Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Hidden Plays
SERIES: Desert Football #1
AUTHOR: Christie Gordon
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 309 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 16, 2025
BLURB:
Sharing a locker room with my high school rival is bad enough. Pretending to date him? A terrible idea. Trying not to fall for him? Hopeless.
JJ
Football is everything—my escape, my future, my one shot to prove I’m not my father’s disappointment.
Then Holden Cox appears. The golden boy who stole my MVP and made me doubt myself.
Now he’s my student trainer, living under my skin, touching me like he owns me.
And to prove a point, I challenge him to fake-date me.
It’s the only way my friends will shut up about my last boyfriend.
One lie. One kiss. One mistake waiting to happen.
Holden
I’m in college to rebuild my future in football, not to be tangled with JJ Matthews.
I told myself I’d never fall for him. I’m not even sure I like guys.
But JJ is different. Always has been.
Now I’m faking kisses that feel too real and wanting things I don’t know how to name.
Keeping this secret could save us both or break me in ways my busted knee never did.
Hidden Plays is the first book in the Desert Football series, which is a spin-off of the Desert Ice Hockey series. It features rivals who can’t keep their hands off each other, a fake boyfriend scheme that feels all too real, a bisexual awakening that changes everything, and found-family teammates cheering for their happily ever after.
Buy now and tackle all the feels. Because when it comes to love, these boys are playing for keeps.
REVIEW:
I have been eagerly awaiting this new spin-off novel from the Desert Ice Hockey series, which was a spin-off of the Rock U series.
JJ had really liked Myles. The Ice Hockey player for ASU had really floated his boat. But that ship has long sailed because Myles was only truly interested in Cooper, his fellow football team member. And JJ is only interested in committed relationships. So his roommates harebrained scheme to have him meet guys at the gay bar downtown does nothing for him. Then the next shoe drops. His arch rival from high school…Holden Cox, quarterback golden boy who robbed him of the MPV title his junior year, is suddenly taking Stacey’s place as a team student trainer. When personality clashes are obvious to the coach he demands that Holden take JJ to lunch and get to know him. There the two concoct a plan to help the other. Holden will pretend to be JJ’s date to the local gay bar his friends are pushing him into going to. And, in return, JJ will work with Holden and use his exercises for JJ’s IT band tightness. But things take a sudden change in the plan after an unexpected kiss and new feelings emerge. But does this mean that Holden is bi-sexual now?
High school can be really tough. And suddenly being outed to your parents and school can strain relationships. Thinking that you have to over compensate, by showing how talented you are. That you have to prove that you are still worthy of your father’s good graces and your teammate’s trust/concerns, can push a boy to become cocky to prove his point. Constantly feeling the pressure of homophobia makes it worse and caused JJ to think everyone was out to screw him over. College and developing the strong bond with the Desert Dog’s has helped. But the sudden appearance of Holden Cox, who he thought was his high school nemesis, didn’t set well. Then being forced to work with him made it worse. On top of that, Holden started sending weird vibes that were making JJ question him. But it was JJ that made Holden question everything about himself.
Holden’s life was not the cushy one JJ grew up in. Yes, his Dad had a good job. And his mother enjoyed her bartending one. But Holden’s unfortunate accident in senior year HS championship game ended his aspirations to become a college, and then hopefully NFL, Star Quarterback. Moving forward to becoming a NFL trainer has him still working with football players, just not ever to play on the field again. Add in his brother’s school and substance abuse issues and Holden and his family had some major problems. Holden discovering he’s bi-sexual and falling for JJ added another layer of difficulty for him to work through mentally.
I had looked forward to JJ’s story since he seemed to be crushed by Myles falling for Cooper and I needed him to have a good HEA of his own. And boy did he ever. There was a lot to work through with this story but so worth it.
Now on to JJ’s roommate Casey, ASU star quarterback, and his HEA. I can wait to hear all of the Desert Dog’s stories!
Fumbling Hearts (the prequel to this new series is available for free at the end of the book). It gives us a brief introduction to all the lgbtq+ men on the ASU football team that live together at the Desert Dog’s house.
RATING: 
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