Matt:
Want to know the fastest way to get screwed out of a football career? Get photographed in a compromising position in a gay bar. Yep, welcome to my life.
My agent says he can fix my image. He wants me to become the poster boy for gay football players. Me? I just want back on the field. I’ll do anything to play for the NFL again, even pretend to have a steady boyfriend. If only my fake boyfriend wasn’t Noah Huntington III—the most arrogant, entitled rich guy in the world.
Noah:
Pretend to be Matt Jackson’s boyfriend, my best friend said. It’ll be fun, he said. What Damon neglected to mention is Matt is surly and bitter. Being his boyfriend is a job in itself. From his paranoia over being constantly photographed to his aversion to PDA, being with Matt isn’t the care-free fake relationship I expected when I signed on to do this.
It’s supposed to be a win-win. I get to stick it to my politician dad who thinks no one is good enough for the Huntington name, and Matt’s reputation of being the bad boy of football dies.
What I don’t expect is to start caring for the guy. That’s not part of the plan. Then again, neither is fooling around with him on my private jet.
Oops.
**Trick Play is a full-length MM novel with a HEA/HEA and no cliffhanger**
Eden Finley is an Amazon bestselling author who writes steamy contemporary romances that are full of snark and light-hearted fluff.
She doesn’t take anything too seriously and lives to create an escape from real life for her readers. The ideas always begin with a wackadoodle premise, and she does her best to turn them into romances with heart.
With a short attention span that rivals her five-year-old son’s, she writes multiple different pairings: MM, MMF, and MF.
She’s also an Australian girl and apologises for her Australianisms that sometimes don’t make sense to anyone else.
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*Sigh* Matt. *Swoon* NOAH. If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. It had me laughing and swooning, scowling and crying, angry and ecstatic. I was basically on a roller coaster of emotions and when I got off, I wanted to get RIGHT back on again. It had just the right amount of sweet and steamy to keep you on your toes.
Noah is the uber player. He has no intention of ever settling down, and focuses on making his politician dad crazy. He’s the guy that makes all the sexual jokes, all the time, and hits on anything that walks. But one of the only people, if not the only person, calls in a favor. Pretend to be a hot football player’s boyfriend until the press around him dies down. Since he’s trying to get himself out of a sticky situation anyway, he dives in.
But nobody is expecting Matt, especially not Noah.
Matt is grumpy after years of hiding his sexuality from his teammates and his family. One bad game, one bad decision, and his sexuality is suddenly plastered across every tabloid, newspaper, and gossip rag. We saw a little bit of this in Fake Out, where Maddox takes Matt to meet Damon, so they can form the gay-famous-athlete-agent-player dream team.
So, they fell in love and are happily gay. Checking off the boxes for an LGBTQ+ couple with photo shoots, interviews, vacations, planned candid camera moments, and events. The whole circus is everything Matt wanted to avoid. Although Noah has valid reasons for never wanting to fall in love and settle down, he certainly protects his fake-boyfriend like he’s ready for more.
Their love was a push and pull you’re not going to want to miss. Matt, the big teddy bear, falls so hard for Noah he’s willing to take whatever Noah will give him. And Noah is running fast from the dreaded “L” word (not lesbian, the other one). This whole book gave me Sam Smith vibes (I don’t have a specific song but like, all of them ok?). I wanted to wrap Matt in a blanket and hiss at all the reporters like a crazy person, but I also wanted to be in there with him with Noah. Full on cuddle love fest.
I haven’t read M/M romances since my anime/manga obsession back in high school/early college years. I don’t know why I’ve left it alone for so long. I haven’t been like “ew, no thanks” but when I would see a M/M romance pop up, I tended to skip it. But I forgot how much I loved them. In fact, Eden, Imma need you to write book three and FAST cause I’m seriously going through withdrawal right now.
What I loved about this book, and Fake Out which I often didn’t get when reading the mangas, was the real life aspect shown in the book. There was serious talk about the problems that come with having a politician father, with being gay in the sports world, and the struggles you face when you want to just love someone. (Seriously people, get it together. LOVE IS LOVE.) I loved that there was no “girl” in the relationship. Both guys were pretty alpha, actually. They did the whole growly dominant thing sometimes, but other times they needed love and were ok switching roles. There was give and take, compromise, and growth.
Eden, I love you girl, but GIMMIE MORE. Thanks.
Maddox
Ryan
Ember-Raine Winters lives in sunny California with her two beautiful kids and a wolf. Also known as Apache her pure white Siberian Husky. She loves writing romance and reading just about anything she can get her hands on. And, football! She loves watching football and going to games. It’s one of her favorite ways to unwind. She dislikes the super-hot temperatures in her city and exercise. She hates to exercise but somehow her sister still gets her to do it every day. She also thinks it’s completely awkward talking about herself in third person. Ember loves connecting with readers so don’t be afraid to stalk her and drop her a line on social media.
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