5 SMOOCHES!
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SYNOPSIS:
Falling for the rookie wasn’t part of the plan.
As a pro athlete, I have one unbreakable rule when it comes to men — Don’t date another baseball player.
Good thing I haven’t been tempted once in four years in the majors.
Until the day a rising star walks into my locker room. Outgoing, affable, and sexy-as-sin, Grant has confidence and talent for miles. He seems to get me too, maybe because we each have our fair share of secrets and scars — ones we’ll both fight to protect.
But, I’ve got far too much trouble in my past to want to bring any into my present.
All the more reason to resist the kind of dirty deeds his lips and eyes promise.
Even after I plant a scorching, hot kiss on the rookie one night after a game.
Even after he sends me the world’s sexiest selfie.
But when Grant reveals his biggest secret, I’m so damn ready to rip up the rulebook.
Turns out he’s a virgin and he wants me to help him get around all the bases.
The only rule? Don’t fall in love with him as we go.
Scoring with Him is book one in a two-book duet. This romance between two professional athletes spans five epic years and continues in Winning With Him.
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REVIEW:
If you’ve followed my reviews for any amount of time, the fact that I’m a Lauren Blakely fangirl is not new information. This author’s romcoms and contemporary romances are my safe space, where I got to hunker down, unwind and slough off the stress of my life. Over the last few years, she’s spread her wings and tried out different things, like those decadently dirty After Dark romances, and I’ve been here for every glorious word of it. She’s spreading those writing wings once again, venturing into M/M romance, and it’s clear to me as one of her long-time readers and someone who’s read and reviewed all of her work since the Big Rock series, she was meant to write these stories. They’re obviously projects she’s passionate about, and having read all of her MM works, I can feel the love she’s poured into them. I’m a big believer in love is love and that love should be celebrated wherever it’s found, clearly Blakely feels the same given the fact that she gives the same kind of care and consideration when crafting these stories as she does to her MF stories. She fills the pages with all the romance, relationship development, emotion and heat that she does any other story she writes.
Scoring With Him kicks off a duet. While I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I’m going to state what I think is obvious. A duet is a two-part story, and that means that yes, there is a cliffhanger in this story. But there is no need to fret, the second book in Declan and Grant’s story is coming in just a few short weeks! My personal viewpoint on cliffhangers has changed over the years. When I first started actively reading romance, I did not care for them and avoided cliffies at all costs, preferring to wait to all the books were released to read a story that had one. A few years ago, I unknowingly started reading one that, like this story, had a short wait between releases. Much to my surprise, I found that I actually enjoyed the cliffhanger experience. The anticipation and build-up created by the short wait for satisfaction was a different reading experience for me, and I actually kind of enjoyed having the second part of this story to look forward to. Since then, my perspective on cliffhangers has changed, and as long as the wait between releases is a short one, I’m actually alright with a cliffhanger now. I don’t seek them out or anything, but I also no longer actively avoid them.
Scoring With Him is the beginning of a forbidden romance, and from the very first page, I was hooked. Sweet, tender and a touch tragic, Grant and Declan’s romance drew me in and made my heart race. Two professional baseball players – teammates – meet at spring training. Declan is a seasoned, well-known player, and Grant is a rookie—in every sense of the word. Blakely stoked the fires between them using heat, humor and some heartfelt emotion. The attraction between these two men sizzled, and their flirty, dirty banter definitely ramped up all that delicious chemistry. In a perfect world, Declan and Grant would have slid straight into a relationship, they were that perfect together. But this isn’t a perfect situation, they’ve got a pretty big obstacle in their path, namely the fact that Declan has cemented his spot on this team’s roster, but Grant is trying to earn his. As teammates, this is a line they should not be crossing, yet this pull is something they both are having trouble fighting.
Scoring With Him had all the elements that make up the best contemporary romances. Those delicious “should they or shouldn’t they” moments, the heart-racing early stages of a relationship and the thrill of a new lover. Declan and Grant’s story was more emotional than Blakely’s love stories typically are, though, and the realization that this couple is in a right person, wrong time situation was delivered with a swift gut punch. I felt the longing, the hope and the devastation of their circumstances, and I cannot wait for Blakely to bring them full circle to happily ever after. This duet is one of my most anticipated reads of the summer, and it has lived up to my every expectation so far. I’m literally on the edge of my seat, anxious with anticipation for the next part of Declan and Grant’s journey. Five smooches from me for Scoring With Him by Lauren Blakely!
~Danielle Palumbo
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