Teardrop Shot

By Tijan

ISBN# 9780999769140

Author’s Website:  http://www.tijansbooks.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Charlie’s heart was ripped out when her soulmate and future husband, Damian, started showing signs of dementia.  It runs in his family and they always knew there was a chance Damian could suffer the same horrible disease.  They tried to make things work even after the illness started taking over.  However, it ended up being too much and she had to step away.  She has mourned him and the future they never got to have ever since.

Charlie got involved with Lucas in an attempt to get over Damian.   However, she got dumped via his pervy grandpa who informed her that Lucas was off doing his new girlfriend.  Oh and the grandpa was wearing her Reese Forster (professional basketball star) shirt when he broke the news to her and then propositioned her.

She was recently fired as well, when her boss mistook her for her man’s mistress.  So, it’s safe to say Charlie’s life was falling apart around her.

Then, out of nowhere she got a call from her old friend, Trent.  A man she hasn’t talked to in years.  She agreed to go have some drinks with him and let him stay the night at her place, so he didn’t have to get a hotel room.  He convinces her to go with him to take a job at the camp where they used to work with their other friends she left behind during the Damian disaster.

There is a top secret set of campers coming and nobody will tell Charlie who it is.  They all even had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to work there.  Imagine her surprise when her favorite basketball team, the Seattle Thunder, and the smoking hot Reese Forster arrives!

Reese is battling his own demons.  His alcoholic estranged brother made the news for sexual assault and now the team is holding their preseason camp in a secret location.  He’s got a lot on his mind.   However, he finds that the unusual girl in charge of the gym that always asks him the strangest of questions somehow puts him at ease.

Reese and Charlie end up becoming good friends.  It’s obvious to everyone around them how much more than friends they really are, but Charlie can’t seem to let go of her past and the would-be husband she left behind.

“Have you ever been involved in a situation where you felt like the other person needed you so they could live?” I asked. “But you couldn’t stay there because they were taking the oxygen you needed to breathe?”

This book started out extremely slow for me.  At one point, I was even contemplating not finishing it, which I almost never do.  Then, the relationship between Reese and Charlie really started to develop and I found that I really liked them.  Their teasing is sweet and made me smile.

Charlie definitely comes with a lot of baggage that she doesn’t know how to deal with.  I couldn’t imagine going through what she did with Damian, but unfortunately she goes about things all wrong.  She completely shut-off contact with her friends because Damian didn’t want anybody to know what was going on.  Therefore, she was dealing with it all alone as she no longer had a support system.  She just watched the man she loved slowly forget who she even was.

Reese was a sweetheart, although I thought he was a bit of an ass in the beginning.  I think he was way more patient and understanding, then Charlie deserved at times.  He was the only person that could really reach her and pull out of her what happened in the past.

“You’re annoyed at how much you love me. That’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said.”

I also liked Charlie’s friends, especially Trent!  I would love to see a story about him and hope this author has one in the works!

This is one of those books that teaches you why it’s so important to stick with a story and not give up.  See it through to the end, it just might surprise you!  It ran me through the gauntlet of emotions from bored, to smiling like an idiot, to crying, and then happy again!  I love emotional reads so it ended up being pretty great.