Play by Play (Play Makers #1) by Kate Donovan

Summary:

Former college football star Jake Dublin’s wildly popular sports blog also details his personal life. And lately it’s all about Sophie, the pretty young woman who just moved into his apartment building. His readers know her only as “Elevator Girl,” and they’re all rooting for Jake to score.

The blog posts and banter with his followers are all in good fun, and he fully intends to come clean with the woman he’s wooing and wowing. That is, until she confides that she grew up in a house full of jocks and even dated a few. Her verdict? Never again!

Jake knows he needs to confess. But somewhere along the line he fell in love with Sophie and can’t stand the thought of losing her. So he procrastinates, and blogs, and digs himself deeper into a hole, until it all leads to a showdown that’s so nail-biting, not even the best play-by-play guy could ever have seen it coming.
Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 85 pages (E-book)
Source: NetGalley.com
Available Formats: E-book
Publication Date: September 9th 2013 by Beyond the Page

I'm going to be honest, since I got my Kindle up and running again I may or may not have relapsed on NetGalley. I also may or may not have gone crazy requesting some titles and I may or may not have been on the look out for new authors for me to read like Kate Donovan.

Since I decided to participate in the 2013 Sports Romance Reading Challenge I've been slacking but lately I've been trying to make progress with it so when I saw this was available on NetGalley, I downloaded anyway even though I was filled with trepidation since I don't have the best track record with novellas but recently I've been doing okay with them and I hoped my good streak would continue with this as well.

Unfortunately for me Play by Play just fumbled around for me. I didn't not like it but I didn't not not like it. It was one of those middle of the road novellas. My problem with the story was the characters. I liked the way that the story was told and the fact that Jake was a sports blogger who blogged about Elevator Girl (Sophie) was a neat way of setting up their romance but the characters and I just didn't vibe together.

Jake was sweet, I'll give him that but he was just so dull. I didn't find much to be excited about he's more of the guy friend not the boyfriend type. He was cute, sweet, mildly charming but I just didn't see the boyfriend potential that Sophie saw in him. As for Sophie, I didn't care for her much either. She was mediocre and far too insipid for my tastes. The girl couldn't make up her mind about anything and I didn't like the way she shut Jake out FOR NO REASON. But, I will say it added some much needed drama to the story. Plus, the chemistry between the two was there but I think it could have been expanded on and their sex scenes were just plain awkward and the dialogue was a little forced.

That being said, I didn't mind the novella as a whole. There were just 3 things I would have fixed and those were what I just mentioned. The actual premise of the novella was great and I enjoyed reading Jake's blog posts, and I really enjoyed that much of the story was told from his point of view (though it did alternate between him and Sophie). I thought it was so refreshing to see a romance from a mans perspective and I would love to see more romances written in the same way. Also, this was advertised as a sports romance and for once it turned out that sports were actually a big integral part of the over all story line not just some added in snippet so the author could say it was a sports romance.

Overall, this wasn't the best or the worst thing I've read this year but it' right in the middle. It was quick, and fun but there were some issues with it though it did have it's pros as well. I liked the fact that I was able to knock another new to me author off my list and I look forward to reading more by Kate Donovan soon.

I would recommend Play by Play to fans of contemporary romance and sports romances who are looking for a quick read in between novels. This would be a great little afternoon read while your relaxing after cleaning up or just in need of a little romance fix.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my free and honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are 100% my own.

I read this book for the following reading challenges:

 

2013 150+ Reading Challenge

2013 Sports Romance Reading Challenge

 

 It Was Okay!
★★ 1/2

 

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