4.5 Smooches!
Synopsis
Rule of reporting 101– don’t bang your subject.
Sophie Hall has just gotten the opportunity of a lifetime–to profile Nathan Ryder, the hottest baseball player since A-Rod, for her first solo assignment as a reporter. Rumor has it Nathan is going to be drafted to the Major league, and yet he still fits an intense training regime around volunteering at a animal shelter. He’s a prodigy with a heart of gold, as American as apple pie and has an ass that deserves a trophy all its own. He may be the country’s heartthrob, but Sophie isn’t going to fall for that. She just has to remain objective and cover the story.
But she didn’t bet on Nathan’s gorgeous green eyes or the way his arms flex with muscle when he’s holding a bat. And she certainly didn’t think he’d be witty and smart and caring. Nathan is completely untouchable, but she can’t help it if those lingering gazes turn into something more. How could she not fall at the thought of the hottest guy she’s ever met devoting his limited free time to saving kittens?
When Sophie’s scoop turns into Nathan’s scandal, Nathan needs her more than ever. With both of their careers on the line will they strike out – or hit a home run?
Review
This right here. This is my jam. Sports Romance for the win everytime and this time it involves baseball and one of the sweetest yet overtly sexy heroes since Knox Masters of Sacked fame. Game On by Katie McCoy may not have the same loud overzealous stage presence as Pucked in fact it’s like experiencing a personal acoustic set-it’s far more intimate, you pay way more attention to the details in the writing and you come away feeling all warm and fuzzy inside as though you lived your life through those words and they were written just for you. I didn’t even care that it wasn’t a dual POV and I ALWAYS care if it has a dual POV, in fact Game On is told entirely from our intelligent, incredibly ballsy and funny journalist heroine’s point of view. This girl, Sophie Hall, cracked me up, she was very reminiscent of an American Bridget Jones, endearingly clumsy, instantly likable and says pretty much anything she is thinking but when it comes to chauvinistic, fifties throwback misogynists this heroine knows a thing or two about taking them down a peg or two, subtlety be damned. It’s this personality and beautiful face that attracts The Longhorns’ star player Nathan Ryder, a young ridiculously hot but humble baseball star in the making and on the cusp of superstardom.
‘He laced his fingers in the chain fence on either side of my head, effectively pinning me to the wall. I could feel the heat of his body as he leaned forward, his eyes hot and intense. I knew I should stop him, I knew this was a bad idea, but instead I just met his gaze and licked my lips. He groaned deep in his throat and I knew we were both goners.’
Game On is an intelligent, entertaining and realistic take on a sports romance especially when Sophie and Nate have quite a few pesky obstacles blocking their way to a happily ever after. It is a bit of a slow burner but those are always the best. It’s a slow simmer, gaining heat and tension until it finally ignites into a raging inferno of repressed passion and unfurling love. It’s sometimes difficult to balance how much sport you actually portray in a book, with how much romance is thrown in and I think in Game On we would have benefitted from more game time and player interaction, just so we got a sense of how Nate is among his peers rather than just his best friend Chris, besides this I think Game On needed a little more in the drama stakes, it was a nice change of pace to not be worrying about slut shaming the ball groupies attacking the hero or having the heroine stalked by a deranged ex either, so apart from these small issues, Game On was without a doubt another terrific piece of writing and I can’t wait to see what Katie has in store for us all next.
~Nicole
