Content note: This review discusses a novel that deals with childhood sexual abuse. Major spoilers are flagged before they appear.
There are times you pick up a book and judge it, quite literally, by its cover.
I picked up Nyla K’s For The Fans expecting something trashy – dare I say, basic. An enemies-to-lovers romance with every trope in the playbook and a modern-day OnlyFans twist.
In many ways, that is exactly what it is.
But somewhere along the way – and I honestly can’t tell you when – I realised this book is far more complex and clever than I ever gave it credit for.
The set-up
First published on February 23, 2023, For The Fans is a standalone MM romance that has since racked up close to 100,000 ratings on Goodreads, where it sits at 4.28 stars.
It follows Avi Vega, a perpetually smiling artist and stoner from Brooklyn, and Kyran Harbor, a preppy, brooding quarterback, who meet at 15 when Avi’s mum starts dating Kyran’s dad.
The hostility is instant. Their parents marry, the boys end up sharing a house and a bathroom, and Kyran spends high school making Avi’s life miserable.
Both land at Boston College, where Kyran leads the football team and Avi, in a detail I adore, signs up as the team mascot, Baldwin the Eagle.
Then the family’s finances collapse. Neither can pay for campus housing, Kyran’s football future is suddenly on the line, and Avi has a plan.
“Maybe we can stop hating each other just enough to pull this off,” the book’s blurb reads. “As long as we remember we’re only doing it… for the fans.”
READ MORE: Starting Fake Out: the origin story of Eden Finley’s Fake Boyfriend series
Yes, the premise is a lot
Stepbrothers turned OnlyFans stars turned lovers does sound like it came straight out of a SeanCody.com “plotline”. Avi adopts the username @backwardz_cap and Kyran uses @Not_Your_Baby.
The chemistry on the page between these two makes you forget about the gimmick.
Nyla K writes desire in a way that feels physical. Avi and Kyran crave each other’s smell. They radiate lust, and then, almost before either of them clocks it, love.
Be warned: this is a very spicy book, and there is a lot of it. The surprise is how much work those scenes do. Although the boys use the word ‘orgasm’ a lot, and I can’t help but feel like that isn’t a word most men use.
The camera gives Kyran, who has built his whole identity on control, permission to let go. Their subscribers can see what is happening between them long before they can.
I felt their deep hatred turn into something else, and by the end I was completely invested.
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The depth I wasn’t expecting
Underneath the premise is a story about new family dynamics, loss and sexual awakening.
Avi lost his father at six, and his easygoing, nothing-bothers-me act turns out to be armour. Kyran’s perfectionism is armour, too.
Spoiler warning: the next three paragraphs reveal a major plot point.
Late in the book, after Kyran wins the Rose Bowl, his sister tells Avi what happened to him at 12: he was sexually abused by a priest, and their father silenced it with settlement money.
It reframes everything that came before it, including why Kyran hated Avi so much to begin with.
What I appreciated is that love doesn’t magically fix him. Kyran leaves, starts therapy and makes his father say the truth out loud before he comes back to Avi.
Spoilers end.
For readers who came to MM sports romance through Heated Rivalry, or more specifically: Australian author Eden Finley, the NFL-bound quarterback will feel like familiar territory. The emotional weight will not.
READ MORE: ‘I’ll Believe in Anything’: The Heated Rivalry making-of book fans have been yearning for
What other readers think
I’m not alone. Book blog Swoon gave it five out of five, with the reviewer writing that she restarted the book the moment she finished it.
It is not universally loved. The most common complaint on Goodreads and StoryGraph is the length. With more than 700 pages in print with some arguing it could lose a couple of hundred pages.
I agree; the book is much longer than I was expecting. But I flew through it. Eager to spend as much time with Avi and Kyran as possible.
The Nyla K question
I’m new to Nyla K, who describes her own work as dark, taboo and boundary-pushing.
She isn’t exaggerating. Her earlier novel Double-Edged, billed as a taboo MMM romance, has drawn fierce criticism online, including a Reddit thread titled “Please don’t read Double-Edged by Nyla K”.
Nyla K’s website also notes that Double-Edged has been banned, and can only be purchased from her official store.
Her defenders argue these are clearly labelled dark romances written for adults who know what they are picking up.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’d need to read Double-Edged to understand where she is coming from.
For The Fans is a different proposition. It carries a foreword warning, and readers should heed it.
The verdict
It is beautifully written, and far more clever than a book about two young OnlyFans stars has any right to be.
I came for the trashy premise. I’m leaving a huge shipper of Avi and Kyran.