Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: False Start
SERIES: Brooklyn Kings (Book 3)
AUTHOR: Felice Stevens
PUBLISHER: Good Man Press
LENGTH: 298 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 7, 2025
BLURB:
A private club.
Anonymous.
No names and masks on.
He catches my eye and we meet every week.
I fall hard and fast each time we’re together.
And now…I’m in love.
Silly, right? I mean, I don’t even know what he looks like.
Then I discover he’s superstar college quarterback Patrick “Trick” Sloane. On his way to playing professional football. I’ll never be anything but his dirty little secret.
So I leave without saying good-bye.
Ten years later, Patrick is the quarterback of the Brooklyn Kings with a wild reputation as a ladies’ man, and I’m his new personal assistant.
Patrick doesn’t know I was once his lover, but I’ve never forgotten him. To complicate matters, in spite of my best efforts to keep things strictly business, we’ve become friends.
Then one night, our past catches up with our present, and old love is new again.
Patrick isn’t willing to give up football…or me.
I don’t want him to risk everything he’s worked his whole life for.
I can wait.
But Patrick makes a bold decision that will change everything.
It could either be the end of us…or a beautiful beginning.
False Start is a second chance, reunited lovers MM romance that proves ten years apart can’t stop what’s meant to be.
REVIEW:
Felice Stevens’ Brooklyn Kings is a truly exceptional series that really made me pause and think. My eyes were opened to what our gay professional athletes may have to endure to be able to stay playing the sport that they excel at and love. I now realize that many are forced to stay closeted so that they could continue to entertain us and play the game they love. Having to chose who you love vs what you love to do is so wrong. Add in that they are doing this for our entertainment and enjoyment. It’s just wrong. What does it matter who you love or what you do in the privacy of your own home, it should never be judged. This is a series that is very thought provoking and definitely opened my sports fan eyes.
Fallon is thankful for many things. His older brother Rory’s best friend Devlin took him in as his own family after Fallon’s parents kick him out after Rory’s tragic death. He became the best PA that Devlin could ever have. So, for his 21st birthday, while still in college, Dev gifts him a membership to an exclusive and mask-required gay sex club. Dev is worried about the guys that might try and take advantage of the beautiful younger man. Patrick “Trick” Sloane joined an exclusive club to be able to indulge in his bisexuality. He’s on the brink of his NFL career, having just won the Rose Bowl as the starting quarterback of his college team, so discretion is key. But when the young man he has been meeting at the club suddenly vanishes he is left with a hole that can’t be filled. The worse part is that he has absolutely no idea who he was after six months. When Patrick is traded to the Brooklyn Kings he meets up for dinner with Devlin and his husband Brody. There Dev introduces him to his dedicated PA and like-a-little-brother, Fallon. Now that Dev and Brody are retired from the NFL, they are finally free to be OUT and are sports commentators now with their own podcast even. But Dev doesn’t need a full time PA and he knows that Fallon would be perfect for his friend Patrick, the new Brooklyn Kings starting QB. Fallon is an expert at managing all things for Dev and has for years. But Fallon immediately knows this would absolutely be the worst idea. Fallon hasn’t laid eyes on the gorgeous man he fell in love with back in San Diego in all thes years gone by. But he never forgot his first love. And Patrick has no idea that Fallon is his one that got away!
I loved that Patrick was strong. He had the support of loving parents and the ability to speak out. I know it was a huge risk both career wise and personal safety wise to come out like he did. He was literally at the top of his game. And Armi, the owner of the team, really came through with support. But it was Coach and his fellow teammates that warmed my heart in the end.
I truly love second chance stories and this one had such a unique spin that I truly enjoyed. The exclusive club and the no identity clause was a nice twist. But I felt for both men as they each struggled after their separation. Fallon was so self-less. He knew that they were in a no-win situation. He had seen how hard it was for Dev and Brody. But the heart knows true love and, just like Dev and Brody and Armi and Hayden, love persevered.
This was the perfect story to end out this series. I loved how we went from an out-and-proud new owner and his PA to a closeted pro couple to a player that was tired of being closeted and not being able to comfort or enjoy his partner in public. Patrick stepped up and continued to blaze the path that Dev and Brody started. They waited until they retired but he moved forward and took the risk. A risk that opened a small doorway for future lgbtq+ athletes not to have to hide who they love. Great ending store for an absolutely fantastic and eye-opening series.
RATING: 
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