Straddling the Line
Play by Play, Book #8
By Jaci Burton
ISBN# 9780425262993
Author’s Website: http://www.jaciburton.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Haven Briscoe hasn’t been the same since her father passed away. She’s succumbed to a depression that nobody has been able to pull her out of. And, now she’s ready to throw away her dream job of being a sports reporter for the network. Her mom knows she must do something to pull Haven out of her funk, and turns to the only person she can think of, Trevor Shay.
Trevor is a big name in sports, being the only professional athlete to play both baseball and football. He prides himself on being the best. And, when he sees an opportunity to pay back his former dorm parents by helping out their daughter, he jumps right in, offering Haven the sports writer’s job of a lifetime, a full bio feature on him. He just has to make sure that she doesn’t uncover his big secret.
This is the first Jaci Burton book I’ve read, and it’s the eighth installment of the Play by Play series, but the book can easily be read as a stand-alone.
This book was an easy one to be able to understand and I was easily pulled into it. It was a bit strange having a book with such a large part of it taking place in St. Louis, where I live. It was neat seeing Trevor take Haven to places I’ve seen and been to myself, mixed in with some fictional ones as well. It was odd that they changed the sports teams, but I guess they had to. But I must say that Trevor lost a lot of respect in my eyes when he named Imo’s as his favorite pizza (yuck!).
I found some things got a bit preachy and drug out that had no bearing on the story like, Trevor’s rant about animals in captivity when they were at the zoo. I also found him playing both baseball and football professionally and both teams okay with sharing him to be really unrealistic.
Overall I liked the story, but it just didn’t wow me. The ending wasn’t all that great for me, and actually brought my overall enjoyment of the book down. But I think Burton can write a good story, and definitely some good sex scenes. I’m looking forward to reading future books in this series.
