GETTING INSIDE (Seattle Grizzlies #1) by Serena Bell-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 3, 2017

They’re big. They’re hot. And they play hard.

In the kickoff to Serena Bell’s sexy new football romance series, the heat between a female coach and a cocky linebacker turns the Seattle Grizzlies locker room upside down.

Iona: There’s nothing like the rush of going head-to-head with the boys. Football is my life, and I got my new job with the Seattle Grizzlies because I know how to play rough. But as a woman in a man’s game, I can’t afford any distractions—like panty-melting tabloid darling Ty Williams, my star linebacker. I’ve stared down plenty of good-looking players without losing my cool . . . and yet something about Ty’s intense gaze burns straight to my core.

Ty : Despite what they say in the press, I save my best moves for game day. The Grizzlies aren’t just my teammates, they’re my brothers—no way am I going to let some new coach shake up our defense. But Iona Thomas isn’t just some coach. It’s so tough to keep my head in the game when I’d rather be in bed with her. She may take charge at practice, but if I had her in my arms, I’d be choosing the plays. I just need to figure out what makes her tick—and what makes her want to break the rules.

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REVIEW: GETTING INSIDE is the first installment in Serena Bell’s contemporary, adult SEATTLE GRIZZLIES football, romance series focusing on the member of the professional football team the Seattle Grizzlies. This is offensive lineman Ty Williams, and coach Iona Thomas’s story line.

Told from dual first person points of view (Iona and Ty) GETTING INSIDE follows the building but forbidden relationship between offensive lineman for the Seattle Grizzlies Ty Williams, and the professional football league’s first African –American female coach Iona Thomas. The Seattle Grizzlies have been struggling; with a 1-6 record the owners and staff were desperate for a change-enter Iona Thomas-the first African –American female coach in the PFL, and the woman that would steal Ty Williams’s heart. What ensues is the turn around of a floundering professional football team, and the growing love between player and coach-a relationship that may not be accepted by the people in charge.

The relationship between Ty and Iona is one of immediate attraction but Iona knows that it is her job on the line as both a coach and the person in charge. Our heroine has struggles through most of her life trying to prove she was as capable as a man in the field of professional football. Ty’s attraction to Iona becomes a distraction both on and off of the field when Iona begins to push away the man with whom she is falling in love. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive.

We are introduced to a number of Ty’s fellow Seattle Grizzlies team mates including his best friend ‘O’ aka Michel Ohalu, as well as quarterback Zach Jones, and cornerback Calder Blake. Iona’s parents, and Ty’s brother add some personal family drama throughout the story.

GETTING INSIDE is a predictable story line of forbidden romance but I struggled with the lack of conflict when all was said and done. The final resolution is more of a fizzle, and this reader was left wondering about the little details in between that were never brought to the reader’s attention. I also had a difficult time with the fact that a woman was coaching a professional football team (ala the NFL) and was readily accepted by most if not all the players, other coaches, and people in charge. I suspect there would have been many more issues than what was presented in the story. The premise is entertaining; the characters are colorful; the romance is sexy.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy