3.5 Smooches!
Synopsis
“Game of Love is what a good sports romance should be; fast paced, strategic, emotional, and endlessly fascinating.” – 5 Star Review – Natasha Jackson for Readers’ Favorite
Gemma Lennon has spent nearly all of her 21 years focused on one thing: Winning a Grand Slam.
After a disastrous and very public scandal and subsequent loss at the Australian Open, Gemma is now laser-focused on winning the French Open. Nothing and no one will derail her shot at winning – until a heated chance encounter with brilliant and sexy Andre Reyes threatens to throw her off her game.
Breaking her own rules, Gemma begins a whirlwind romance with Andre who shows her that love and a life off the court might be the real prize. With him, she learns to trust and love…at precisely the worst time in her career. The pressure from her home country, fans, and even the Prime Minister to be the first British woman to win in nearly four decades weighs heavily.
As Wimbledon begins, fabricated and sensationalized news about them spreads, fueling the paparazzi, and hurting her performance. Now, she must reconsider everything, because in the high-stakes game of love, anyone can be the enemy within…even lovers and even friends. In the Game of Love, winner takes all.
Review
I am obsessed with sports romance. I think because I live in Northern Ireland where if it isn’t rugby or football (soccer) the population doesn’t want to hear about it. So with the likes of American football, ice hockey and baseball I get to live vicariously and fall in love with each superstar player. One sport I haven’t experienced through book form is tennis. Along with golf I tend to think of it as a bit boring. In Game of Love hot-shot UK tennis player Gemma has set her sights on the Wimbledon title and nothing will stand in her way and especially no love entanglements, which is where sexy savant Andre interrupts her best laid plans. The dynamic between our two heroes is fairly entertaining, built upon a serendipitous meeting that brings about an unlikely friendship and before long a fragile fledgling romance. Andre is witty and chivalrous with a terrific personality, he’s genius level smart and humble to boot. Paired with Gemma who is highly intelligent, athletic and ambitious with an amazing work ethic as well the couple spark well off each other but the one thing that let the story down was the speed of everything. It was unbearably slow with little to no real romance or steam. It lacked serious sexual tension with the story focusing more on Gemma’s insecurities and paranoia and Andre constantly having to chase after her to reassure her. Maybe my brain has been over saturated with hunky hockey players and suave baseball pitchers where the language is more coarse and the action a lot more in demand but Game of Love fell short for me. I found it lagging in places and was tempted to turn through pages without reading it properly but I felt that I owed the author the common courtesy of reading the entire thing before I made up my mind. There needed to be more of a connection between the two characters after the friendship stage. There is a bit of a blackmail story arc running through the book with a betrayal or two and a bad guy or two as well but again there wasn’t enough drama out of these situations to save the enjoyment factor for me. It is very well written, great use of language and dialogue and I do believe the author has great potential but maybe just needs a bit more work developing the characters actual interactions with each other. It wasn’t my type of book but I’m positive there will be a ton of readers who will enjoy Game of Love.
~Nicole
