REVIEW: Medley (Changing Lanes, #2) by Layla Reyne
Sebastian Stewart was never Mr. Dependable; he was more the good-time guy who only wanted to swim, party, and ink tattoos. Until he cost his team the Olympic gold four years ago. Bas is determined to do right this time around—by his medley relay team and his rookie mentee.
Jacob Burrows is in over his head. The Olympic experience—from the hazing, to the endless practices, to the unrelenting media—makes the shy nineteen-year-old’s head spin. He’s trying to be everything to everyone while trying not to fall for his gorgeous tattooed teammate who just gets him—gets his need to fix things, his dorky pirate quips, and his bisexuality.
When Jacob falters under the stress, threatening his individual races and the medley relay gold, he needs Bas’s help to escape from drowning. Bas, however, fearing a repeat of his mistakes four years ago, pushes Jacob away, sure he’ll only let Jacob down. But the only path to salvaging gold is for Jacob to finally ask for what he needs—the heart of the man he loves—and for Bas to become the dependable one.
Dear Layla Reyne,
There is no doubt that I liked this book better than the first book in the duo-logy. We catch up with the American Olympic swimming team shortly before Olympics when the guys are about to fly to Germany to do last international practice and then fly to Madrid. There were obvious pointers in the previous book that something was going on between Sebastian a/k/a Bass and the youngest member of the team Jacob; however since the drama between Alex and Dane was front and center, we did not get anything more than hints. In this book Alex and Dane are together and thankfully not feuding anymore, and the romance between Bass and Jacob is starting to develop.
I really liked that in this book the guys were acting as (in my mind) Olympic team should act. Of course even I do not expect the athletes on any Olympic ( or other high level team) all to be best buddies in real life, but I think they should be supportive of each other. And in this book for the most part they acted as such. Alex actually being a team captain and thinking about making sure that younger teammates participate in the specific competitions, watching over the team when they were having fun, him and all the veterans being supportive of Jacob, mentoring him, helping when the stress of the Olympics could have become too much. And even when Bass and Jacob were on the outs, I liked that they tried to make sure it would not affect the team ( successfully or not).
This to me was a nice contrast to the first book where their fights got old for me and fast.
I also liked that we actually got to see Alex and Dane being happy and as much as the atmosphere of the Olympics allowed even a little bit playful with each other. I felt as if their romance received a satisfactory conclusion in this book. I was also satisfied with the smack-down Dane’s parents received, I thought it was a well deserved one and hoped to never see them again.
I liked that the author actually showed us the swimming competition itself, not just practices. As far as calling the book “sports romance” I think this is the one which does deserve the name very well.
Having said all this, the developing romance between Bass and Jacob was the main storyline and I do not know how I feel about it. I mean once again I liked the guys, as much as they all seem to be prone to the dramatic outbursts, I feel as if the author still kept them sympathetic for me, but I did wish Bass figured out what he wanted faster. I cut a lot of slack to Jacob, because the boy was nineteen and had the responsibility to take care of the parent’s well-being since he was a fourteen year old kid, Jesus it is hard. And stress of the first time Olympics and he still tried so hard.
I was much less patient with Bass, but I still liked him well enough so I suppose this is the grade .
C+
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