The Rainbow ClauseRating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Colin is the hottest rookie quarterback in the NFL. He’s a Heisman Trophy winner and the NFL Rookie of the year. His skills are hot and most think that the man himself is hot as well. Journalist Nick certainly thinks that Colin is hot, and there is that Sports Illustrated cover to prove it as well.

While Colin has all the success on the field, his personal life is another matter. Colin has known for a while that’s he’s bisexual and had a clause written into his contract, The Rainbow Clause, to be able to come out. Colin is ready, or he thought he was.

Nick is there to help smooth the transition, as well as to write the article on Colin’s coming out as he moves temporarily into Colin’s Miami home to get the inside scoop on Colin, who so far as managed to remain extremely private. The attraction is all too real as the men fall quickly for each other. Nick knows this is a major story for him, but it is also a huge conflict of interest for him and keeping his growing relationship with Colin out of the public eye may not be that easy.

This book offers many things I like to read, starting with athletes. While Colin is indeed a quarterback, the majority of the book takes place during the off season and there is no actual football. There were two good characters here, but this book just didn’t quite resonate with me the way it should have. For a coming out story and for Colin basically having his first relationship, this book lacked emotion as well as depth for me.

Colin has made it to the NFL, but he has struggled with his personal life. He fell in love with his best friend, Jemma, but when she didn’t return his feelings, Colin had a hard time moving on. Colin and Nick met previously when Nick interviewed Colin, but Colin doesn’t remember meeting Nick so it then didn’t offer an intriguing set up here and fell rather flat for me.

The guys both have issues to get through, but there is a back story added in for Nick from a previous assignment that he is dealing with and it didn’t really fit well into this book for me. This issue is on the forefront, but then disappeared without any resolution. The attraction also didn’t come off the page for me. We are told they are attracted to each other, but it was all slow for me — not slow burn, just slow. While it took the guys longer to get together, there wasn’t that burning intensity that I felt should have been driving the story as it was presented.

There were also long passages of inner dialogue. A question would be asked and there would be a lengthy internal narrative and then the question would be answered, although the flow of conversation had been broken and much of it read as dry. There is also a passage of Colin being asked who he admires. An answer is given and referred to several times, with the same misspelling each time, but he never explains why he feels the admiration for this individual and it read as oddly placed.

When the guys do get together, their scenes had some heat, but it wasn’t enough to carry the entire story and they constantly tell each other how “hot” they think the other is. Toward the end, I wasn’t fully on board with how Nick dealt with things and then it all didn’t seem worthwhile given what ultimately transpired.

On paper, this sounded like it should have been a winner for me but it didn’t resonate with me. But if you like the premise perhaps it will resonate better with you.

 

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