KEEPING SCORE (The Perfect Play #2) by Sara Rider-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 8, 2016

Professional soccer player Jaime Chen is used to hearing the word “no”—she’s just not used to listening to it. Despite her tiny frame, she’s won two Olympic medals and earned the title of Assistant Captain of the Seattle Falcons. And when Sport Fitness magazine decides it wants her for the cover of its annual Bodies of Sport issue, she finally has the chance to prove to the world that she truly is a top-class athlete. But when a lingering ankle injury forces the team’s physiotherapist to bench her, Jaime’s top-ranking dreams start to slip through her fingers.

In his career as a pro sports physiotherapist, Alex Martinez’s instincts have never steered him wrong. But he’s also never met someone as obstinate and frustrating as the snarky Jaime Chen. With their spot in the playoffs on the line, the Falcons’ owner gives him an ultimatum: get Jaime back in the game or kiss his job goodbye. When she skips yet another appointment with him, the only way he can wrangle a diagnosis from the medically-phobic midfielder is to stick to her like a shadow. But getting close to the woman who simultaneously irritates him and turns him on like no other is the last thing he wants to do.

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REVIEW: KEEPING SCORE is the second installment in Sara Rider’s contemporary, adult THE PERFECT PLAY sports romance series. This is professional soccer player Jaime Chen, and physiotherapist Alex Martinez’s story line. KEEPING SCORE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Jaime and Alex) KEEPING SCORE follows soccer player Jaime Chen as she struggles to keep her place with the Seattle Falcons woman’s professional soccer team. For weeks Jaime has suffered with debilitating ankle pain that is affecting her game and her play, and her chance to be on the lucrative magazine cover of ‘The Bodies of Sports’ issue. Enter team physiotherapist Alex Martinez-the man whom Jaime has lusted after since joining the team, and the man Jaime believes can make or break our heroine’s career. What ensues is the building relationship between Jaime and Alex, and Alex’s search for what ails our story line heroine. Meanwhile, Alex has an offer back home that he considers when his past begins to rear its’ ugly head.

Jaime is a multi-talented athlete with a couple of Olympic gold medals to her credit. Her decision to enter professional soccer has earned her the Assistant Captain position with the Seattle Falcons. She is known as the ‘wild child’ and her antics off the field add to her already meteoric rise to fame. Alex is a man with a secreted past that if revealed could affect his position with the team. Alex’s job is on the line when the team’s owners and managers demand information about Jaime’s ongoing injuries, and Alex is having a more than difficult time scheduling a diagnosis, and forcing Jaime into rehab and therapy.

The relationship between our couple is fraught with tension and the forbidden between player and team physiotherapist. Alex’s attraction to Jaime is palpable but Jaime struggles with her attraction to our story line hero. The $ex scenes are intimate and intense without the use of over the top graphic, erotic language and text but I did struggle with some of the immaturity of the leading couple.

Team captain Lainey Lukas returns along with her significant other Seattle Surge soccer player Gabe Havelak (For The Win #1), as well as sports agent Jillian Nichols whose story will be told next in GOING FOR THE GOAL (February 2017). Several of Jaime’s teammates play secondary and supporting roles including Tara, Joanna, Kara, Alyssa and head coach Victor Labreilla.

The world building focuses on the Seattle Falcons woman’s professional soccer team as they battle for the league’s ultimate prize, and the ongoing and undiagnosed pain of the team’s assistant captain. Although not readily obvious, I guessed the source of Jaime’s struggle immediately but for most readers it will remain a mystery until revealed.

KEEPING SCORE tackles diversity, sacrifice, illness and injury, the struggle to succeed, and women athlete’s battle for equality in the world of sports. The premise is realistic and intelligent; the characters are playful and energetic; the romance is provocative and captivating.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy