Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

 

Garrett McRae has had a crush on his brother’s best friend, Warner Ramsey, ever since he first met him. But with Ramsey being four years older, it’s seems like his crush is an impossible dream. Not to mention that Garrett has no idea that Ramsey is bisexual.

As a professional quarterback, Ramsey isn’t planning on coming out. He knows he’s attracted to men, but he’s never dated a man and he wants to be known for his football, not who he wants to date. But Ramsey has always noticed the smart-mouthed younger brother of his best friend and now that he and Garrett are playing football on the same team, all thoughts lead to Garrett.

While it’s not against the NFL rules to date a teammate, they know it’s not going to sit well with other players and management. Ramsey is all in to experiment with Garrett and a friends-with-benefits deal seems the best way to get their attraction out of their systems. Yet the more they share, the more they want, and neither man knows how to walk away, even with their careers on the line.

There are lots of tropes here with Rookie Move—brother’s best friend (or best friend’s brother depending on the POV), friends to lovers, and a bisexual character that has never acted on his bisexuality. Garrett is four years younger than Ramsey and has always had a crush on him and, now that they are older, it’s only becoming stronger. Ramsey has also noticed Garrett over the years, but football is his priority and he has reasons for not wanting to be on the radar of the paparazzi and dating men is something he feels will have to wait. But with Garrett now around him all the time, Ramsey can’t stop all the thoughts about him.

Some of my favorite tropes are in this book, but overall, it was mostly an average read for me. There wasn’t anything here that I haven’t seen many times already and there wasn’t that great draw for me to grab onto. Garrett and Ramsey were fun characters at times with their snarky banter back and forth, but even that derailed for me somewhat. Their banter became juvenile with lines like, “I know you are but what am I,” which I have also seen in another of Hart’s books and that doesn’t appeal to me. There were also lots of familiar characters, such as the verbally abusive father harassing the MC for money and the homophobic teammate, and the coach was similar to many other coach characters. I also did wonder how well versed the authors were on the sport of football. While there was football seen here, the scenes were basic and didn’t feel authentic. And while the chemistry was there between Ramsey and Garett, the intimate scenes between them came off as routine.

I liked the friendship the men shared and I did like that Houston, Garrett’s brother and Ramsey’s best friend, was completely fine with them being together. Garrett and Ramsey had a supportive family and that helped counteract Ramsey’s father somewhat and the men do get their happy ever after. Houston is set up for a book and he could have an interesting story as well.

There wasn’t anything that made this book stand out to me and it read like so many other books out there both by the authors and others and I was looking for a fresher take.