Rewind Wednesday (June)

 I fell into a bit of a funk for most of May, so I am a month behind on Rewind Wednesday posts. However, since I didn't do a lot of reading in May, there aren't too many to add to the list. In fact, I only have a few that I have re-read in the past few weeks:

Author: Chloe Liese

Title: Everything for You

Publisher: Berkley

Date Published: 05/10/2022

Format: audio

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Enemies become lovers in this sizzling sports romance about taking a chance on love when life’s taught you it’s a losing game.

Oliver Bergman is a beloved rising soccer star, all sunshine smiles and the heart of their team’s spirit. To make matters worse, he’s obscenely attractive. In he’s genetically designed to get under misanthropic, miserable Gavin’s aggravated skin.

Ten years older than Oliver and a legendary player at the end of his career, Gavin Hayes is the team’s demanding captain. He’s also a giant–albeit gorgeous–grump who lives to rain on Oliver’s parade. Especially when Oliver and Gavin are named co-captains of the team.

Sick of their hostility, Coach gives them an put an end to their enmity or say goodbye to being captains. Forced to finally to lower their guards, Gavin and Oliver realize that they also have chemistry off the field and it’s fueled by something much more powerful than competition—an explosive attraction.

Author: Lauren Rowe

Title:  Smitten

Publisher: SoCoRo Publishing

Date Published: 07/25/2020

Format: ebook

My Rating: 

I met Alessandra at a party. Tried to impress her. Was almost positive I was going to fail.

I think I said something along the lines of, “I’m a Goat called Fish who’s hung like a bull—but not really. I’m actually pretty average.” Smooth. I know. Try not to be jealous.

When she laughed—and I mean, really laughed—I knew she wasn’t like the other girls I’d been meeting on tour. Hell, she wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as those fangirls and gold-diggers.

At one point during the party, Alessandra said, “There’s nothing like a girl’s first love.” I knew she was talking about the first smash hit by my band, 22 Goats. Alessandra said it was the first song she’d heard by us and it “hit her like a ton of bricks.” Ironic, seeing as how I was having the same reaction from being in her presence.

I made it my mission to impress her. Give her the kiss of a lifetime that night. But since I’ve always been the dude with zero game, nothing went according to plan.

I’m not giving up, though. I’m going to win this girl over. I’m done sitting on the sidelines, watching the bad boy getting the girl. This time, the nice guy will finish first. Even if it’s the last thing he’ll do.

Author: Cat Sebastian

Title: We Could Be So Good

Publisher: Avon

Date Published: 06/06/2023 

Format:  physical book

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city's biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can't let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming's newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He's barely able to run his life--he's never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he'll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.

Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can't deny. But what feels possible in secret--this fragile, tender thing between them--seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they're willing to fight.