Reviewed by Kat & Stephen
TITLE: Rim Shot
AUTHOR: Skylar M. Cates
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 270 pages
RE-RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2021
BLURB:
Kyle: Basketball is my life. I’m confident that with hard work, my position will carry me from rural Indiana to the NBA. I have big dreams, but they don’t include coming out of the closet. Admitting to the world that I’m attracted to guys is something I’m afraid to do. Basketball and my dad are everything to me, and I can’t risk losing either one. And now I’m secretly lusting after my new roommate, who is nothing like me. He’s out, proud, and definitely not a virgin.
Micah: My large family can’t spare the money for my education, but that won’t stop me from studying medicine—I’ll work my butt off to get where I need to go. I can deal with anything, now that I’m out of the house I shared with my ex, even if it means living with a straight jock. But our tiny dorm room is becoming smaller, and my feelings are becoming larger. What will Kyle do if I accidentally cross a line?
When a sports scandal rocks Kyle’s world, he and Micah fight for his reputation, and life’s plans are turned upside down by love.
Rim Shot is a republished New Adult romance that contains tropes of forced proximity, friends-to-lovers, and hurt-comfort. It is a standalone work with a guaranteed HEA.
REVIEW by Kat
I can honestly say that this story just didn’t do it for me like I thought it would. I usually love the nerd and the jock trope but I never felt like I connected with the characters or their woes. Kyle and Micah just didn’t have the chemistry for me. I love when I fall for the characters in a book and they become real however they just didn’t do that. They just fell flat for me which is unusual for this author’s work.
I would have hoped that this was a series and we would have heard more about how Kyle and Micah were doing. The ending seemed rather abrupt being as the rest of the book was on the wordier and slow moving side. I was wondering if Kyle kept pursuing a career in the NBA or if he changed majors and became a nutritionist? Did Kyle’s dad ever actively pursue Jenny? And what ever happened to Micah’s friend Todd? Did he find happiness? His character was written like he would be the next book. Then I learned that this book was actually several years old and currently being re-released as a self published book now so it is definitely a standalone book.
I thought that the drug scandal seemed a bit preposterous. The star of the team/leader and a goodie two-shoes to boot and the coach doesn’t question the results and demand a retest when confronted. And doesn’t call a team meeting when the team is falling apart from the scandal. Just doesn’t jive to me.
I will say that the book is written well without any errors that just jump out at you. My problem wasn’t with that but the lack of depth that just didn’t hooked me. There is a lot of sex once Kyle and Micah realize that they are both gay and discard the pretense. And rimming seemed to be their favorite pastime. But even that was borderline repetitive and I found myself starting to skim it as the book went on.
Just wasn’t the book for me.
RATING: 
REVIEW by Stephen K.
Skylar Cates creates some truly lovable characters and gives them a sweet story-line here. I do wish that the author had done a BIT more homework in some spots and rethought a few of her storytelling decisions. She describes Kyle as being 6’4” and yet ducking through doorways and being oggled for his great height. The standard American doorway is six feet 8 inches. Basketball players are much taller. Shaquille O’Neal is 7’1” while the average college player is six foot five. How much more would two or three fictional inches have cost her?
It also seemed incongruous that Kyle was one of the few “white” players on a collegiate Indiana team. A recent University of Indiana team photo shows eight of the fourteen pictured are “white.” At Notre Dame (another Indiana School) that ratio is six of thirteen. Having grown up in the Midwest (and attending MSU while 6’8” Magic Johnson played there) I can attest to the fact that middle America is still pretty white-bread.
Also for an innocently “virginal” character like Kyle’s first graphic fantasy that we hear about to involve being the receptive partner in an aggressive anal scene seemed a bit odd.
Finally, there is one scene that while not totally unmotivated, felt entirely misplaced. At one point where both characters should have been in the throes of a life changing crisis involving college drug testing, they stop to console each other with one of the most graphic sex scenes in the book. I actually had to go back and read the scene later. Couldn’t be bothered to read it at first with what might be the main plot crisis looming… I even highlighted the beginning of that tryst with the comment “Other than that, how’d you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?” To me this scene would have been so much sweeter later in the book; when the crisis was passed, and the two could both reflect what it had cost them.
But enough nit-picking. If one dismisses those incongruities, this tale of a closeted collegiate NBA hopeful and an out pre-med student who becomes his room-mate this M/M romance hits all the right buttons.I enjoyed getting to know them and spending time with them. Apparently they enjoyed spending time together as well. Let’s just say that the books title has less to do with basketball or the musical accompaniment to a punch line than to another connotation.
Historians claim that Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible. He cut out parts he found objectionable, rearranged others and did some colonial-era cutting and pasting to create a book he was happy with. There are even copies based on his edits in several library collections. – If I have the liberty to do something similar here, this has the makings of a 4 or even a 4 1/2 heart book. I’d suggest that you give it a read and judge for yourself, but be prepared to bring along your “virtual scissors.”
RATING: 
(subject to the stated caveat)
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