Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Straddling the Line (Play by Play #8) by Jaci Burton


Trevor Shay has it all—a successful football and baseball career, and any woman he wants. But when he finds out his college mentor’s daughter is in trouble, he drops everything to come to her aid.

Haven Briscoe has finally landed a dream job as a sportscaster for a major network. But she hasn’t been able to move past the recent death of her beloved father, and it’s affecting her career. A plum assignment following the daily life of sports superstar Trevor Shay might be just the inspiration she needs…

Trevor will do anything to spark life back into Haven, including letting her into every aspect of his world. The chemistry between them flames higher than one of Trevor’s home runs and faster than his dashes to the end zone. But as they grow closer, Haven stumbles onto Trevor’s closely guarded secret, one he’s hidden his entire life. And despite his protests, now it’s Haven’s turn to put everything on hold to help Trevor. Will he let her in and trust her with a secret that could blow his professional and personal world apart?

Type: Contemporary Romance
Heat: 3 out of 5
Rating: 4 out of 5

Amazon | All Romance | Book Depository | BAM | Goodreads

Ahh how I love the sporty goodness that Jaci Burton masterfully creates. It's just make-you-tingle good! And this time not only is there a baseball player but he's a footballer to boot! *swoons* Straddling the Line was a super charged sports romance and a damn good time as Trevor caves to doing an interview for his late mentor's daughter and winds up rather taken by her.


The quick of it is that life has been hard for Haven this past year. She landed her dream job but she also lost the man that meant the most to her. Her father and her best friend. And she's flailing. Cue her mama drafting family friend Trevor to help bring her out of her funk and get her passionate about life again. Which brings the two together for an extended time as she comes in to interview him and do his professional bio for her sports news stations

I really enjoyed both Haven and Trevor. They're just easy people to like and get to know. They've got a shared past that totally melted me and were just fun to watch as they worked together and realized that while they've known each other for ages they might not really know each other. There were lots of light hearted moments but also some rather serious as they dealt with traumas and insecurities--Haven finally grieving the loss of her father and Trevor dealing with a secret he's kept fiercely hidden his entire life and that's being forced into the open. I liked that combo in them seeing their confidence in some areas but seeing them still struggling with certain aspects in their lives. Gave them a nice bit of depth I thought.
Okay this was after getting caught in the rain on their way home and it so made me chuckle...

"Are you going to stand there dripping and ogling me, or are you going to get out of your wet clothes?" she finally asked.

"Sorry. My brain cells sank right to my dick when you started stripping."

She laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment. In the meantime, I'm going to go to my room and take a hot shower."

"You don't want to wait while I undress?"

She actually paused to look him over, then said, "Probably not a good idea. See you later, Trevor."

He liked that she'd pondered the idea. "Yeah. Later, Haven."
There was some very nice heat brought to the page--even if it's a tad inappropriate given their working together-and humor as well. These two had some great chemistry and the steamy bits were pretty dang steamy. Some a wee bit daring. Some pretty fun and light hearted. And all of it sensual and quivery. Yep. Things quiver. Lots of quivering happening. lol 

Aside from the romance sparking the sports aspect was nicely done I thought. My non-sporty self might not have understood ALL of it but I still enjoyed seeing everything play out and that Trevor was a double threat playing both baseball and football professionally. It was an interesting addition and neat seeing him make that work. There were quite a few cameos by previous characters along the way as well and while I loved that in a way it didn't always feel right. More often than not the dialogue/scenes were a little too...not stiff exactly but they just didn't feel quite natural as they were reintroduced and everyone caught up.

All in all, Straddling the Line was a blast. It definitely filled scratched my itch for a sexy sports romance and while not perfect was pretty dang enjoyable.

More Burton on herding cats!

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