Anne Cooper lives her life by the playbook…
…until a wildcard football star tempts her to break the rules.
At thirty-two, Anne feels the clock ticking on her dream family. She needs a man who checks the boxes on her ideal husband list. The hot football hero doesn’t match a single one.
She’s not looking for a player. But spending time with Mr. Wrong feels so right.
Wyatt Pearson knows all about hard work—on the field. In the dating world, his celebrity status has paved his way.
But he’s blindsided when he meets the smart, down-to-earth woman who would rather grade papers than watch the Superbowl.
For a chance with Anne, he has to up his game and approach from the heart.
But as Anne and Wyatt fumble through their feelings, someone else is watching from the sidelines, plotting to win her affections. And if this rival can’t have her…no one will.
| Title: | Love on the Line |
| Author: | Diane Holiday |
| Series: | Love Beyond Danger (Book 3) |
| Pages: | 290 |
| Genre(s): | Contemporary Romantic Suspense |
| Trope(s): | Opposites Attract Sports Romance (American Football) |
| Point of View: | |
| Location: | US |
| HEA: | ✔️ |
| Release Date: | 26th November, 2019 |
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A likeable, if slow, read
I sometimes like to go on a romantic suspense sidetrack which is why this book seemed perfect – a great combination of a love story and something a little edgy.
Both aspects of the story kick off almost right from the start and it’s easy to identify all our players. While there is the suspense element – it’s more in the way of what our “baddy” is going to do rather than who the baddy is, as his identity is revealed almost immediately.
Wyatt is such a cutie pie that I almost immediately fell in love with him. He feels an instant connection to Anne – and Anne to him – but Anne has a plan and it doesn’t include some hotshot playboy. I always like to read about a man doing the chasing – especially when he’s probably not needed to previously – but after the third or fourth attempt to get her to date him, I did get a bit of a funny feeling. While we know that our couple are destined to be together, in real life he should have given up once she’d said no 2 or 3 times.
After their slow start, our couple start to date. Slowly. It seemed that every minute detail of their burgeoning relationship was there for us to read. It really pulled the speed of the story down for me. And with little happening on a physical level, colour me surprised when Wyatt and Anne did have sex and it was descriptive and sexy as hell. I wasn’t expecting that. But I liked it!
“…colour me surprised when Wyatt and Anne did have sex and it was descriptive and sexy as hell.”
Nearly the end of the story, I felt that things suddenly turned, with Wyatt suddenly realising what he really wanted out of life. At the same time the ‘l-word’ declaration also gets made. It felt unrealistic to me and I didn’t buy it, sadly.
I did really enjoy the suspense element of the story, even if the two stories almost ran alongside each other before finally colliding at the end. With that type of story, I did feel that the suspense element took away from the love story instead of adding to it.
This may sound like a bit of a negative review but I did enjoy reading the book. The writing was excellent and really pulled me into the story and the detail – I just felt there was a little too much detail in the early days of Wyatt and Anne’s relationship.
This is the first book I’ve read by Diane Holiday and with her writing, and the suspense element, this won’t be my last. This one didn’t really hit all the spots for me but all the elements are there and others seemed to have very much enjoyed it – so perhaps it’s just the headspace I was in while reading. Just 3 stars from me but don’t let that put you off what is a likeable read.
Diane Holiday is an award-winning author who writes romantic suspense with a healthy dose of humor. Her characters will make you laugh, cry, and root for them to the end. If you are sleep deprived because you couldn’t put her book down, then she’s achieved her goal. Diane loves animals and is a volunteer and foster for a training center for service dogs. Diane is married to a retired Navy Captain, who is her go-to for colorful slang and guy-talk. She and her husband live in South Carolina on beautiful Lake Murray. In her spare time, she can be caught reading, boating, or mailing care packages full of homemade goodies to her daughter in California and her son in Maine.
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Love Beyond Danger Series:
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