelings for each other and even decide to just be friends. It even gets to the point where they go on a double date just to make the other jealous. That all changes when Asher finally makes a move on her and they end up sleeping together. Though they don’t get to talk about it because Asher’s father has a heart attack, they both go to his hometown to see how he is doing. This is when Asher tells Scarlett about his rocky relationship with his father, which is why he left his old team, making his dad even more upset.

The two decide to give it a non-committal try for the summer, leading to both of them falling for each other hard. Vincent ends up returning a few weeks before the start of the season, cutting their time short, and they have to decide how to tell Vincent that they have been dating. Before they decide that, Asher takes Scarlett to Japan on a work trip, and the two become official. Asher promises to never street race again, as that is how Scarlett got in a car crash and could not dance again.

They decide not to tell Vincent for a while, as both Asher and Vincent are finally getting along, especially when they both start a fight against Scarlett’s ex who left her while she was in recovery. Everything changes, though, when Scarlett pushes her body and ends up passing out. Her friends call Asher, and even though it is right before a match against his old team, he goes straight to the hospital. The paparazzi find out and let the news fly. After the match, Vincent shows up, and the two fight, although they eventually make up and agree they just want Scarlett to be happy.

Things start to calm down for the pair of them, although Vincent’s old team has started a nasty war between their teams. It ends up leading to one of his old teammates goading Asher into a street race. Scarlett finds out about it when a tabloid says that Asher crashed. She runs to the hospital, and even though he is alive and relatively okay, she can’t believe he broke his promise and breaks up with him.

Asher’s week gets worse when Frank, the coach, calls him in and benches him until further notice—until he gets his act together. It takes a visit from Asher’s father to finally get him back in shape and start figuring out how to come back from it.

Asher decides that his actions all go back to a certain memory, and it makes him crave the adrenaline of skirting the line with his life. So, in a show of faith for Scarlett, he gives away every single one of his cars to each of his teammates and purchases a new one that is all safe, just for her. The two get back together, and eventually Frank lets him back on the field.

The team ends up winning the season against Asher’s old team, and the two are just happy to be living together and enjoying life.