Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: An Ace in the Tiebreak
SERIES: International Men of Sports #8
AUTHORS: T.A. Chase and Devon Rhodes
PUBLISHER: Totally Bound
LENGTH: 166 pages
BLURB:
When Robin has to choose between two very different men, he has to try not to double-fault…while hoping for an ace.
Professional tennis player Robin Keller has a love/hate relationship with most everything in his life—his game, his tennis rival and sometimes hook-up Danie Coetzee, the pills and alcohol he uses to get through his days. Nothing seems to be going right anymore, and when he hits rock bottom after the French Open, drastic changes are the only option.
Quinn Damaris has a well-earned reputation for turning around the careers of the athletes he acts as chef for, and he can tell from the first meeting that Robin is going to be a challenge. But as a double amputee, he’s not a man to back down just because the road is rough.
He didn’t count on anything starting between them, especially when the way he realizes Robin is gay when he sees him with Danie. Robin will have to make a choice. Is Quinn kidding himself to think that a tennis star could fall for a man who isn’t whole?
REVIEW:
Robin Keller’s life and career is in a bit of a slump. His casual fling with another player is going nowhere, and the painkillers and alcohol he has been using to relax is really starting to kill his game. After he crashes and burns at his latest match, his coach and his agent decide it is time for a change. They bring in Quinn Damaris, a personal chef with a habit of engaging in a little personal therapy with his clients, to help turn Robin around and maybe get his life and game back in shape.
Quinn never let the fact that he lost his lower legs in a climbing accident stop him from living the life he wants. And being personal chef to the rich and famous in need of a life change, has certainly been interesting. But he never expected to fall for Robin. Or that Robin would want him right back. But where they go from there, no one knows.
I’m quite fond of this series. I love the various men and sports that we get introduced to, and they are almost guaranteed to have an interesting story with little to no angst. It is very much what I needed after the last few books I read–both of which reduced me to tears.
I don’t know all that much about tennis. In fact the only real tennis memory I have is from my junior year of high school where I misjudged a swing and ended up thwapping a dude in the neighboring swimming pool in the head with a tennis ball. And that was one of my better attempts at tennis. Me and sports just do not get along on a one to one basis.
But I did enjoy this book, and thankfully I didn’t need all that much tennis background to understand what was going on. Though the whole scoring thing just confuses me. But that is pretty much par of the course.
The relationship between Quinn and Robin was heated, and nicely creative since Quinn is in a wheelchair half of the time. I did like the bit of tension between Quinn and Robin in regards to Robin’s old fling, but that sorted itself out nicely before it became a real big thing but also kept it interesting enough that the guys were not just living in a land of rainbow colored kittens all the time.
I love this series, and probably will read anything written in it. It is nice to come across something that I can enjoy without fearing that my heart is at real risk. Looking forward to whatever theses authors throw at us next.
RATING: 
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