Theme week Review
Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: The Unforgiving Minute
AUTHOR: Sarah Granger
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 236 Pages
BLURB:
Ryan Betancourt has got it made: he’s reached the top tier of the tennis world thanks to a wild-card entry to the US Open. Ryan is meeting players he has idolized for years, including his teenage crush, Josh Andrews. But he isn’t ready for the politics and manipulation that come with life at the top.
Josh Andrews is closeted, private, and difficult to get to know. He’s been playing tennis since he could walk, won his first tournament at five, and was sent to Spain at thirteen to attend a tennis academy. Before a knee injury forced him into a year off, he was ranked the number one player in the world. Now he’s back—and intent on winning.
Josh and Ryan first meet at a tournament in Brisbane. Ryan excitedly greets Josh only to be ignored. Crushed, he realizes the golden boy of tennis isn’t all he seems. Only in the team-building environment of training for the Davis Cup does Josh open up enough for them to grow closer. Their developing relationship is everything Ryan ever wanted, and he is blissfully happy. But inevitably they have to play against each other, and everything changes.
REVIEW:
When we decided that the theme for this month was sports, which is accommodatingly vague, I found myself flicking through a long list of titles I’d already read, wondering how I could possibly narrow it down to just one book. But in the back of my mind I already knew that I was going to have to choose this one.
The Unforgiving Minute is one of my top two sports themed books. It may even be able to argue for a position in my top ten m/m books in general. It definitely rates as one of my all time favourite endings. Why do I like it so much? An obvious place to start that explanation would be with the characters. Well, one character in particular, Ryan Betancourt, from whose perspective we see this story play out.
Tennis crowds always loved an underdog, and it seemed they loved Ryan in particular. Ryan still wasn’t quite sure why that was, unless it was that they could see he loved them back. He loved making them laugh, which he did rather often and not always on purpose. He also loved simply being out on the court and playing tennis.
Those few lines sum it up perfectly. You can’t help but love Ryan whose enjoyment of life is nothing short of infectious. He’s a professional tennis player, who is in it for the love of the game rather than to accumulate a fortune. In some ways he comes across as too trusting and naive but it makes sense that somebody who is playing at that level of tennis could have been somewhat separate from some of the harsher realities of life. You’ve got to figure that while most teenagers would head out to parties, he’d be practicing tennis, playing tennis and resting up for more tennis. He hasn’t had time to form deep romantic attachments and have his heart broken. He hasn’t spent years stuck in a job that he hates. It’s like he’s still shiny new, and now that he’s finally broken through into the big leagues, he’s travelling the world and being recognized on the streets. He’s lived a charmed life so far, he knows it, and he appreciates it. He’s not so much closeted as cautious when it comes to his sexuality. He sees no reason to let the world know that he’s gay and stress about how people will react when he’s got nobody to be out for anyway. Until he meets Josh.
As a counterpoint, Josh, the golden boy of professional tennis, is in it to win. He plays because he’s brilliant but he no longer gets any joy from it, if he ever did. Actually, saying that he “plays” is incorrect. To him it’s a job, and he lives his life adhering to strict routines. He’s only two years older than Ryan but the differences between them goes beyond age. I loved how being together was beneficial to both of them. It wasn’t just about Ryan helping Josh feel the excitement again but also Josh teaching Ryan to approach professional tennis more…professionally, I guess is the best word. Although, he never does stop galloping around the court like an overgrown puppy, which is how several sources describe him.
There actually is a whole lot of tennis that goes on in the story. The tours take us around the world but the focus remains on the tennis and the MC’s relationship. But its not excruciatingly detailed. I’ve read books like that before! There are pockets of story that see Josh and Ryan take time out from the tennis to concentrate on each other, but in general we follow them from country to country, hotel room to hotel room as they play their way towards Wimbledon. If you absolutely loathe tennis then you may dislike this book but I’m definitely not a tennis fan and I loved it. That’s exactly the way I like my sport, in a book.
I know I already mentioned the ending, but man, that ending! I kind of assumed the story would end with Josh and Ryan facing off at Wimbledon and I was trying to decide through most of the book who I’d want to win. I’m not going to tell you how the book actually ends but I will say that it’s all sorts of freakin’ awesome!
The Unforgiving Minute totally deserves the spotlight this theme week, I can’t yell its praises loud enough. And if I tend to cheer each and every time I read the final match of the book, well, I at least know to make sure I’m on my own.
RATING: 
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