Authors: Adriana Locke, Charleigh Rose, Ella Fox, Emma Scott, Kate Stewart, Kennedy Ryan, L.J. Shen, Mandi Beck, Meghan Quinn,
Rochelle Paige, Sara Ney
Rochelle Paige, Sara Ney
Publication Date: December 14, 2017
Synopsis via Goodreads: Hot jocks. We love them all.
Sexy baseball players. Intense footballers. Sweaty MMA fighters, and sizzling hockey hotties. Score!
The good news? Eleven bestselling authors have gathered to give you a set of stories focused on the men we love most—sports heroes. We bet you’ll love this thick … book.
The bad news? The men in these novellas don’t actually exist.
Enjoy this naughty Christmas treat!*
*This anthology does not contain calories, just eleven original, never-before-seen stories by the following authors: Adriana Locke, Mandi Beck, Charleigh Rose, Kennedy Ryan, LJ Shen, Meghan Quinn, Rochelle Paige, Ella Fox, Kate Stewart, Emma Scott, and Sara Ney. We aren’t responsible for melted devices.
Team Player: Adriana Locke (Cross), Charleigh Rose (Yard Sale), Ella Fox (Out of Formation), Emma Scott (One Good Man), Kate Stewart (Sweeping the Series), Kennedy Ryan (Full Court Press), L.J. Shen (The End Zone), Mandi Beck (Sin Bin), Meghan Quinn (Back in the Game), Rochelle Paige (Slapped Into Love), Sara Ney (Switch Hitter).
When the Team Player: A Sports Romance Anthology was announced, we both hit 'Want to Read' so fast on Goodreads because we could not pass up on a romance anthology that included novellas by some of our favorite authors. We were also excited to check out some new-to-us authors that we've both been curious about but haven't gotten around to reading yet and hoped that maybe this will give us a little push to finally go read their series. We will only be reviewing six of the eleven novellas in this anthology because this book is thick as fuck and we too lazy to read all of them. Let the games reviews begin!
BACK IN THE GAME by MEGHAN QUINN
ARI'S REVIEW
★★★★½
I love Meghan Quinn's romances so I started with her novella first. Back in the Game is the most adorable novella of all the novellas I've ever read! It's a single-dad sports romance about a professional hockey player who is learning to put himself out there again. Calder is guarded when it comes to letting women into his life after the mother of his child abandoned them after their daughter, Shea, was born. But when he runs into a woman while out with his daughter, he decides that maybe it's time to get back on the horse. First and foremost, CALDER IS BAE! Like who can resist a guy who is willing to wear fairy wings and a tiara out in public to please his little girl??!! He is also a little old school when it comes to dating and I adored how he treated Rachel, such a gentleman. Rachel is hilarious and I liked how she helped Calder to get out his shell. She also didn't let Calder off the hook when he tried to push her away and fought for a chance to let their relationship to grow into something more. The romance was sweet and sexy and I was so sad when I got to the epilogue because I didn't want it to end. *sobs* This novella is also a prequel to Quinn's upcoming release, Three Blind Dates, and I'm dying to know what happens to Hayden. He better end up getting the girl or I will riot!
BRITT'S REVIEW
★★★★
After having read one of Quinn's books before I was excited to get to this one because I knew I'd be in for something funny ans super cute. Thankfully I was not disappointed!! Calder is not only a hot hockey player but he's also a super devoted single father. He'd do anything to keep a smile on his little girl's face, even dress up in fairy wings and a tiara in public. It's then that he meets Rachel, the sassy woman that stirs something in him for the first time in years. After putting is daughter first for years he decides it's time for him to start getting back out there and dating again, and he works up the nerve to ask Rachel. What comes after was the cutest story in this novella. I really loved this story, I love Quinn's humor because she's actually funny and she doesn't go into anything that's too cringe-worthy and annoying. Calder was such a sweetie and y'all know I love a good single daddy romance so this hit the spot for me. I also really loved Rachel, she was super funny and she and Calder really fit well together, they each got each other's humor and you could just feel them having the best time ever. The epilogue was also so cute and had me cheesing, and I'm super excited to continue reading more of Meghan's works.
SWEEPING THE SERIES by KATE STEWART
ARI'S REVIEW
★★★
I read Kate Stewart's recent release, Drive, a few weeks ago and I'm still a little ticked-off by that book. I ended up not writing a review for it because I just didn't have much positives thoughts and I wasn't in the mood to deal with the rage that book caused. So when I started Sweeping the Series, I set my expectations low just so I wouldn't be disappointed again. Sweeping the Series is a second-chance romance and follows our two main characters, Ren Makavoy and Erica Wild. The two were romantically involved years ago, but Erica walked away from the relationship just when Ren's career was picking up and never said why. Now the famous player needs to clean up his act and rid himself of this playboy image and Erica may be the only woman cut out for the job. First, let's start with the good. I really do like Stewart's writing which is why I wanted to give her a second shot. I also liked Erica...well I liked her at the start of the novella. I kind of felt sorry for her and the way Ren was treating her, but she did some things towards the end that irked my nerves. Ren is a straight up bitch ass. I hate him. I think he's a cocky son-of-a-bitch who don't deserve and I wanted to slap him. My main issue with this novella was the miscommunication. Every time the opportunity came up for these two to discuss their issues, one of them would shut it down and walk away. LIKE HOW Y'ALL EXPECT TO FIX Y'ALL RELATIONSHIP IF YOU NOT WILLING TO TALK TO ONE ANOTHER??!! The length of this novella was another issue. It was long for no damn reason and I basically just ended up skimming the last few chapters. I think I'll probably read one more book by Stewart and it it ends up being a flop, I'm just gonna call it quits on her books.
BRITT'S REVIEW
★★½
I read The Brave Line by Stewart sometime at he beginning of this year and if I remember correctly I had a few problems, but I enjoyed it, I just never reviewed it cuz I'm lazy af lmao. So going into this one I thought that maybe I'd like it like I enjoyed my previous read from her. Well, I won't say that I completely hated it, but I definitely didn't fall head over heels in love. And tbh I've pretty much forgotten what happened in this one which should let y'all know it wasn't very memorable, just very meh. I remember there being some dumb shit about her leaving him years before ( I can't even remember what the reason was), so this was a second chance romance which I love so I had some excitement for that. I remember the guy played baseball lmao, I also remember some passing out thrown in somewhere aaannnnndddd that's about it.
FULL COURT PRESS by KENNEDY RYAN
ARI'S REVIEW
★★★★½
Say hello to the main reason for why I picked up this anthology in the first place. Y'all all know Britt and I are obsessed with Kennedy Ryan so I already knew that I would enjoy her novella. Full Court Press is kind of a second-chance romance between a successful sports reporter, Avery Hughes, and a retired NBA player, MacKenzie Decker. The two met years ago when Avery was just starting out as a reporter and Decker was starting to make a name for himself, but a mishap during an interview leads to Avery being reassigned. Years later, Decker takes a job to fill-in as Avery's co-host on her show and spark is ignited between the pair. Full Court Press is definitely the most emotional novella in this book. My feels were all over the place and I was not prepared for it. The writing was beautiful and gripping and this novella had me in tears at one in the morning. Avery is a woman who has faced a great loss and lives with guilt everyday. She struggles to move on but things take a turn when Decker walks back into her life. Decker too has his own baggage but he somehow feels that this is is second shot at a missed connection and he does his best to win Avery over. I was like a cheerleader rooting for these two to get together. It's a slow-burning romance and there are numerous obstacles this pair has to work through, but when they do finally end up together is was FIRE! Full Court Press is kind of a prequel to Ryan's basketball romance series releasing next year and if her full length novel is anything like this novella, then I best stock up on some tissues stat!
BRITT'S REVIEW
★★★★½
★★★★½
Let's be honest here, the main reason we even wanted to read this book of novellas was because we saw that Kennedy was writing a story for it. And as always I was not disappointed at all!! I'm convinced she can't write a bad book. In Full Court Press we follow Avery who has worked her way up to becoming a successful sports reporter after being reassigned years before when she first meets Decker. Throughout a few years they would see each other in passing but life has a way of handling things and they never got to be anything besides casual acquaintances that saw each other at various events. She goes on to get engaged and he goes on to get married and have a daughter. Now years later he's divorced and retired and gets the opportunity to be a brief co-host on Avery's show. Old feelings that have been repressed since the day they met start to show but Avery is reluctant to act on them because she's dealing with some hardships, but Decker doesn't mind just being a friend to her and hoping that one day they can start to build something more serious. What ensues is a hot, emotionally charged novella that'll have you fanning yourself one second, and wiping tears away the next. And in true Kennedy fashion the writing is nothing short of beautiful. I love that Avery is a black woman, a successful one at that because we don't get a lot of those on NA still so I was so excited about that diversity, Decker was hot AF, and together I was just so here for them!! I can't wait for the full length basketball novel to be released because I know that it's going to slay my entire life!!
SWITCH HITTER by SARA NEY
ARI'S REVIEW
★★★★
Sara Ney is a new-to-me author and I've heard great things How to Date a Douchebag series so I was excited to read her novella. Switch Hitter is a story about twin sisters, Amelia and Lucy. Popularity has always come easy to Lucy and she finds herself in a bind when she agrees to go out with two guys on the same night. So she asks her twin Amelia to step in and pretend to be her, but the situation becomes a sticky one when Amelia ends up falling for her date, star catcher of the baseball team, Dash Amado. Fun fact, I've always enjoyed stories involving twins, but more specifically, I love stories where the more shy twin ends up coming out of their shell and end up finding their voice. I don't know why, maybe I'm just a sucker for the underdogs. I was hooked on this romance from the start and connected with Amelia right off the bat (look at me using baseball idioms). She's a bit of a fumbling mess and I was entertained by her being all tongue-tied whenever she was around Dash. Dash is so sweet, even though he could be a little cocky at times. I liked the development of the romance and thought that Amelia and Dash had great chemistry. The thing that was off to me about this novella was the writing. Since Dash is Latino, there are some parts where he speaks Spanish and what annoyed me was the English translation right after those lines. It messed up the flow and honestly, the Spanish used was so basic that I'm pretty sure anyone would be able to understand what Dash was saying by using context clues. Switch Hitter is kind of a prequel for Ney's upcoming series releasing next year and I'm definitely going to check it out when it releases so I can catch up with Amelia and Dash.
BRITT'S REVIEW
★★½
★★½
Ok, so Sara Ney is an author that has been making waves this year with her douchebag series, which I tried to read the first book before and couldn't really get into. So going into this one I wasn't to hype about it, but I was also hoping that maybe I'd like this one so that I could give her series another shot. But I just wasn't really feeling this one. I did like the whole twin aspect and them switching places cuz it reminded me of Sister, Sister or something, I liked that ole dude was Hispanic cuz diversity is always good, aaannnndddd I think that's about all I liked to be honest. I feel like it took too long for the point to get to the reader in this one, and by the time they finally got some act right and got together the damn story was over so we didn't get too much of them being disgustingly cute as a couple. Also the Amelia's sister that she pretended to be to talk to Dash really annoyed me, she was so shallow and self-centered which I'm sure is supposed to be the point with her but still homegirl was lowkey a bitch to like everybody and had she been my twin I would've been put her in her damn place. Also the Spanish in this book was pretty laughable because you just KNOW that Ney just put everything she wanted to say into Google Translate, then proceeded to copy and paste into her book. Anyone who as taken a Spanish class, especially at the college level knows you don't do that shit because it comes off so obvious and it doesn't flow or read right. I translates things way to literally and never takes unto account any nuances within languages. My old Spanish professor wouldn't even grade an assignment if she saw you Googled everything. Also there's something about Ney's writing that I just can't get down with, her writing style for me is just not my fave at all. Sometimes she cuts sentences off too short when they could've been combined to make more sense, and it made things read too stilted and abrupt, and felt a bit jarring at times. So needless to say this one wasn't my fave and I probably won't try too many more of her books in the future.
ONE GOOD MAN by EMMA SCOTT
ARI'S REVIEW
★★★½
One Good Man follows an aspiring journalists named Janey who gets caught up in all that is going on with the Vietnam War so her father sends her away to Paris to keep her safe. There she meets a star fútbol player, Adrian, and is asked to interview him. Janey thinks this interview will get her nowhere, but it may just lead to her big break. I've been enjoying Emma Scott's books a lot this year and I'm sad to say that I didn't end up loving her novella as much as I had hoped. I didn't end up loving this novella because of two reasons: the time period and lack of character connection. The story is set during a time of war so the story started out with a lot of tension and then it kind of died down and the tone fell flat. I also couldn't connect to either Janey or Adrian at all. It took me quite a few chapters to become invested in the story, but once sparks started flying between Janey and Adrian I was completely hooked. I give Scott props because she managed to write a slow-burning romance in only a few chapters and I also loved the fact that family is yet again a major theme in this story. The ending was rather sweet and I'm happy with how the events played out for Janey and Adrian.
BRITT'S REVIEW
★★★★
★★★★
Emma Scott has quickly become a favorite author of mine this year and when I saw that she was going to have a story in this novella I was super excited!! Thankfully I ended up really enjoying this one. I'm not one for any kind of historical time periods, so when I first started this one and saw that it was set back in the day I got a bit nervous but surprisingly I really got into it. Janey is a journalist who is desperately trying to find her "big" story. Being a young woman in the field at this time means that she's not taken seriously by anyone, not even her father. After she's on the scene at a riot and gets falsely arrested her father thinks it would be best for her to be shipped off to France to finish her studies and hopefully stay safe. At first she refuses but with some convincing from her best friend she realizes that she can still hunt for her big story in France. With the Vietnam War going on there are so many places being affected so she vows to write a story that will hit people right in the guts and expose the horrors experienced so that no one will be blind to them anymore. When she gets there she's disappointed to find out that she's still getting thrown all the athlete stories, but after getting to know popular fútbol player Adrian she realizes that sometimes your biggest stories can you unexpectedly. Like I said I really enjoyed this story even though it wasn't set in the present time, I think that factor really helped set this story apart from all the others for me which was great. I really loved Janey's character and her tenacity to prove her worth in such a male dominated field. Y'all ever heard of that show on Amazon called Good Girls Revolt? I watched like one episode lmao but I really liked it and this novella automatically reminded me of it when I started reading. I also really loved Adrian's character because nothing was ever what it seemed with him, on the outside he was this confident guy but on the inside he has his own struggles and hardships. Seeing each layer of him being revealed made him easier and easier to connect to and I really thought is development was done so well.
CROSS by ADRIANA LOCKE
ARI'S REVIEW
★★½
Adriana Locke is another new-to-me author and while I've read mixed reviews about her books, I still hoped that my first read by her would end up being a decent one. Unfortunately, all them hopes went out the damn window after I read the first chapter in this novella. Cross is definitely my least favorite novella which it shocking because I love me some second-chance romances, but y'all this whole novella was a MESS. It follows are two main characters Kallie and Cross. Kallie is finally returning to her home town after a scandal occurs at her current job and she ends up running into her first love, Cross. She tries her best to resist him, but he's not giving up his second-shot at love so easily. This novella is basically just a tale of miscommunication and "I hate you, we break up, you call me, I love you". Kallie is all like "you're no good for me" and then has the nerve to accuse Cross of cheating on her WHEN THEY WEREN'T EVEN A COUPLE AGAIN. Like Kallie has only been back a week and y'all ain't even sorted out your issues that led to y'all breaking up in the first place but you wanna lay some claim on a man you're not ready to commit to again?? The ending was extremely rushed and I'm still confused about the fact that these two ended up together even though they still haven't discussed their issues with one another. *cue eye roll* This second-chance romance could've been a whole lot sweeter if only...Imma leave it at that because there's so many things I wanna change about this story that I don't even know where to start.
Adriana Locke is another new-to-me author and while I've read mixed reviews about her books, I still hoped that my first read by her would end up being a decent one. Unfortunately, all them hopes went out the damn window after I read the first chapter in this novella. Cross is definitely my least favorite novella which it shocking because I love me some second-chance romances, but y'all this whole novella was a MESS. It follows are two main characters Kallie and Cross. Kallie is finally returning to her home town after a scandal occurs at her current job and she ends up running into her first love, Cross. She tries her best to resist him, but he's not giving up his second-shot at love so easily. This novella is basically just a tale of miscommunication and "I hate you, we break up, you call me, I love you". Kallie is all like "you're no good for me" and then has the nerve to accuse Cross of cheating on her WHEN THEY WEREN'T EVEN A COUPLE AGAIN. Like Kallie has only been back a week and y'all ain't even sorted out your issues that led to y'all breaking up in the first place but you wanna lay some claim on a man you're not ready to commit to again?? The ending was extremely rushed and I'm still confused about the fact that these two ended up together even though they still haven't discussed their issues with one another. *cue eye roll* This second-chance romance could've been a whole lot sweeter if only...Imma leave it at that because there's so many things I wanna change about this story that I don't even know where to start.
BRITT'S REVIEW
★
★
Y'all.
This was the WORST story that I read out of this bunch.
THE
WORST!!
I can't even get my thoughts together collectively because my rant is so strong right now, but I also don't wanna spend anymore time on this damn story. I was pretty excited to read this story because I've heard and seen Locke's stories around for a long time now so I was thinking that if this went over well then I could finally get that push to read her books next year. But nah. This was some straight up booty. First of damn all I wanted to throat punch the main girl SO BAD!! I have never read about such an insecure, childish, immature, character before and if I have I just can't remember. She was the absolute worst!! She never talked things out when shit happened between them, just ran and cried like a baby and complained about how shit never goes right in her relationships and "woe is me because I'm a good person"...
Like
Bitch
Really??
Of course nothing goes right cuz you run at the drop of a damn hat and start acting crazy as all fuck!! She would just accuse, accuse, accuse, with barely any evidence at all, no facts, no nothing. You can't get anywhere in any relationship if you don't fucking TALK AND COMMUNICATE DUMBASS!! How the hell do you expect for anything to grow if you refuse to listen?? Let's not forget that after they slept together like one time she went off on him about something I felt was extremely stupid cuz they hadn't even said one damn thing about being together again, she just assumed they were. Then she did that crazy girlfriend shit, you know when a chick gets mad about something dumb then rolls up on the guy throwing a fit? yeah that shit. We all have a friend or family member that does that childish mess. Well she did that then ran because apparently homegirl was a track star back in school and has to run every damn where after every damn problem.
Then she proceeded to go home to mommy and complain and then they did some slut shaming together which was so random and unnecessary and made me wanna throat punch mama bear too. Then of course her and whatever is name is made up and of course he was made to apologize profusely even though I still feel he didn't do shit wrong, I think she maybe said a sorry too and thankfully it ended. I wanted to DNF throughout but Ari wouldn't let me. You know it's bad when you wanna DNF a damn novella. Needless to say I'm not all curious about Locke's books anymore and again, I'm just glad it's over.
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