Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Playing It Safe
SERIES: Sydney Smoke Rugby (Book 7)
AUTHOR: Amy Andrews
PUBLISHER: Entangled:Brazen Publishing
LENGTH: 203 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2021
BLURB:
Donovan Bane loves playing rugby for the Sydney Smoke. And if that means he has to keep his sexuality a secret, that’s a sacrifice he’s prepared to make. At least until after he retires, anyway. He doesn’t want to be the first pro rugby player in Australia to officially come out while still playing. The team doesn’t need the media shit storm and he’d rather be known for his footy skills. Which means no dating, no relationships, no sex. Nothing but playing ball.
Until one man suddenly changes everything…
Beckett Stanton is out and proud—and not looking for a guy who isn’t. Been there, done that, complete disaster. Unfortunately, on the first day of his new job working for the Sydney Smoke, he locks eyes with Donovan Bane and he’s a goner. Big, gruff, and athletic isn’t usually Beck’s type, but for some reason this man is ticking all his boxes. And it’s clear the feeling is mutual. It’s also clear that Donovan is not out, and doesn’t plan to be anytime soon. Still, Beck can’t resist being the man to show Donovan everything he’s been missing.
For the first time, Donovan doesn’t play it safe and allows himself to indulge in things with Beck he knows he can’t have. But when their relationship gets serious, he knows he has to choose between the career he loves and the man he loves, because how can he possibly have both?
REVIEW:
A new-to-me author’s first m/m book.
Donovan “Dono” Bane is one of the huge (in more ways than one) star of the Sydney Smoke Elite Rugby Team. And he has a even huger secret…he’s gay. But there are no other Elite Rugby players, let alone major stars, that are “out” in Australia. So Dono is living with his secret, like he has been since he was 15, until he retires in another 5-6 more years. But that’s all about to change since the team hired a gorgeous new finance department guy, Beckett “Beck” Stanton, that checks off all his boxes and he can’t get out of his mind.
I really like the banter between Dono and Beck as they forged around this “non-relationship”. But what I loved most was how caring and thoughtful they both were in regular D’s to the others needs, desires and feelings. They were aware and tried to go slowly so that Dono had a chance to comfortably explode his desires while Beck tried to guard his heart from being shattered.
I did really like this book but really, really, really would have liked to have realized that there was a glossary at the back of the book. Being an American reader I had no clue what a lot of these terms were and spent a lot of time searching on the internet to figure what the writer was saying. The glossary would have been better suited at the beginning so the reader could be introduced to the terms and not be withdrawn from the story trying to figure out what she was saying.
Also, we spent a huge amount of time reading the angst over whether Dino and Beck should be together in this forbidden love. Of whether Dono could finally be the person he really was inside. How it would blow up his career and effect him, his teammates and the team, his daughter and family. Then BAM! It’s done. I really wanted more of the what happens when he comes out. We got a glossed over version in the epilogue but I felt like we had spent so much time on the what if’s and not enough on what did happen when all was revealed. Also, and I know this is inconsequential, but we heard about that little white scar that cut through Dono’s eyebrow several times that Beck seemed fascinated with but he never asked the reason it was there?
I know this is the writer’s first time in the M/M world however even Dono acknowledged he was “well hung” but, when he and Beck have anal sex for the first tome there is absolutely no prep just “use lots of lube and go slow”. It literally made me cringe. I know that Beckett wasn’t a virgin by any means but he hadn’t been with another man in awhile by the time they got to this point and a little stretching would have been more than needed. He could have even showed Donovan how he did it. He was actually teaching him so it would have been appropriate.
I do love when a book teaches me new facts and I learned a doozy in this one while the boys were playing cards. I had absolutely no idea that there was an Icelandic Phallological Museum! I looked it up (yes the wonders of Google) and it’s real! It’s even the only one of its kind in the world and had to move locations at least twice due to its growth. Yep, I went there with that. 🤣
I did really like this book but I feel, even though it’s listed as a standalone, that you would understand more of the brotherhood of Dino’s brothers/teammates and how they stand up for each other if you had read the previous six books in the series. There are references that I think would be better understood but realize that the other six books are all M/F so I won’t be indulging in them.
RATING:
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