Review: Play by Play (Play Makers #1) by Kate Donovan

Play by Play (Play Makers #1)  by Kate Donovan

Novella
Kindle Edition, 85 pages
Published September 9th 2013 by Beyond the Page Publishing

Source: eArc provided in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Former college football star Jake Dublin’s wildly popular sports blog also details his personal life. And lately it’s all about Sophie, the pretty young woman who just moved into his apartment building. His readers know her only as “Elevator Girl,” and they’re all rooting for Jake to score.

The blog posts and banter with his followers are all in good fun, and he fully intends to come clean with the woman he’s wooing and wowing. That is, until she confides that she grew up in a house full of jocks and even dated a few. Her verdict? Never again!

Jake knows he needs to confess. But somewhere along the line he fell in love with Sophie and can’t stand the thought of losing her. So he procrastinates, and blogs, and digs himself deeper into a hole, until it all leads to a showdown that’s so nail-biting, not even the best play-by-play guy could ever have seen it coming

Play by Play was a super short novella with a really original premise. It only took about an hour to read because I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and I couldn't wait to find out what happened!

Jake is an ex-jock who loves sports so much that he even blogs about it. One day, Jake meets Sophie in the elevator of his apartment building. While Sophie is friendly, she firmly blows off Jake's advances. Jake is perplexed by the cold shoulder and ends up blogging about Sophie, calling her 'elevator girl'. Soon, Jake's readers are invested in his 'relationship' and start giving him advice.

Unfortunately, Jake doesn't come clean with Sophie about how into sports he is, and Sophie has given up on stupid jocks who only live for their sports. This secret creates a huge dilemma for Jake because he believes that if he tells Sophie, he will lose her. Jake manages to make a mess of things, but he is able to blog about it with a sense of humor that I enjoyed. The big question is how will Sophie react when she finally finds out about Jake's sports blog and 'elevator girl'?

Because this is a novella, there really is no character development. It's a fast moving story filled with blog posts and sweet dates. I liked Jake and Sophie as individuals and as a couple. I could see how their relationship really had the potential to be something great. I really enjoyed this book and I found it highly entertaining. Despite the cover, this is not a steamy romance book. Any time things got heated the author did the 'fade to black' maneuver. Overall, this was a cute and charming sports/romance book that was a quick and easy read.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars