Review: Not for me. Here are the reasons why...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2014
I received this book via Netgalley for an honest review.I can’t resist a romance when sports is an important part, so when I saw this one on Netgalley, I thought that it should be right my alley. It was my first book written by Kate Donovan and unfortunately, I’m quite disappointed. Let me explain why.First, while the plot itself is quite easy and classic when it comes to that kind of story, it’s not the thing that bothered me. The plots and sub-plots are quite all over the place, sometimes exploding in all and every direction to the point that it becomes more ‘difficult’ to follow or at least enjoy the adventure. It’s a damn shame because it could have been really amazing. To be honest, I even think some parts weren’t believable and even contradict other parts in the story.For example, Erica bothered me to no end. She was always changing her mind to the point that it wasn’t even logical. I mean, I don’t mind at all when a character is having trouble settling her mind and when she’s fighting with herself when it comes to a guy because it’s often thrilling to read about, but here it’s not how it felt. In fact, I couldn’t feel her at all most of the time. It’s a big problem when it’s the main character.Johnny is a good enough male lead character even if I couldn’t see the real chemistry for a good part of the book. I missed it completely in fact. The author had to point it out through both characters’ words for it to be understandable, which is, once again, a real issue to me. Johnny won’t leave any mark in my mind, I think.I really like the secondary characters like Bam and Decker. These two were awesome to read about, and I’d love to read a book centered on them to better see their friendship and how silly Bam is and how sweet Decker is. The best kind of mix. Hopefully the author will write them books and maybe I’ll enjoy it more if the characters are better characterized and if the plot is better polished or at least better built.Also, now that I think about it, I miss a higher stake in this book. Since the chemistry between Johnny and Erica isn’t that obvious most of the time, a higher stake would have helped me to get into the story and then fear for the characters. It’s just an idea, because I truly think that there’s material for a good book, but it missed the mark for me. I always feel bad when it happens, almost as if I’m the one who failed a book and not the other way around. I’m weird, I know.So, obviously, I didn’t like reading this book. Maybe you’ll feel differently if you read it, maybe I was expecting too much or maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.