Review: Don't Read it for the Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 31, 2012
Nicky is supposed to be an up-and-coming sports reporter who is working hard at getting past biases against female reporters in the locker room when she is assigned to cover a huge European soccer tournament. Of course, one of the biggest soccer stars in the world, Lewis Tate, is the captain of the team she is covering, and they share an instant attraction. The problem is that his mysoginistic team manager has banned all women, including wives and sweethearts, from the team hotel rooms during the run of the tournament. I'm just thinking that's not anything that any decent athlete (much less husband) is going to put up with. This far-fetched premise has Nicky and Lewis sneaking around hotel rooms as they get to know each other, then really get to know each other, then engage in a series of romantic rendezvous.From the descriptions of his body alone, I could easily see the attraction that Nicky had for Lewis, and being that he is such a public figure, she knows something about him to be attracted to. But there isn't much that makes me believe that Nicky is any different than any of the other women who Lewis could potentially meet and fall in love with. I mean, she is supposed to be trying to be a strong independent woman who wants to make a name for herself as a sports reporter, but she throws herself at the first athlete who shows as interest. And after just a couple of meetings, he declares that she is so very different from other women who are self centered and self absorbed and don't really bother to get to know him that he HAS to pursue her. I can buy lust, but I couldn't buy love after such a short acquaintance.I was also quite a bit put off by Nicky's reporter friend who keeps propositioning her, and who she keeps hanging out with while Lewis is busy with soccer. I kept expecting him to rape or kidnap her simply because he was overly friendly and kept making plans with her and a group of guys and then showing up alone to drive off with her to distant towns where the tournament was being played out.Maybe I was dwelling too much on a storyline when this was supposed to be pure erotica, but there was either too much story that got in the way of the erotica, or not enough erotic in the piece overall. It was a quick enough read, but if I would have rather spent the time on something else, and if I'd paid for this, I would have asked for my money back.