She expected to start Harkness College as a varsity ice hockey player. But a serious accident means that Corey Callahan will start school in a wheelchair instead.

Across the hall, in the other handicapped-accessible dorm room, lives the too-delicious-to-be real Adam Hartley, another would-be hockey star with his leg broken in two places. He’s way out of Corey’s league.
Also, he’s taken.

Nevertheless, an unlikely alliance blooms between Corey and Hartley in the “gimp ghetto” of McHerrin Hall. Over perilously balanced dining hall trays, and video games, the two cope with disappointments that nobody else understands.

They’re just friends, of course, until one night when things fall apart. Or fall together. All Corey knows is that she’s falling. Hard.

But will Hartley set aside his trophy girl to love someone as broken as Corey? If he won’t, she will need to find the courage to make a life for herself at Harkness — one which does not revolve around the sport she can no longer play, or the brown-eyed boy who’s afraid to love her back.

Review

Sarina Bowen writes great characters, wonderful plots and achey romance.

New adult with real stakes instead of crazy sauces is well done here.

The hero and the heroine become friends first, fall in love, and then it takes a while before they are an item. 

he hero isn't perfect in terms of his own level of self reflection and heroine is dealing with the major life change of her injury.

It is a really wonderful romance in a awesome setting.

Given the chance to feel touch for the first time, she sacrifices her body for eternity in the arms of an immortal.

Gala suffered from lack of nerve response and had lived her life numb. Her lifetime was spent looking for damage to her body or avoiding it. When you can’t feel your limbs, anything can happen.
Given the chance to gain a sense of touch by giving her body to a planet for occupation, she becomes the Avatar of Rekfa without hesitation.
Rekfa shares her body and convinces her that she needs to seek out her own sense memories in whatever form they come.
Arez has been waiting for a mate of his own, and the Avatar is as close as he can come in this lifetime. He offers himself to her and is amazed when she takes him up on his offer to teach her what seduction can feel like when both parties are focused on the outcome.

Review

This quiet Science Fiction Romance does a lot of lovely things in just a few pages. It explores the condition of s congenital analgesia- the inablity to feel pain or sensation from birth.

The heroine trades her body to be an Avatar for a planet in exchange for the feeling of touch.

I think that gaining sensation might be more overwhelming than what is portrayed (the mind of planet likely protects her) but the emotionial and physical journey of the heroine is compellling as is the worldvuilding a love story.

A goodread!