Review

Blitzed (Playbook #3)

Blitzed

Blitzed (Playbook #3)

By: Alexa Martin

Blurb:

According to Brynn Larson, Maxwell Lewis is more trouble than he’s worth. She doesn’t care if he’s a football god with a rock-hard body that brings most women to their knees. After an encounter that ends poorly, she’s not interested in giving him a second chance. The last thing Brynn expects is for him to turn up at her bar months later, hat in hand. It doesn’t matter if he brings more customers to her business–she’s still not going on a date with him.

Maxwell knows he made a mistake. He’d been waiting to make his move on Brynn since the day he laid eyes on her and he was finally ready to go for it until he screwed up. He wishes he could tell her the truth about what happened that night, but he just can’t. He can’t tell anyone, so he’ll make amends and hope she’ll forgive him.

Brynn’s not like other women, though. Playing for the Mustangs doesn’t impress her and gifts make her scoff. Max will have to bring his A game if he hopes to win her over.

Review:

Brynn has been one of my favorite characters in the series so far. She knows her mind and goes after what she wants. At least, when it comes to work. She’s had a crush on Maxwell for years and just sat by lusting after him.

Maxwell is super smart and a fantastic athlete. He makes the all-star team, or something like that, every year, and he went to Princeton. He’s also shy unless he’s putting on a persona for his job. I like shy dudes. He’s also very aware of consent.

I loved that they were friends beforehand. There was a ton of sexual tension, so it was not what I consider friends to lovers, but Brynn really tried to make people believe that’s all they were.

I was a little disappointed in the small drama between them at the end. I didn’t find it believable at all. Brynn was always worried that she would do something terrible but immediately jumps to believing that Maxwell is the bad guy. I didn’t buy her reasoning at all. It just felt off. I could have also done without everyone telling her she’ll change her mind about kids. She is very adamant she doesn’t want any, but in the end, she’s planning on them.

3.5/5

Binti (Binti #1)

Binti

Binti (Binti #1)

By: Nnedi Okorafor

Blurb:

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself — but first she has to make it there, alive.

Review:

It’s been a while since I’ve read a sci-fi book. I’m pleased with my choice. Binti was a short story, but it was positive sci-fi. The world wasn’t perfect, but there was still hope. What’s even better, it ended on a positive note. I needed that right now.

Binti was the best in her village. She was smart and curious and brave. She ended up leaving to attend the most prestigious university in her universe. Things didn’t go as planned, but she was able to handle everything that was thrown at her.

The world that was created was interesting. I loved all the details that were included. I hope that in the next book, we see more of Binti’s family. The history of her village was fascinating.

This is the first book in a trilogy. None of the books seem to be very long, but if they continue in this vein, I’ll be very happy.

4/5

Fumbled (Playbook #2)

Fumbled

Fumbled (Playbook #2)

By: Alexa Martin

Blurb:

Single-mother Poppy Patterson moved across the country when she was sixteen and pregnant to find a new normal. After years of hard work, she’s built a life she loves. It may include a job at a nightclub, weekend soccer games, and more stretch marks than she anticipated, but it’s all hers, and nobody can take that away. Well, except for one person.

TK Moore, the starting wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs, dreamt his entire life about being in the NFL. His world is football, parties, and women. Maybe at one point he thought his future would play out with his high school sweetheart by his side, but Poppy is long gone and he’s moved on.

When Poppy and TK cross paths in the most unlikely of places, emotions they’ve suppressed for years come rushing back. But with all the secrets they never told each other lying between them, they’ll need more than a dating playbook to help them navigate their relationship.

Review:

I cried through this entire book. I’m a crier, so don’t take that as a sign this is a sad book. I cried cause Poppy was such a good mom. I cried cause I could feel her fear. I cried cause it was so happy. So don’t worry, unless you’re like me you’ll just really enjoy this book.

Poppy is the level of mom I hope to attain. She dedicates everything to her son, and the love jumps off the pages. I also agree one hundred percent about her not letting him play football.

T.K. has a gorgeous ass. It is mentioned a LOT. He’s a good guy, but after six years in the NFL, he’s suffering from early symptoms of CTE. I so appreciated it being talked about in Fumbled. I was a little annoyed that it wasn’t discussed much in the last book, but it was a decent part of this story. If you’re going to write a football story, I don’t know how you could avoid it.

There was not much wooing with Poppy and T.K. They’d had a previous romance, and while a lot had changed, the feelings were still there. They made a sweet couple, but Poppy and Ace and all of Poppy’s friends were more interesting than T.K.

This was an excellent follow up to Intercepted and has me looking forward to the next book in the series.

4/5

Intercepted (Playbook #1)

Intercepted

Intercepted (Playbook #1)

By: Alexa Martin

Blurb:

Marlee thought she scored the man of her dreams only to be scorched by a bad breakup. But there’s a new player on the horizon, and he’s in a league of his own…

Marlee Harper is the perfect girlfriend. She’s definitely had enough practice by dating her NFL-star boyfriend for the last ten years. But when she discovers he has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. There’s just one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past, has Marlee in his sights.

Gavin fights to show Marlee he’s nothing like her ex. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her past. The team’s wives, who never led the welcome wagon, are not happy with Marlee’s return. They have only one thing on their minds: taking her down. But when the gossip makes Marlee public enemy number one, she worries about more than just her reputation.

Between their own fumbles and the wicked wives, it will take a Hail Mary for Marlee and Gavin’s relationship to survive the season.

Review:

Intercepted was a lovely palette cleanser after the last book I read. I was a little bit concerned at the beginning, though. Marlee is in an abusive relationship; her boyfriend of almost a decade is a pro football player that takes a lot out on her. I was starting to wonder why I kept picking up books with women in abusive relationships, but thankfully it didn’t last long.

Marlee was easily one of my favorite heroines of the year. Her humor was hilarious, and I loved the relationships she had with people. She’s the type of character you wish you could be friends with in real life. Seeing her discover again who she is without the dead weight of her ex was beautiful.

Gavin was sex on a stick. He tried to protect her but would occasionally go too far. He didn’t give Marlee a chance to defend herself; something that ended up biting him in the ass later.

Marlee and Gavin made a great couple, but what I loved the most was the ending. Marlee could have so easily just jumped from her ex into a relationship with Gavin; instead, she took the time to succeed on her own. I really, really liked that part of the story.

I’m not a football fan and getting to see an almost behind the scenes look did not win me over, but I loved the enthusiasm Marlee had, and I’m excited to read the next book in the series.

4/5

If I Never Met You

If I Never Met You

If I Never Met You

By: Mhairi McFarlane

Blurb:

If faking love is this easy… how do you know when it’s real?

When her partner of over a decade suddenly ends things, Laurie is left reeling—not only because they work at the same law firm and she has to see him every day. Her once perfect life is in shambles and the thought of dating again in the age of Tinder is nothing short of horrifying. When news of her ex’s pregnant girlfriend hits the office grapevine, taking the humiliation lying down is not an option. Then a chance encounter in a broken-down elevator with the office playboy opens up a new possibility.

Jamie Carter doesn’t believe in love, but he needs a respectable, steady girlfriend to impress their bosses. Laurie wants a hot new man to give the rumor mill something else to talk about. It’s the perfect proposition: a fauxmance played out on social media, with strategically staged photographs and a specific end date in mind. With the plan hatched, Laurie and Jamie begin to flaunt their new couple status, to the astonishment—and jealousy—of their friends and colleagues. But there’s a fine line between pretending to be in love and actually falling for your charming, handsome fake boyfriend…

Review:

I was sold on this book because I was told it was a romance. It was in an email I got about hot new romance books (or something like that I’ve read a lot of romance lists recently). The blurb also has a setup for a very common romance trope. This was not a romance. It was a woman getting over a long term relationship with a little bit of romance thrown in. Which is fine, I’ve enjoyed those books, but it was not what I was expecting, and I ended up hating this book because of it.

SPOILERS

Twenty percent of the way into this book Laurie has been dumped by her boyfriend of eighteen years, found out that he had an emotional affair, and then only days after they broke up, he’s knocked the new woman up. This is, of course, after he told her he just needed to find himself, that he didn’t want to be a father anymore, and a bunch of other bullshit. He also tries to make her feel bad for him and like he’s a good guy, but basically, he was a piece of shit.

It’s not until well into the second third of the book that we even start to have any kind of interaction with the new guy. She spent most of the book thinking about her ex. She compares everything Jamie does to her ex. She sobs over her ex all the way up to the end of the book, which takes place over a few months.

The more I read, the more horrible stuff you discover about her ex as well as things that happened to her. He cheated on her at one point. She forgave him. He told her he’d never do the same to her. She took care of most things in their life and was always pushing him to succeed and being encouraging, while he held her back so as not to cause a scene or make things uncomfortable. She was left alone with a pedo at eight but was thankfully able to escape before anything happened. Her father was horrible and rarely in her life.

It wasn’t until seventy percent into the book that the romance started to pick up. Jamie clearly likes her, but Laurie is, of course, still talking about her ex and is also stuck on the fact that Jamie is thirty-one to her thirty-six. I could not roll my eyes hard enough over that one. Five years between a couple is nothing, especially in your thirties.

Three men in this entire book didn’t suck; Jamie, Jamie’s dad, and a coworker of Laurie’s. Everyone else was awful. The male employees at the law firm Laurie works at all need to be hit with sexual harassment lawsuits. They were fucking terrible.

Jamie is rarely in the book. His page space is nothing compared to the time spent on Laurie’s ex. The parts he is in are fun because, once again, he’s one of the few men that isn’t complete garbage. Before they knew each other, she made all kinds of assumptions about him, and after their first initial time together, she learns that he’s almost nothing like her impression. Still, she spends most of the last half of the book defaulting to those assumptions.

If this book hadn’t been sold to me as a romance, I might have enjoyed it. It would have at least been a three-star. Instead, I hated just about every moment. I wondered if I was the only one, so read some reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and it turns out I am the only one that didn’t like it. A lot of the reviews ended up pissing me off with their views on “normal” romance, but before I go into a rant on the way romance as a genre is viewed by a large portion of people, I’m going to stop.

If you’re looking for a book about a woman coming out of a long term serious relationship, discovering herself, and realizing that she can love again, then you might enjoy this book. If you’re looking for a book about a relationship that becomes love between a couple, this is not a book for you unless you feel like reading the last twenty or so percent.

1/5