Title: Match Point (Sports of the Seasons #1)
Author: Leigh Carman
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: July 20, 2016
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 167
Reviewed by: Vallie
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:
Two stubborn men.
One is a rude jerk. The other, the life of the party.
It was hate at first sight.
Pro beach volleyball players Finn Callahan and Dexter Savage have been rivals since college. While Finn always comes out on top on the court, Dexter’s carefree and fun-loving personality earns him scores of adoring men and women. And as much as Finn fights to deny it, there’s another reason for the tension he feels when Dex is around. Hate wasn’t the only thing he felt when he first laid eyes on his opponent.
When they’re forced to team up, the two men must bury their differences—on and off the court—if either of them is going to succeed professionally.
*1.5 stars*
Seeing the current average rating on GR for this book makes me think I read a different story than everyone else.
Don’t hate on me folks, but I had many issues with this one.
The premise is good. I love sports-themed stories and I don’t believe I’ve read one about volleyball players before. I enjoyed all aspects of the sport, though it did not dominate the story as such. Practice, the adrenaline of a tournament won, celebrating after –it all worked well. Plus, I’m a big fan of enemies-to-lovers, so I was hoping the animosity verging on outright hatred between Finn and Dexter would pull me right in.
But.
When we are first introduced to the characters, Dexter is single but Finn is engaged (secretly) to his teammate, Tristan. Not only are they engaged, but they are truly presented as the perfect couple. Finn often refers to Tristan as the love of his life and Tristan is the ideal partner. This was all very cute and all but I was very aware of the fact that the main couple in this story was supposed to be Tristan and Dex so imagine my confusion at reading about this super amazing straight-out-of-a-fairy-tale relationship that Finn had with someone else.
Yes, the operative word here is had.
I personally did not appreciate the transition of Finn in a relationship to Finn being single and available to move on to Dex. There was a quick summary of what went down when I felt like considerable more page time should have been devoted to that section. Further, after we’re rushed along 11 months later, Finn is suddenly crushing on Dex, his eternal enemy, with no real reason being given whatsoever. Dex showed some sympathy to Finn’s personal circumstances and break from the sport but other than that, nothing was really different to before when they hated each other. This crush was quickly upgraded to “insane attraction” with other OTT descriptors that turned me off completely.
The enemies bit was so extreme, with Finn and Dex getting in physical fights all the time that half the time I thought these two should have been forcibly and immediately separated from one another. And we’re not talking a heated disagreement leading to make-up sex or anything like that –I don’t approve of that either but I read it a lot in books and sometimes it works. No no no no. Split lips, bruised jaws, and punches meant to cause damage are the typical fight between Dex and Finn. And they happened a lot. Talk about dysfunction. They should have remained enemies.
Verdict? This pushed all the wrong buttons for me. I was so frustrated that I couldn’t really appreciate anything positive after a certain point, like the steam or the flirting or the lovely HEA they got. Talking about steam, there was no build-up to their first sexual encounter. It was almost clinical, the way they got to the fucking, and not in a hot “can’t keep our hands to ourselves” way either.
Just…really not for me. It might be for you if the above doesn’t bother you as much as it did me.
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