Review for Swim Partner by Ariela Vaughn

When Maggie Taylor’s swim partner abandons her in the pool, a handsome university swim team member steps up to fill the position. As Paul Fisher’s attraction to Maggie grows, so does his admiration for her determination to overcome the physical challenges she faces due to an auto accident. Will their attraction for each other be enough to keep them together, or will Paul’s athleticism extinguish Maggie’s hope for love?

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As a disabled person I'm always on the lookout for books featuring characters with physical impairments. Upon reading this synopsis I had high hopes for this story but was ultimately left wanting more.  Maggie is still trying to recover from an accident that has left her with a limp and debilitating back spasms. Swimming becomes her best form of therapy and it's by random chance that she meets handsome swimmer, Paul.  They immediately hit it off and what follows is a sweet romance that ends with a kiss and a HEA.  

While the heroine dealt with her physical impairments admirably it would've been nice to have a deeper understanding of her travails.  The view we get is a very superficial one that didn't arose much empathy in me. Maggie is supposed to be in college but I found her to be very naive.  Her interactions with Paul felt like two teenagers dating so their kissing and hand holding seemed very appropriate.  A misunderstanding late in the story came out of nowhere and felt silly, as did Maggie's juvenile reaction to it.

Peter acted more his age thankfully.  He was the perfect gentleman who looked past her scars and impairment to see her kindhearted nature.  Where I saw her as immature he was clearly more adultlike with a believable personality for a college student.

Once the final page was turned, I was left feeling disappointed.  I was hoping for a more realistic view of a disabled person and got Pollyanna.  The heroine was too young at heart to be believable and therefore how she dealt with her impairment never rang true for me or left any impact on the reader.

My rating for this is a C.

*I bought this book with my own money for my personal library.