5 Smooches!

Synopsis

The first rule of football–don’t screw with a streak.

My career is finally looking up, and I’m leading a new pro team down the field every Sunday. No way will I mess with that. But when I meet the most stunning and captivating woman I’ve ever seen, I tell myself one night will have to be enough.

But it’s not. And now I can’t get her out of my mind. Even when I’m playing. Even when I need to focus. Even when I’m on the hottest streak of my life.

And it turns out, she’s not just some random woman I met. She works for the team. My team.

***

I only have one goal this season–do my part as the team’s lawyer to keep them out of trouble. Help rebuild their reputation on and off the field. There’s no room for error and certainly no room for a secret tryst with a player . . . even if he’s the quarterback.

Right?

REVIEW

“…so good, so good, so good.”

I’m a new but still huge fan of Lauren Blakely’s, having jumped on her train earlier this year. I know, I know – where was I, under a <big> rock? I read Mister O and Big Rock, and well, I was a goner. Like totally book-smitten, fan-girl in author lust with her. My blogger boss ladies picked up on this newfound devotion of mine, and like the rock stars they are, they made my book-reviewer dreams come true! I was reading Lauren Blakely’s books and reviewing them for the blog. I’m telling you, this is irrevocable proof that my blogger boss ladies love me. I don’t know who they’re sleeping with to get me these books, I’m just thrilled that they’re going that extra mile for me. (At this point, I’d like to mention that while I did receive an advance copy, I have also purchased this book, as well as the others that I’ve read and reviewed for Red Cheeks Reads, for my personal digital library.)

“I’m just a twenty-six-year-old guy who’s got his shit together and wants to go out with a woman he works with—a woman who has her act together too.”

So, this week was a particularly rough one, reading-wise, for me. I read two books with major cliffhangers and a gut-wrenching, emotional book that left me with a hangover the likes of which I haven’t seen since the eighties. I honestly couldn’t get into anything else. Like all readers, I don’t like that feeling, but it’s particularly difficult to deal with when you have to read, when you’re committed to read certain material within a certain timeframe. But such is the life of a book reviewer, and I had this book on my Kindle with a deadline looming, so in I went. Turned out it was the best decision I’d made all week. This book took me by surprise in the very, very best of ways!

“It’s not just physical. There’s the start of something more between us. The flicker of feelings.”

Going into Out of Bounds, I knew it was a novella, so I was anticipating a lighthearted, funny, sexy story from Blakely. Beyond that I didn’t have too many expectations. But even if I had, this book would have exceeded them. Dani and Drew were so fantastic together – pure romcom magic from their very first moment. Their attraction sizzled right off the page. It was a positively palpable force pulsing between them, and Blakely absolutely nailed conveying that to the reader. I felt their attraction, I felt the undeniable draw, that electric spark of lust and all the promising possibility of this couple. But, alas, their budding romance is dealt a complication…

“If he touched me in any way, I’d unravel. I’d melt. I’d want all the things I can’t have.”

My heart thumped enthusiastically and my face ached from grinning as I read patiently while Drew and Dani danced around each other and their feelings. That glorious build-up, that should-we-could-we, will-we-won’t-we back-and-forth, is something Blakely does exceptionally well and that talent of hers is on full display in this book. I was tapping my Kindle furiously as I devoured this book in anticipation of that delicious moment when they would finally—finally—succumb to this attraction, these feelings, the lust so thick between them. It was spectacular!

“It’s the lashing of rain against a window. Like a wild storm. Like thunder. Like the ocean waves crashing into the shore. And I want that wave. I want to fall under it, feel all of it.”

This book was so insanely hot, and if you’ve read anything by this author before, you know that that’s really saying something. Out of Bounds, and I mean this as the highest of compliments, is smart girl smut. It was witty, romantic, clever and so very sexy! Drew is gorgeous, smart, an all-around good guy with the absolute filthiest mouth ever on him. All of that comes together into an absolutely perfect hero. Dani was a strong and sexy heroine, I loved her whip-quick sarcastic and sassy nature and how effortlessly she just got him.

“…being with you is like holding hands. We fit.”

I adored these characters, I loved their story and this book ticked off all my boxes for the perfect romcom. I smiled and swooned through every page, hoping right along with Dani and Drew for the chance to see this romance blossom. This book did what no other was able to do this week and chased away a book hangover that I just couldn’t shake. But more than that, it made my heart so very happy and I loved everything about it! Lauren Blakely’s Out of Bounds gets five smooches from me!

~ Danielle Palumbo

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