Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Blindsided

SERIES:  International Men of Sports #4

AUTHOR:  T.A. Chase and Devon Rhodes

PUBLISHER:  Totally Bound

LENGTH:  140 pages

BLURB:  When Liam is transferred to Melbourne, he’s blindsided by his growing feelings for the hottest lifeguard on the beach. Luckily Matty knows mouth-to-mouth…

How did alone turn into lonely? Rugby player Liam Holmes is forced to ponder that when he’s transferred from Canberra to Melbourne, away from his cousin and all that’s familiar. It’s part of playing pro, adjusting to a new team and teammates, but Liam finds himself searching for something more than his career.

Matty loves the beach and being a lifeguard is all he’s ever wanted to do. He notices the new hottie at the beach right away and wonders what his story is. When he encounters him at the pub, he takes the reserved league player under his wing and into his group of mates, and they soon become fast friends.

Friends isn’t all they want to stay, however. And once they give in to their attraction, the two are blindsided by the emotions that come with their deepening relationship. Can two men without any experience at relationships both navigate their way to steady ground?

REVIEW:  

Can I just say how much I loved this book?  Didn’t understand half of the Aussie-isms and rugby flies right over my head, but I adored this book.  It was just so much fun.

“He’d never met or spoken to the man, but he instinctively knew from his orientation toward the water and regular presence that the ocean drew him in, that he took some sort of solace from the constancy of the sea meeting sand, water meeting sky.”

Liam, after moving to Melbourne to join the local rugby team, is lonely.  But he finds some type of solace at the nearby beach, where he can be in the midst of a crowd, even if he is alone.  It doesn’t hurt that the eye-candy lifeguard is there too.  When he runs into the man at the local pub, Liam takes a chance and approaches him, hoping to strike up a conversation, if nothing else.  What he doesn’t know is that the lifeguard, Matty, has been watching him as well.

When the object of his lust just happens to walk up to him at his local pub, Matty is over the moon.  But it is more than lust that makes him happy to finally get to the talk to the giant of a man.  Liam is fun to be with.  Friendship with the large man is easy, and soon there is a lot more than friendship brewing between the pair.  But not everyone would be thrilled to find out that these two men want each other, and with each step closer they have to fight the weight of Liam’s first love–rugby–and Matty’s friends.   One wrong move and someone could end up being hurt.  Or heartbroken.

Book four in in this series has to be my favorite to date (I know I said that about the last book, but, still…).  There was just so much happy tension in this book that I spent a majority of my time reading it with a smile on my face.  The banter between all the characters was great, and once again I have to say that the secondary characters almost stole the show.  Almost.  Liam and Matty were great, like steal my breath great.  And hot.  And funny.  And sexy.  Let’s just say that the dance they have going on between them is probably my favorite aspect of this book.  I love how they seem to dance around each other, but when they finally snap they sure do it with panache.

Part of my overall enjoyment had to do with how much I loved the setting.  Australia is brilliantly casted in this book.  Granted, a lot of the slang went straight over my head–but in a way that was completely understandable and enjoyable.  It was like learning a new language.  One I will thankfully not be tested on–though, if my French studies had included teaching me slang for condoms, and few peppery curse words, I might not have fared so badly at the oral.  While my love of Australia is not anywhere near my England-obsession, it has been the setting for some of my favorite series, so it was fun to fall back into the Aussie mindset.

I loved Shelly, Liam’s cousin, and adored almost the whole bunch of Matty’s friends.  Well, except Korey.  Korey is a douchebag who is going to lose everything (and deserve it) if he can’t learn to keep his mouth shut (or, you know, just grow the hell up).  I really hope Caro ends up getting her man, that Sean and Collin get their act together, and that someone can finally remember Hadrian’s girl’s name (or at least narrow it down a bit).  Oh, and could I please request a book on Leon, cause I need to find out what is up with him.  And who, if anyone, is taking a nice ocean-side ride with taciturn rugby player.

My one, and rather small, issue with this book is that climax, while enjoyable, is rather low-key.  I expected some type of reaction from the whole macho rugby side, and it never happened.  We did get a lovely (and highly deserved) bar fight though, so I am not too disappointed.  I wish there was a bit of a stronger climax, but I liked that it avoided the whole cliché locker-room backlash, and I loved how relaxed some of the players were.

This book is not big on angst, but it more than makes up for it with a great secondary cast, a steaming pair of protagonists, and two adorable kittens.  I smiled my way through the entire story, and got to google some rather interesting turn of phrases.  I highly recommend this story.  And am really looking forward to whatever Chase and Rhodes have for us next.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: Totally Bound