Say You Swear

What's inside (7 sections)

1. That last summer in Oceanside
2. Freshman fall at Avix
3. Noah Riley changes the math
4. The heavier back half
5. The parts that bugged me
6. Key takeaways
7. FAQ

A friend handed this to me after I finished talking about college football romances that all blur together. She said this one hurt more than the others. I went in expecting something light. TikTok had pushed it as a swoony pick with a perfect book boyfriend, and the setup sounded familiar. Girl loves her brother's best friend for years. New guy shows up. Triangle time.

What I got was longer and sadder than I planned for. Say You Swear is Boys of Avix book one. It first came out in 2022 as an indie edition, the MB Publishing paperback runs 548 pages, and it follows Arianna Johnson into her freshman year at Avix University. I read it in big chunks because the early chapters move fast, then I had to put it down for a day in the middle because the grief parts land hard.

If you want the short version before we get into it: this is new adult sports romance with college parties, football pressure, and a friend group that acts more like family. It is open door, it has a love triangle that actually matters to the plot, and it deals with sudden loss. Check the warnings if that is tender for you.

That last summer in Oceanside

Arianna is eighteen when the book opens. She just graduated high school with her twin brother Mason. The two of them are close in that twin way where they can read a mood without a word. Their parents have a beach house in Oceanside, California, and the plan is simple. Spend one last summer there with the people they grew up with, then all head to Avix University in the fall.

The group is five. Arianna and Mason. Cameron, who is Arianna's best girl friend and the person she tells almost everything to. Brady, steady and funny, the kind of friend who tries to keep things light when tension spikes. And Chase Harper.

Chase matters a lot here. He moved into the neighborhood when he was twelve and folded right into the group. He is Mason's best friend. For Arianna, he has been the constant for years. She has built whole futures in her head around him. Not in a casual crush way. In a this is the person I will end up with way.

Brandy writes that summer with a lot of sun and nostalgia. Cookouts. Beach days. Everyone piled in the same house with no parents watching. You can feel why Arianna does not want it to end. College feels close enough to touch, and she is scared it will scatter them. She also thinks this is finally her window with Chase. She plans to tell him how she feels. That it is him. It has always been him.

One night on the beach, it happens. They sleep together. Arianna is thrilled. She thinks this is the start.

Then Chase pulls back. Fast. He says it was a mistake. He tells Mason nothing happened. He acts like he needs to protect the group by pretending it did not count.

That dismissal guts her. It is not only rejection. It feels like erasure. She has to walk around the same small house, eat at the same table, laugh at the same jokes, while carrying something huge that the other person refuses to name. I found those scenes uncomfortable in a real way. You know she should tell Cameron right away. You also get why she does not. Shame does weird things. She smiles when she wants to cry. She picks fights about small stuff because the big stuff feels too risky to say out loud.

Freshman fall at Avix

Avix University is a shift in texture. Dorms. New schedules. Football everywhere. Practices and parties and game day noise. The five are still around each other, but Arianna pulls away at first. She skips things. She begs off. She is terrified someone will look too long and see how wrecked she is over Chase.

Cameron notices, of course. Brady does too. They do not let her vanish completely. They drag her to the boys' football games. They get her to come out after. It is not done in a pushy way. It reads like people who love her and miss her and do not have the full story yet.

That is how Noah Riley comes back into her life.

She met him briefly near the end of summer at the beach. He is Avix's football captain and quarterback. Confident without being loud about it. The kind of guy who remembers what you said last time. At a bar one night, after some dancing and drinks, they end up talking for hours. Not flirting exactly. Talking. About stupid stuff and real stuff mixed together.

I liked this stretch. Noah does not push. He offers friendship when friendship is the only thing she can handle. He teaches her to cook. Small lessons in his place or hers, with mess and jokes and actual patience. He asks questions and listens to the answers. He shows up to things without making it a big deal.

For Arianna, that steadiness feels strange after Chase. Chase is all history and sparks and old dreams. Noah is present tense. He texts back. He notices when she goes quiet. He does not try to fix her in one speech. He just keeps a seat open for her.

Brandy tells most of this through Arianna in first person, which keeps everything close and raw. Some sections shift into Chase's point of view, and later into Noah's. I usually get annoyed by extra narrators, but here it helped me understand why Chase acts the way he does without excusing him. You see his loyalty to Mason. You see his fear about blowing up the group. You also see how selfish that fear can look from Arianna's side.

Noah Riley changes the math

Here is where I have to be honest about the triangle. I normally hate them. They often feel like a trick to stretch a thin plot. This one felt different because both connections carry weight.

Chase is first love in the truest sense. Kissing is only a small part of it. It feels like identity. Arianna has wanted him so long that wanting him feels like part of who she is. Letting go would mean admitting the future she pictured since she was a kid might not happen. That is scary at eighteen. It would be scary at any age.

Noah is something else. He wants more from the start, but he does not demand it. He is clear. He says what he feels. He backs it with actions. Rides. Meals. Time. Care when she is sick or tired or sad. He gets jealous sometimes, he is human, but he mostly tries to be fair. When she is still tangled up in Chase, he names it instead of pretending it is fine.

The tension spikes around Thanksgiving break. Chase confronts her and says he wants to be with her. After months of hot and cold. After telling Mason nothing happened. After watching her lean on someone else.

Arianna is already with Noah by then. Or getting there in a serious way. Her head spins. Part of her still lights up when Chase finally says the words she waited years to hear. Another part feels sick because the timing is terrible and the cost is clear. If she turns toward Chase, she hurts Noah. If she stays with Noah, she has to grieve the dream of Chase for good.

Noah sees them together and gets insecure. He wonders if she really wants him or if he is just the safe place while she waits for Chase to decide. They take time apart. I thought that break was well done. Not a fake breakup for drama. More like two people who need air because trust wobbles.

What makes it work is the history around them. This is not two strangers fighting over a girl. It is five people who grew up together. Every choice ripples. If Arianna picks one, the group feels it. If Chase keeps lying to Mason about what happened on the beach, the lie grows teeth. If Noah stays, he has to join a circle with deep roots and old jokes and land mines he did not plant.

Football adds pressure too. Noah happens to be the quarterback. People watch him. Coaches lean on him. Teammates look to him. He has to stay calm under lights while his personal life feels shaky. Brandy does a good job with those game day scenes without turning the book into a play by play manual. You get the noise and the nerves and the way a win can paper over a bad week for about an hour.

The heavier back half

I want to tread lightly here because spoilers hit harder in this section. The publisher copy warns that tragedy strikes, and that is true. There is sudden loss. There is grief that bends the whole story. The SuperSummary guide flags deaths, a car accident, and miscarriage discussion in the text, so please take that seriously before you start.

Without giving the specifics away, I can say the back half is about what happens when the path you thought was clear turns blurry. Arianna says early on that her future was clear and he was it. Then suddenly he was not. That line becomes more painful later. She feels like a shell of herself. She cannot see a way up. The friend group that used to feel easy now feels fragile.

Mason's role grows here. He is overprotective in a brotherly way that sometimes helps and sometimes smothers. He and Arianna are twins, so his blind spots frustrated me. How does he miss so much for so long? The book explains it as loyalty and denial and being a teenage boy with his own mess, and I bought some of that. Still, there were moments where I wanted to shake him.

Cameron and Brady hold a lot together. Cameron is fierce about Arianna. She calls out nonsense when she sees it. Brady brings humor without turning into comic relief. Their friendship feels lived in. Shared meals. Rides. Sitting with someone at the hospital or on a bad couch or in a quiet dorm room when words run out. Those small acts carry more weight than grand speeches.

The structure helps in this stretch. When we get Chase's view, his guilt sharpens. When we get Noah's view late, his fear sharpens too. He loves her. He is scared that love will not be enough if her heart still lives in the past. He fights for what they have, but not in a possessive way. More like he keeps showing up and telling the truth and hoping that counts.

A quick note on heat. This is open door new adult. There are explicit scenes between college students. They fit the ages and the relationships, and consent is clear. There is also drinking at parties, strong language, and a lot of crying. I cried twice. Once near the middle when Arianna finally says out loud what happened on the beach. Once near the end when the group has to face what cannot be undone.

The parts that bugged me

No book this long is perfect, and this one runs long in the middle. Brandy circles some of the same fights. Does she want Chase? Does she trust Noah? Can the group survive honesty? Those questions matter, but they repeat. I found myself skimming a few dorm room talks where I already knew the beats. Tell, retreat, cry, comfort, repeat.

The triangle will test your patience even if you buy it like I did. Arianna makes choices that hurt good people. She hides things from Cameron longer than she should. She lets Chase have access that he has not earned. She pulls Noah close then pushes him when fear spikes. It reads true for an eighteen year old in grief, but true does not always mean easy to sit with. If you hate back and forth, you will feel tired around the two thirds mark.

Mason took me out of it once or twice. For how in sync he and Arianna are, his late reaction to the beach secret felt slow. I get that denial is powerful. I get that Chase is his best friend and he does not want to see it. Still, twins who notice everything should notice this. That thread needed one more early hint to land fully for me.

The prose can get sweet to the point of syrup. Noah is written as steady and kind almost all the time. I loved him, do not get me wrong. But nobody is that composed during midterms and football season and girlfriend drama and grief. I wanted one messy flaw beyond loving too hard. Chase gets more edges, which makes him more annoying and more human at the same time.

So who should pick this up? If you like college sports romance with football, found family, slow burn that turns steamy, and big feelings, this will likely hit. Fans of The Deal or Icebreaker who want something sadder will find a lot to hold. If you need fast pacing, hate triangles, or want light escapism right now, wait for a steadier week. The grief is real here, not background color.

What stayed with me after I closed it was not a plot twist. It was smaller. Noah teaching her to cook without making her feel dumb about it. Cameron sitting close without demanding a full explanation. Brady trying to joke through a heavy night because that is what he knows how to do. Mason trying, late, to be the brother she needs. And Arianna learning that first love can last in memory even when it does not win in real life. That idea ached in a good way.

I am glad my friend pushed it on me. It is not a perfect book. It is a full one. Long, romantic, sad in spots, warm in others. I will keep going with Boys of Avix to see where Cameron and the rest land, but I needed a palate cleanser first. Something quiet. Then I will be ready to care about these people again.

FAQ

What is Say You Swear about?

It follows 18 year old Arianna Johnson starting at Avix University after a beach summer with twin brother Mason and friends Chase, Cameron and Brady goes wrong, then a slow bond with football quarterback Noah Riley changes her plans. It is Boys of Avix book one and ends with her central romance resolved.

When was Say You Swear published?

It was first released in 2022 as an indie edition, with the widely held MB Publishing paperback running 548 pages and ISBN 9781087945385. Bloom Books reissued it March 26, 2024 with 544 pages.

Is Say You Swear spicy and who is it for?

Yes, it is open door new adult romance with explicit scenes between college students, plus party drinking, strong language and heavy grief after sudden loss. It fits readers who want college football romance with found family and can sit with a love triangle.