Unexpected Rush by Jaci Burton – a Review

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Description:
For Barrett Cassidy, playing defense for the Tampa Hawks is a dream come true. And now he may have discovered his dream woman. Harmony Evans, once the sweet, gawky teenage sister of his best friend and teammate has grown into a smart, gorgeous woman with moves he finds hard to resist. But he knows he can’t get involved with his best friend’s sister—it’s guy code.

Harmony has always gone after what she wants with single-minded determination, from her independence to her education to her career in interior design. She never expected her youthful crush on Barrett to develop into something deeper. And she’s not about to let some ridiculous man rules or her brother stand in her way.

When the chemistry is this combustible, lines tend to get crossed. And when Barrett and Harmony’s secret gets out, it just might be game over…

Review:

I absolutely love this series. Jaci Burton has managed to pen another fun, flirty and sexy as hell story for Barrett and Harmony. We met Barrett in the previous couple of books as a supporting character, as this portion of the series has been focusing on the Cassidy siblings, all pro athletes. When it comes to sports and romance, Jaci seems to have the market cornered. Once again she does a bang on job of balancing romance with high-energy sports scenes.   Not that the sex scenes in this one aren’t high energy, because let me tell you, Barrett and Harmony were steaming up almost every other page once they finally gave into temptation and decided to start seeing each other.  

Both Barrett and Harmony are well developed characters who carried the story without much effort. From their first scene together in chapter one sparks started flying between them and it just took off from there. Barrett and Harmony are both driven professionally(Barrett a pro football player, Harmony an interior designer) and passionately. They know what they like both in and out of the bedroom and aren’t afraid to go after it. Well, except for Barrett at first because of the all important ‘guy code’ he’s afraid to cross. Barrett is worried that getting involved with Harmony will damage his friendship with her brother Drake and he’s also Barrett’s defense partner on the football field. Watching Barrett try and dodge Harmony’s advances and remind her of the ‘guy code’ was hilarious and one could see there was no way the ‘guy code’ was winning out.

As their romance proceeds at a hot and heavy rate I was on pins and needles waiting for the moment Drake found out about Harmony and Barrett. Meeting Drake and learning about him in this one, you knew it would be explosive between him and Barrett when he finally found out, and Jaci didn’t disappoint.   It was a hell of a scene and well written. Not only was that scene well done, but the scenes to follow absolutely stole my heart and my breath. Watching Barrett man up and finally do the right thing by fixing things between him and Drake, him and his future mother-in-law and then him and Harmony was well worth the wait. The speech he gives to Drake was moving and heartfelt between two friends, but his apology and groveling to Harmony about how he handled their relationship spoke volumes and had me tearing up a little. Then onto his proposal, oh my, what a proposal, I was gushing over it. If I guy did that for me and said the things Barrett said, I’d be able to say I truly found my Prince Charming, because Barrett definitely turned out to be Harmony’s Prince. I’ve never read a more romantic proposal then Barrett’s to Harmony, bravo Ms. Burton.

Unexpected Rush is a wonderful installment to this series. It had everything in it that I come to expect from a Burton novel; a fun flirty adventure packed with high energy sports scenes, a sexy steamy romance, amazing cast of secondary characters to help advance the story, the fun sibling rivalry between the Cassidy brothers, and the importance of family. For the sport lover in me, I only wish there was a little more sports action like in her previous novels, but all in all I was a happy camper reading this one. If the added scenes with Flynn and his new head chef for his new restaurant were any kind of hint for her next Play-by-Play novel, then I think we will be in for a treat when Flynn’s book comes out hopefully next year. I’ll keep you all posted.

Until next time, happy reading sports fans!

Reviewed by Marcie