In this story we have two rivals competing in a trivia competition with plenty of snarky banter and spice. It’s perfect for readers like me who love romcoms and trivia shows.

Theodore Ferguson III (Teddy) Teddy is a professor of geography and geoscience at MIT. He first meets Maxine Hart at the backstage of the Answers trivia show (think Jeopardy) when she is asked to come in a day early as an alternate for the show. They talk backstage and their flirty banter is hot. Teddy goes on stage and she gets to see him in action – he’s won three straight weeks in a row and is the ranked second best player ever. They find each other after Teddy wins at the hotel bar for a drink and their taunts are so flirtatious, Teddy is more interested in Maxine than studying. She shares with him that she has ADHD and believes it gives her superpowers for competing. When he realizes she never went to college, he thinks he can beat her easily the next day when they are slated to compete against each. She is attracted to nerds and adores his suspenders, glasses, and English accent, and they share a kiss. The next day, Maxine not only beats him but continues on to beat his cash record of $2.6 million. Teddy is embarrassed and humiliated.

One year later, Maxine is in Dino’s her favorite bar and hiding from her trivia friends. She plays on a bar trivia team, the Factual Fanatics. They are all there to watch her compete at an Annual Answers tournament held each year where the top winners for the year compete. It’s pretaped and her teammates don’t know that she didn’t win because she is too embarrassed to tell them. Teddy won and she is humiliated. She is surprised when Teddy shows up at Dino’s and asks her to play in an Ultimate Answers Tournament where the top winners of all time will compete which happens in five weeks. He tells her, being on the show isn’t as fun for him unless she competes and that the producer says they are the greatest rivalry in the history of the show and everyone wants her back. She agrees but asks Teddy to train with her. They decide to become training partners and it gets steamy! Things heat up as they study maps and there’s even a spicy hot parachute scene – this is my first time ever seeing that!

Maxine is really snarky, especially when she’s trying to get Teddy riled up, which she does so well. There were times when I thought she took it over the top but Teddy doesn’t seem to mind so I went along with it. We see the impact ADHD has on her studying, her life and experiences, and how they both have creative ideas to help each other prepare. The pacing slowed down when they were studying and I felt inundated with trivia at times but then something would happen to liven things back up and it was all great fun. The humor is top notch.

Each chapter starts with a trivia question that went along with what was happening in the chapter which added to the fun. The side characters are wonderful, especially Maxine’s trivia partners and her sister Olive, a med student and her biggest supporter. I think readers that enjoy spicy romcoms and trivia will enjoy this fresh, quirky story. It’s a winner!