Say You Swear (Boys of Avix, 1)

From TikTok sensation Meagan Brandy comes the first in the heartfelt, romantic Boys of Avix series.

Her brother's best friend broke her heart, but what happens when his new teammate wants to put it back together?

Arianna Johnson has been dreaming of what college life might bring, and it's finally coming over the horizon as she and her friends plan one last beachside summer together. So much has changed over the years, but there's always been one constant. The boy her heart returns to no matter where her imagination runs: her brother's best friend, Chase.

This is the summer she'll finally tell him how she feels. That it's him. It's always been him.

Until suddenly, it isn't.

Ari's heart is in splinters when she meets star quarterback Noah Riley. His friendship is exactly what she needs after Chase's rejection, but from the start, Noah wants more. Even when their path is blurry, even when tragedy strikes, even when Ari doesn't know her own heart, Noah will fight for the feelings he knows they both have…no matter what it might cost them.

They say first love lasts forever. Ari is about to find out if that's really true.

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USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author Meagan Brandy is a writer of New Adult romance books. She is a candy crazed, jukebox junkie who tends to speak in lyrics. Born and raised in California, she is a married mother of three crazy boys who keep her bouncing from one sports field to another, depending on the season, and she wouldn't have it any other way. Starbucks is her best friend and words are her sanity.

Say You Swear by Meagan Brandy is an emotional, sports romance story about first love, heartbreak, and the terrifying, beautiful risk of letting yourself love again. It follows Ari (Ariana), a college student who has grown up surrounded by a tight knit group of friends led by Noah, the star quarterback she has loved for years. To Ari, Noah has always felt like the inevitable future—the boy who knows her history, her family, her fears, the one everyone assumes she’ll end up with. Their friend group is loud, loyal, and very intertwined, full of parties, jokes, and shared memories. When the book opens, Ari is standing on the edge of everything she thought she wanted: Noah is finally about to make their private, long standing chemistry into something real, and she believes her life is about to slide neatly into place. Instead, everything shatters.

At a party, Noah’s plans are thrown off by a sudden twist that leaves Ari exposed and humiliated. He doesn’t show up for her in the way she hoped; he makes choices that hurt her deeply, tied to his own fears, flaws, and the pressures around him. In that broken moment, Ari starts to see that the future she thought was guaranteed may have been built more on assumptions and comfort than on real, chosen commitment. Devastated and trying not to completely fall apart, she finds herself crossing paths with Chase, a newcomer—another football player, but from a different world, with a different energy. Where Noah is familiar and part of her past, Chase is unexpected. He notices Ari in the middle of her hurt, sees the girl behind the chaos, and offers something quiet and steady: space to breathe, someone who listens, someone who isn’t tangled up in all her old history.

Their first interactions are shot through with tension and distrust. Ari isn’t ready to fall for anyone; she feels too raw, too betrayed, and she still has feelings for Noah, even if she’s angry and ashamed of caring. Chase is confident but respectful, not pushing her too fast. He’s drawn to her spirit, the way she cares about other people despite everything, the way she tries to hold herself together even when she’s breaking. He’s willing to stand on the sidelines and be there, creating a gentle contrast to the emotional chaos around her. Slowly, through party conversations, late night texts, campus encounters, and small acts of kindness, Ari and Chase start to form a bond that feels different—more honest, less performative, less about what everyone else expects and more about what they actually want.

The friend group dynamics make everything more complicated. Ari’s friends are loyal but imperfect; they love her and Noah and are used to seeing them as a unit, even if that unit never officially existed. As Ari’s connection with Chase grows, tensions rise. Some people think she’s moving on too fast, others think she never truly had Noah, and everyone has opinions. Gossip and judgement swirl, especially around the football scene where image matters and loyalty is everything. Ari is caught between old alliances and new feelings, trying to navigate who she is when she’s not just “Noah’s future girl.” She struggles with guilt—guilt for wanting Chase, guilt for not being able to erase Noah from her heart, guilt for rocking the balance of a friend group that has been her safe place for so long.

Chase, meanwhile, carries his own past and burdens. Though he appears self possessed and relaxed, he knows what it is like to be doubted, to be seen as just another athlete or outsider. He has his own scars, his own reasons for being careful. Being with Ari means stepping into a situation loaded with history and emotions he didn’t create. He has to decide whether he can handle being compared to Noah, being judged by their friends, and being the second chance rather than the first choice. What makes him compelling in the story is that he doesn’t try to erase Ari’s past. He accepts that Noah exists in her heart and memory, and instead of demanding she choose instantly, he gives her room to figure things out—while quietly, consistently showing her what real love and respect look like.

Much of the book’s emotional power comes from watching Ari grow. She has to untangle the difference between comfort and true compatibility, between the idea of a person and the reality of how they treat you. Her journey is messy. She makes mistakes, reacts impulsively, and sometimes says or does things that hurt people. She pulls away from Chase when fear overwhelms her, and she resents Noah while still craving the version of him she once imagined. The story doesn’t shy away from her confusion, letting her be flawed and human as she tries to protect her heart and still believe in love. Her family life, including her relationship with her brother and the people who have always been her core support, adds another layer. They worry about her, try to guide her, and sometimes push her to be braver than she feels.

Noah is not a simple villain. He is a boy who loves Ari in his own way but is trapped in his immaturity, his ego, and the pressures of being a rising football star. His choices at key moments are selfish and cowardly, yet the book also shows his regret and the way he struggles to accept that he may have truly lost the girl who was always supposed to be his. This complexity heightens the emotional stakes: Ari is not choosing between “perfect” and “terrible,” but between two very different versions of love—one rooted in shared childhood, nostalgia, and hurt; the other in growth, support, and a new kind of future.

Drama peaks as secrets come out, harsh truths are spoken, and boundaries are tested. Ari’s relationship with Chase faces challenges that force them both to decide whether they’re willing to fight for each other when things get ugly. She must confront her own patterns: does she run when things hurt, or does she stay and work through it? Does she cling to what might have been with Noah, or honor what is in front of her with Chase? The title, “Say You Swear,” plays into moments where promises and vows are everything—where who you swear yourself to, and how honestly you do it, defines the course of your life.

By the end, Ari’s story becomes one of choosing herself as much as choosing love. She learns that real love means being seen fully—pain, past, and all—and still being chosen. She accepts that Noah belongs to a part of her history that shaped her, but that doesn’t have to control her future. With Chase, she finds a relationship built on tenderness, laughter, mutual respect, and the freedom to be vulnerable without being punished for it. The friend group adjusts, loyalties are renegotiated, and the people who truly care about Ari learn to support her new path. Say You Swear closes on a note that feels earned rather than easy: Ari is not magically healed of all hurt, but she is standing in a life she chose for herself, beside a man who walked through the fire with her—proving that sometimes the love that comes after heartbreak can be deeper, steadier, and more real than the dream you held onto for years.