Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  The Red Zone

SERIES:  The Riptide Book 3

AUTHOR:  Beth Bolden

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH: 406 pages

RELEASE DATE:  August 11, 2021

BLURB:

Spencer’s deep in the Red Zone and it’s time to even the score.

Nine years ago Spencer Evans became the first player out of the closet to be drafted into the NFL. Everyone believed he had aspirations to change the world but all Spencer ever wanted to do was play football for a team that accepted him wholeheartedly. But they never would, and Spencer began to conceal all the parts that made him different.

When a terrible injury forces him to re-evaluate his life and his choices, he realizes there’s only one man who can help him.

The very first gay sports agent, Alec Mitchell has given his life and his career to making queer athletes’ dreams come true. He can’t help but think of Spencer as the one who got away—professionally and personally.

Alec thought he’d buried his desperate longing for Spencer ages ago but it turns out it was just lying dormant, waiting for the right spark. When he begs Alec to take him on as a client, everything they’ve been burying for years surfaces once again.

With Alec’s help, Spencer can change everything about his life he’s come to hate. An extraordinary future—and an undeniably extraordinary man—are waiting for him. The play has been called. All he has to do is catch the ball and score.

REVIEW:

Beth Bolden’s The Red Zone concludes her diverting The Riptide series with the romance of Alec Mitchell, sports agent, and Spencer Evans, misunderstood defensive powerhouse player from the Los Angeles Stars, the Riptide’s rival football team.  The story follows Alec and Spencer’s relationship over the course of nine years.  We see their interactions from the first time they meet at the NFL draft when Spencer is drafted to the Stars, to the present day when Spencer is looking to turn his life around, away from the Stars, hopefully with Alec’s help.

The romance between Spencer and Alec is sweet and heartwarming, with minimal angst.  However, that’s not to the exclusion of some complex circumstances they need to navigate.  I enjoyed the dynamic and interactions between Alec and Spencer a lot.  They are opposite in so many ways, but so very similar in others that are not readily apparent.  Ms. Bolden peels back the layers in a very engaging way.  She also does a terrific job fleshing out their characters, particularly Spencer’s.  

Spencer really is the star of the show in The Red Zone.  It’s a redemption story wrapped up in the trappings of a love story.  As such, Spencer’s journey and his relationship with Alec rely heavily on their history.  

When The Red Zone opens, Spencer is generally reviled by everyone.  For the past nine years, he’s been trapped in a “use and abuse” situation.  He’s been playing for the Los Angeles Stars amidst a homophobic, toxic environment where everyone hates him and insults him with vitriolic slurs at every turn.  But they need him, so they use him for his talent and abuse him for who he is as a person.  Spencer is a phenomenally good football player.  He’s a once-in-a-generation talent.  Even the Stars aren’t stupid enough to dump a two-time, reigning Defensive Player of the Year. 

Through her portrayal of Spencer, Ms. Bolden creates a fascinating and unusual twist on the closeted gay sports athlete romance.  Spencer finds himself in a conundrum of his own making.  He’s an out football player who essentially put himself back in the closet.  He put his head down, focused on the game, and did everything he could to try to deflect from his “gayness”.   In so doing, he made it through, losing a piece of himself day by day, while simultaneously alienating potential allies.  This includes many of the players on the Riptide like Heath Harris and Sam Crawford (from Book 1 The Rivalry) and Neal Fisher and Jamie Wright (from Book 2 Rough Contact).  

The Red Zone’s story arc derives from Spencer suffering a terrible injury.  He then realizes over the course of a lonely, painful winter of recovery that he’s had enough.  He doesn’t want to be that person anymore.  He wants a new lease on life and Alec is just the guy to help him make that a reality. 

This redemption story, and Spencer and Alec’s romance, only make sense if you understand Spencer’s history.  The book often references a confrontation that Spencer had with Chase Riley, Riptide receiver.  That incident essentially sealed Spencer’s status as a first-class ass and persona non grata with the Riptide players.  This is a crucial piece of background that oddly, doesn’t appear in a flashback even though plenty of flashbacks are used throughout the book.  Additionally, that scene doesn’t even take place in the prior books in the Riptide series. Instead, those events transpire in Hit the Brakes, part of Ms. Bolden’s Food Truck Warriors series.  That series is only loosely related to the Riptide series through the cross-over romance between Chase and his food truck owner boyfriend, Tate. 

All of this wouldn’t be an issue if the background is explained sufficiently in the book.  However, in my view, it wasn’t.  Similarly, despite all the references to Alec and Spencer’s long history, including several flashbacks, I still felt like something was missing.  As a result, when they finally get together, it felt abrupt.

In retrospect, the sequencing of the story and the positioning of the flashbacks was what caused the problem.  In most cases, we did get the background and context we needed, but it came too late in time in relation to the events in the present-day that derived from them.  As a result, the reader spends way too long wondering if they missed something and lacking important pieces of the puzzle.  Personally, I found it distracting because I kept wondering if I read something before and was expected to know it but forgot what it was, or if we just hadn’t been given the information yet. 

Other than the context and timing issues, though, The Red Zone provided a thoroughly enjoyable romance between two complex men who were easy to like and root for.  Found family is front and center in this story, enhanced by the integral role the prior couples play.  Ms. Bolden develops magic between them, with the men displaying a welcoming nature as well as open-mindedness and willingness to change their attitudes and not hold a grudge.  The men don’t immediately get on board with Spencer’s shedding of his old ways, but Spencer’s doggedness, active seeking of forgiveness, and determination to prove he’s changed, ultimately wins them over, and wins us over as well.  Their engagement with Alec and Spencer really rounds out the story with warm and fuzzy feels, providing the Riptide series with satisfying closure.

I recommend The Red Zone wholeheartedly, although I also recommend you read at least Book 1, The Rivalry, and Food Truck Warriors Book 3, Hit the Brakes, first.  It’s not essential, but it will make the read easier, feel more complete, and even more enjoyable than it already is on its own.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

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