Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:    Fourth and Long

AUTHOR:     Michele M. Rakes

PUBLISHER:  Loose Id

LENGTH:     413 Pages

BLURB:

Irus Beaumont, cornerback for the Highlanders, has an issue with his nemesis: wideout for the Pirates, Jackson McCoy. Partly jealous over Jackson’s skill and ability to scrub coverage, Irus also struggles against an unbearable attraction to the receiver. Firmly ensconced in the closet, Irus has a no football player rule, leaving his desires for Jackson unfulfilled. Anti-gay sentiment in the league keeps Irus closeted, even though he’d rather be out and proud.

When Jackson McCoy suffers a gay bashing at the hands of his team mates after winning the national championship, he finds himself traded to the Highlanders. Spring training brings out Jackson’s competitive nature, eliciting the aggression of his new team’s cornerback, Irus Beaumont.

In practice, Irus hurts Jackson badly. The injury places Jackson on the reserve roster. Jacks has plenty of time to contemplate his life, career, and his attraction to the sexy cornerback. Off to Orlando for the best rehab where guilt inspires Irus to call him every evening, Jackson can’t stop thinking about Irus, or what the season holds for his team.

REVIEW:

Warning: There are repeated references to child sexual abuse in this book, but no graphic details.

I really enjoyed “Fourth and Long”, and the characters that Ms. Rakes introduced us to. I wavered back and forth between wanting to reach into the book and shake both the main characters to make them get their heads out their butts towards each other, and loving them.

Irus Beaumont is a cornerback for the Highlanders, a football team from Washington State. He HATES Jackson McCoy, his arch-nemesis, a wideout for a rival team, the Pirates. Irus goes out of his way to sack Jackson and it has almost become a game between them. It particularly pisses him off that Jackson calls him Iris, the girl’s name! But does he really hate him, or is some other emotion involved?

Jackson McCoy has been with the Pirates for a while, and secretly having sex with the team’s quarterback, a married man, who of course isn’t “gay” because he is married. The guy treats Jackson like a receptacle, a sex outlet, but nothing more. When another player discovers the truth, he tells everyone on the team. Jackson is severely beaten by the defensive team players and before the day is over traded to the Highlanders.

Now Jackson and Irus are on the same team. Will they learn to play together? When Irus injures Jackson during a practice, it seems that Jackson’s football days might be over.

I loved the mix of stories running through this book. We have a character named Paul Phelps that closely resembles Jerry Sandusky at Penn State, except this time the guy is in Washington State. He is integral to the story, and even has ties to the previous book “Saving Kane”, since the serial killer in that book, it turns out, was one of Paul’s “boys”.

It took me a minute to figure out that “Auntie Beulah” was “Momma” from Saving Kane, and I even breezed right over Kane and Garrett’s names at first as well, because I was so involved learning Irus and Jackson’s story! For those of you who haven’t read “Saving Kane” and don’t know what I’m talking about, you don’t have to read it first, but it would help because of some of the story line references.

I loved this book, but even at 400 plus pages, it seems like maybe there is more to tell? There are a few items intentionally left open, I believe, to carry into another book? <Spoilers> Specifically, a trial, a championship game, and a mysterious dark haired guy in a faded army jacket?

I highly recommend this book. As I said above, it is 400 plus pages, but the storyline and plot carry you along so fast that you’ll be done before you know it!

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Loose Id

Amazon

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