Team Player: A Sports Romance Anthology by Adriana Locke, Charleigh Rose, Ella Fox, Emma Scott, Kate Stewart, Kennedy Ryan, L.J. Shen, Mandi Beck, Meghan Quinn, Rochelle Paige, Sara Ney Published by Self-Published on December 14th 2017
Pages: 1032
Amazon
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.
*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)
Team Player is a highly enjoyable sports romance anthology. This review covers Sweeping the Series by Kate Stewart, One Good Man by Emma Scott, Switch Hitter by Sara Ney, and Full Court Press by Kennedy Ryan.
Sweeping the Series by Kate Stewart
This romantic comedy is about Ren, a womanizer who seems to spend more time feeding the tabloids with salacious stories than focusing on his career as a major league baseball catcher. Erica is the PR representative hired to clean up his image. Oh, and she’s also his ex-girlfriend/love of his life. There’s a love/hate dynamic between them that gives off all kinds of sparks.
This is a standalone story, but if you’ve read Anything but Minor or Major Love, you’ll be thrilled to know that Rafe and Alice, as well as Andy and April return to support Ren.
There are many things to enjoy here: the second chance romance, the wonderful friendships, and the wounded bad boy angle. There’s a little bit of cheese towards the end, but I couldn’t help but root for Ren and Erica to get back together and make sweet, sweet (or dirty) love. My favorite thing about the novella is that it’s pee your pants funny. I swear I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and tears rolled down my face. The main culprits: April and Alice. Oh, how I missed this crazy crew! If you haven’t read the other books in the Balls in Play series, do yourself a favor and pick them up.
One Good Man by Emma Scott
Most of the sports romances I read are romantic comedies, so this more serious contemporary romance was a pleasant surprise. The two main characters, Adrian and Janey, are quite layered; however, the side characters are more of the one-dimensional novella variety. I loved Adrian’s sister, though!
I would have liked more chemistry between Janey and Adrian. While they are a good fit as friends, I just wasn’t feeling them as a romantic couple. The novella is sweet and engaging. It just lacks certain elements that push it over from the “like” category into the “love” category for me. I have no doubt I would have enjoyed the story more if it were longer in length. Unquestionably, Emma Scott has the writing chops to develop the relationships and aspects of the plot more fully so that the story lives up to its fullest potential.
Switch Hitter by Sara Ney
I’m giving a virtual high five to Sara Ney for this adorkable rom-com. Ever since The Parent Trap, I’ve had a soft spot for twin switcheroo stories.
Lucy and Amelia couldn’t be more different, and that’s part of what makes this story work so well. As a favor, “boring” (read: quiet and caring) Amelia agrees to pretend to be her vivacious (read: slutty and self-centered) sister, Lucy, while on a date with Lucy’s boyfriend, Dante. Following me so far? Why does Lucy want her sister to date a guy she’s interested in sleeping with? You’ll just have to read the story to find out.
I loved Dante so much. He’s a real gentleman and super observant. The buildup of his relationship between Amelia (as Lucy?) is quirky in the most fun way. Dante is a baseball player, and although this is a sports romance, not one single game is played. The sport still manages to play an important part of the story.
My main issue is that I couldn’t find any redeemable qualities in Lucy. She’s unbelievably shallow and callous. For the life of me, I didn’t understand Amelia’s devotion to her sister or her reluctance to jump Dante’s bones. At any rate, all’s well that ends well.
Full Court Press by Kennedy Ryan
I love that Kennedy Ryan does not shy away from difficult subject matters in her stories. They are raw, real, and thought provoking, but always colored with a brush of optimism. I shouldn’t be surprised that she incorporates all these traits in this sports romance.
The story is set against a backdrop of professional basketball. Deck is an All-Star NBA player, and Avery is a highly regarded sports reporter. Theirs is a second chance romance of sorts, and I appreciated the tension that builds between them.
It feels like some important details are glossed over at the end, and I was left a tad bit confused about the characters’ future. Otherwise, it is a satisfying love story.
**ARC received in exchange for an honest review.**
Buy Team Player!
About Emma Scott
Emma Scott writes romances with flawed characters, characters with artistic hearts: builders, poets, and writers of various makes and models. Emma loves to write book lovers; those who have found refuge, companionship, and escape in books, much as we all do in real life. She digs realism, honesty, authenticity in storytelling. She also loves to write about enduring love, soul-deep love, in as real a setting as possible, but with big smooshy HEAs. Emma believes in diversity, open-mindedness, and inclusion. She adores sweetness mixed with steam, love conquering all, and above all, hope. Love always wins.
About Kate Stewart
USA Today bestselling author and Texas native, Kate Stewart, lives in North Carolina with her husband, Nick, and her naughty beagle, Sadie. She pens messy, sexy, angst-filled contemporary romance, as well as romantic comedy and erotic suspense. Kate’s title, Drive, was named one of the best romances of 2017 by The New York Daily News and Huffington Post. Drive was also a finalist in the Goodreads Choice awards for best contemporary romance of 2017. Her works have been featured in USA Today, BuzzFeed, and translated in five languages.
Kate is a lover of all things ‘80s and ‘90s, especially John Hughes films and rap. She dabbles a little in photography, can knit a simple stitch scarf for necessity, and on occasion, does very well at whiskey.
About Kennedy Ryan
A RITA® Award Winner, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Her heroes respect, cherish and lose their minds for the women who capture their hearts.
Kennedy and her writings have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Oprah Magazine, TIME and many others. As an autism mom, she has a special passion for raising Autism awareness. The co-founder of LIFT 4 Autism, an annual charitable book auction, she has appeared on Headline News, The Montel Williams Show, NPR and other media outlets as an advocate for ASD families.
She is a wife to her lifetime lover-husband and mother to an extraordinary son.
About L.J. Shen
L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.
Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets peoples’ birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.
She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.
About Meghan Quinn
Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped.
Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking.
Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze!
About Sara Ney
Sara Ney is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the How to Date a Douchebag series, and is best known for her sexy, laugh-out-loud New Adult romances. Among her favorite vices, she includes: iced latte’s, historical architecture and well-placed sarcasm. She lives colorfully, collects vintage books, art, loves flea markets, and fancies herself British.
She lives with her husband, children, and her ridiculously large dog.
Any thoughts? (Comments may be held for moderation.)