REVIEW: Play by Holly S. Roberts
Dear Ms. Roberts:
I read on twitter the other day that it only takes a person 1/5th of a second to fall in love (not sure how this is quantified) so I’m not sure I sure be knocking authors for the insta love setups but I prefer watching a couple fall in love. It makes their HEA more believable.
Rebecca and Killian MacGregor in this story seem to fall faster than a hummingbird flaps its wings (that’s 55 times a second). One minute, Rebecca is at a party and the next the star quarterback for the local NFL team is spiriting her home and telling her he wants to see her again. Only the next month is radio silence from Killian and Rebecca writes off their chance encounter as just that until he sends her tickets to his first pre season opener.
Right away, Rebecca is treated differently because that’s how we know she’s the heroine and the hero’s one true love. She gets to sit in the owner’s box. He blows her a kiss from the sidelines. He takes her to the store to make sure she buys extra soap, shampoo, makeup and the like so she doesn’t have to be shuttling things back and forth. We are informed via another player’s wife that this is just not ordinary Killian behavior. It’s predictable that Rebecca succumbs to this; how could she not? Hard to to turn away the famous rich guy with a killer body who is expressing serious interest.
Rebecca, the narrator of the story, tries to keep a level head. She’s attending college and trying to train for her track competition. One part of the story that I really enjoyed was when Killain tried to run with Rebecca but had to wimp out after mile five or so. Rebecca ran 12-13 miles a day.
All is not perfect in their world because Killian is a real jerk on game day and a real asshole if he loses. Rebecca’s response was gratifying. Mix in one dose of guilt, a brother in jeopardy, a hateful sister and you’ve got a fun and sexy sports book that really doesn’t fully explain why the two fall in love or how they’ll keep their love going but in the moment, the book is entertaining.
There are things you might have to overlook like the constant threat Rebecca’s exposed female parts present to upholstery. More than once we are told that she is in danger of ruining fabrics due to her extensive lust. I know I was supposed to see this is sexy and maybe slightly funny but it was actually a bit too much. The love scenes are graphic and I think that a little subtlety could have gone a long way.
The football aspect is well done and completely believable. Rebecca meets Killian during pre season which makes his intense pursuit during that time period a little more believable and there’s a good blend of football details without overwhelming a non familiar reader.
And I read this shortly after Sweet Home and the football stuff is so much better (but given that the author’s husband was apparently a pro football player, that makes sense). C+
Jane
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I like sports books and even though I’m not a huge fan of the Hadron Collider love, I was able to use a 50% off coupon at Kobo (multi-use -bookriot50) so I bought it.