The Guy on the Left
The Underdogs • Book 2
by Kate Stewart
Why You'll Love This
He's the quiet one everyone overlooks — and that's exactly the lie he's been counting on.
- Great if you want: a brooding hero with real depth beneath the surface
- The experience: emotionally layered slow-burn with a redemption arc that earns it
- The writing: Stewart builds tension through restraint — what's unsaid hits harder
- Skip if: teacher-student dynamics, even technically skirted ones, are a hard no
About This Book
There's something quietly devastating about a man who has let the world believe a version of him that isn't true. In The Guy on the Left, Kate Stewart peels back the surface of a college football star who carries far more than any game-day pressure—a secret that changes everything, a woman he can't forget, and a version of himself he's never allowed anyone to see. The emotional stakes here are genuine and specific: this isn't a story about winning or losing on the field, but about whether a person can earn back trust, tell the truth, and still deserve the things he loves most.
Stewart writes with the kind of intimacy that makes secondary characters feel like people you actually know, and she structures Troy's story with enough restraint that the emotional payoffs land hard when they arrive. The prose moves between vulnerable interiority and sharp dialogue in a way that keeps the pages turning without sacrificing depth. As the second book in The Underdogs series, it deepens the world Stewart built without requiring you to have lived in it—though once you finish, you'll want to go back to the beginning.
