Review: The End Zone by Riley Hart
SYNOPSIS:
Jeremy
Seeing my best friend West, happy with his fiancé opened my eyes to things I’ve been missing in my own marriage. My divorce, which was amicable, followed. Strangely, at West’s wedding, I find myself confiding in Darren, the straight, confirmed bachelor and star quarterback of the Atlanta Lightning. Darren is a full-steam-ahead kind of guy, and one talk leads to hanging out, swapping phone numbers, and pranking West and Anson while they’re on their honeymoon. When I head back to California, I expect our chats to end, but I couldn’t be more wrong.
Darren
I still can’t say how it happened, how a random decision to strike up a conversation with Jeremy turned into…whatever this is. All I know is, months later, my days aren’t complete until we tell each other good night. Whether it’s on our calls or when he flies to Atlanta, we talk about everything, lying awake together half the night. Jeremy’s got me feeling…different. If it was just my newly discovered bisexuality, that’d be one thing. I’m not one to stress about being into a man for the first time. It’s the other stuff, the way he makes my pulse race and my heart swell, that’s throwing me for a loop.
I didn’t think I was made for relationships, thought something inside me was broken, but I want it all with him. Except, it feels like as soon as we make it past one obstacle, there’s an even bigger one waiting for us. We just have to keep our heads in the game and our eyes on the prize, to make it to the end zone, before one last tackle takes us down for good.
REVIEW:
I enjoyed this installment to the Atlanta Lightning Series, but I didn’t love it. While The Endgame had that special book magic that draws you in, I never truly fell into The End Zone. The characters were likeable and the romance was cute but there were moments in the story where things seemed to drag out.
Jeremy and Darren were both the comedic relief in the first book so if you read that story, you already know this book is going to be filled with plenty of immature humor. And while these two did have me laughing at moments, I found their initial banter and flirting a little too sexual, especially for someone who is ‘straight’. The nicknames game was initially endearing became annoying and repetitive.
But I think what tore me the most was about mid-way into the story, Darren is having a crisis trying to figure out his sexual identity. I understand these things take time, but it took him almost the entire book to figure it out and put a name on it. And this had my heart aching for Jeremy who is just left on the sidelines floundering with what to call whatever they are. So I think this part of the storyline could have used some more balance.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and thought it was a charismatic read. There were definitely some scenes that absolutely stole my heart, as well as, playful ones to balance them out. I don’t think I would read this story again but if there happens to be a third book in the series, I would pick it up.
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