The Piece That Fits by N.J. Gray
Is The Piece That Fits by N.J. Gray Worth Your Time? A Brutally Honest Review of This Spicy Romance Gone Sideways
If you’ve stumbled upon The Piece That Fits by N.J. Gray and are wondering if it’s worth your time, here’s the truth: it’s a quick, spicy read, but don’t expect good writing or emotional realism.
But if you’re after something light and steamy, it might work for you.
Let’s break it down.
Genre: New Adult Romance with a heavy dash of trauma, angst, and enemies-to-lovers tension.
Meet Avery.
Avery is a trauma-ridden young woman who’s been through more than most: a devastating car accident that killed her father, an overbearing mother who wants to control every part of her life, and an emotionally distant brother who resents her for reasons she never fully understood..
With Danny off chasing his music dreams and labeled the family rebel, Avery felt pressured to become the “perfect” daughter—the one who follows the rules, makes no mistakes, and stays on the path her mother designed.
But deep down, it’s not the life she wants.
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Now in medical school, when Avery’s relationship with her boyfriend ends, she has nowhere else to go and ends up moving in with her brother Danny and his bandmates.
The last person she expects to see there is Liam—Danny’s best friend and the guy who made her life miserable back in high school.
Now, under the same roof, the chemistry between Avery and Liam is undeniable.
Meet Danny
Danny, Avery’s older brother, has always struggled with feeling “less than” compared to his little sister.
Avery seemed to excel at everything—school, music, you name it—while Danny always felt like he was falling short.
Danny always felt like their parents, especially their mother, loved Avery more.
After their father’s death, Danny spiraled.
The family’s focus was on Avery—still recovering from the car accident—and no one really paid attention to him.
He started drinking and using drugs, and the only person who seemed to care was Liam, his best friend.
His mother criticized him as being “selfish” at a time when the family needed to be strong, which pushed him further away.
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Eventually, Danny left home to pursue his own music career, following the dream their father had always wanted.
Danny stayed in touch with Avery, but their relationship was more about the “brother-sister” label than genuine closeness.
When Avery ends up moving in with him, he offers her a place to stay but clearly sets boundaries.
He doesn’t want her interfering with the band or the music because it’s one area where he can’t be outshone—or maybe he just fears she would outshine him.
Throughout the story, Danny comes across as hot-and-cold: supportive at times, distant at others.
In my opinion, he was selfish, annoying, and acted like a big baby. His character was inconsistent and didn’t make any sense.
One minute, he’s the supportive brother helping her out. The next, he casually buys pineapple pizza knowing she's allergic.
The Liam Problem.
Ah, Liam.
He’s hot. He’s broody.
He’s the classic enemies-to-lovers male lead.
If there’s one character in this book who annoyed me the most, it’s Liam.
From the very start, he is frustratingly one-dimensional in the worst way.
Back in high school, he was just an asshole to Avery—and for what? Because he felt the need to “stand by Danny.”
He saw everything from only one angle: Avery had survived a traumatic car accident, no one was paying attention to Danny, so his brilliant solution was… to be mean to Avery.
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He pushed her so far that she ended up changing schools.
Seriously.
Zero nuance, zero remorse.
He could have supported Danny without bullying Avery, but instead, he made her life miserable for years.
It’s one of the most illogical and annoying parts of the book.
Fast forward years later, and Liam is now the lead singer in Danny’s band—the stereotypical “fuckboy” enjoying the good life and sleeping around.
And then fate throws him back into Avery’s life.
He’s still mean, still frustrating, but now he also finds her incredibly attractive and starts having feelings for her?
It's messy, inconsistent, and often frustrating.
The Smut: Hot, But Missing the Point
In all honesty, this book reads like your stereotypical BookTok smut hit.
Like so many of the trending books, it feels more like an excuse to write steamy scenes than to tell a meaningful story.
Minor plot points and a slapped-on “enemies-to-lovers” label are all that stand between the sex scenes, and the writing suffers as a result.
There’s no real depth—just cut-to-the-chase smut.
Now, to give N.J. Gray some credit: the sex is undeniably spicy. She did this one thing right, and it’s enough to make some readers stick around.
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But here’s the problem for me: smut without a plot doesn’t work—especially in a book that tries to juggle a traumatized female lead, an emotionally messed-up brother, and a bully-best-friend-turned-love-interest.
The story wants to be more than just hot scenes, but it never fully commits to that, leaving the characters inconsistent and the plot feeling half-baked.
If the goal was simply a run-of-the-mill, steamy romance with no emotional stakes or depth, it could have worked.
But that’s not what this book is trying to be—and that’s where it falls short.
The Real Issue
The biggest problem with The Piece That Fits is that the author writes characters with major emotional baggage but doesn’t explore any of it.
Everything feels like a half-done setup just to get to the spice.
On top of that, this book isn’t a true enemies-to-lovers trope—it only looks like one.
The setup is the same as every trending BookTok romance: two main leads don’t get along, then years later they meet again and think, “Gosh, I hate you but wow, you’re so hot, this sucks, how am I going to control myself around you?”
It’s a cheap, inconsistent storyline that exists purely to make the book trendy.
Now, as I said before, if this were a porn-with-no-plot book, it might have fit the bill. But clearly, it isn’t.
And the characters are infuriating: Avery forgives Liam despite him offering no real reason or sympathy for what he did to her. Danny never really matures or understands Avery’s trauma.
And Liam? He literally thinks with his dick instead of his brain.
It’s all frustrating, messy, and exhausting to read.
Final Verdict
If you’re looking for a short, hot, wannabe-enemies-to-lovers read, this will scratch the itch.
But if you need emotional payoff, character consistency, and any kind of realism, this book will leave you frustrated.
Until my next read,
Marianna ♥
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