Trevor play pro baseball and football; he does them very well too. Haven Briscoe is the daughter of his recently deceased mentor. Her mom calls him for help. Haven just hasn't been the same since the death of her beloved father. She has just given up.

Haven pined over Trevor in college, while he tried to avoid her tutoring ways. He just wasn't into academics. He lived ball.

Ms Burton writes to a formula but changes the events enough so the stories are never repetitious, but you kind of do know exactly how the story will play out. I just wish the ending was a wee bit longer.

Thank you for this book and the topic. Being a parent of a child with severe dyslexia, the more media and attention it gets the easier it will be for people with learning disabilities to be successful. Have challenges doesn't mean that you aren't intelligent or smart and this is often lost when people struggle with the literacy based school systems. So again, thank you. And as always, love your books.

2.5

what a read...lots of sadness, grief, devastating secret and love....haven and Trevor don't see eye to eye on some stuff but it only brings them more together

You want to know what I love about this series. The covers. Every cover is absolutely drool worthy. Yeah, super yummy.

I hate to say it, but this story didn't real blow me away. It was kind of meh until the end. Nothing was really going on until Trevors secret was revealed. Yes Haven was doing a bio on him with the dual sports he played. But other than Haven really missing and upset over the loss of her father, nothing else was really going on. Except the sexy times, all those times were hot. I'll keep reading books in this series. it was just this one that was kind of a miss for me.

I received an ARC from First to Read in exchange for my honest review.

Straddling the Line was my first Jaci Burton book, but I've been wanting to read her Play-by-Play novels for years. I have to say I was a little disappointed, I wanted more. More background into the both of them. More sports scenes from Trevor's POV. More creativity in the sex scenes. More from Haven and Trevor at the end of the book. I was left not feeling a HEA but a HFN. I don't mind HFN if that is the author's intention, I don't think it was in this book.

While the sex is smoking, it follows the same formula almost every time - he performs oral on her; she orgasms; they have sex; they orgasm together. It seemed rote after a while. While I want my sex scenes to be realistic and easy to follow (no wondering exactly how they pulled that move off), I want variety. Because real sex doesn't follow a pat formula. The dialogue also felt stiff to me, very formal and not at all how people really talk.

I guessed Trevor's secret early on in the story, so the big reveal didn't tug at my heart strings. The conflict between Trevor and Haven seemed trite and the resolution too pat.

That being said, it was a page turner for me and I enjoyed getting to watch Trevor and Haven's story. They have awesome chemistry that leaps off the page.

Straddling the Line was a solid three stars for me. It was the perfect fluffy antidote to the angsty/heavy books I've been glomming onto the past few months.

I think this is my favorite of the bunch! Trevor's dirty talkin is worth every star.

Every time I read a Jaci Burton book I leave with the wish that it had been written better and this was no exception. I find that there just isn't any emotion behind the words on the page.

Besides, I lost all respect for Haven when she exploded at her mother.

Another good one.

Review posted: Happily Ever After - Reads
Blog rating: C

Trevor Shay has been close with Haven Briscoe’s parents for years when they were the college “parents” to him and his group of athlete friends. Haven’s father recently passed away and she’s not doing well in dealing with the pain and grief. She’s letting a sportscaster job that has been her dream for so long slip away and without a big story to bring to the table she’ll be heading home. The thought of going home doesn’t sound bad to her, but her friends and family don’t want to see her dreams slip away so the ungettable get, an interview with two-sport superstar Trevor Shay, is heading her way. Trevor agrees to the exclusive interview with Haven for the sole purpose of giving her something to do to help jump start her career. Even though they’ve known each other for quite awhile, being in close proximity brings to the forefront feelings on both sides, and the professional relationship gets personal fast.

I kind of dislike starting a review like this, but really, there was nothing about this story that made it stand out in Burton’s Play by Play series. Trevor and Haven start out their sexual relationship being in it just “for fun,” thinking that there’s no way can they get serious, then bam, it’s serious. Trevor has been keeping a huge secret from everyone but two people, and while I won’t spoil what it is, I swear I’ve read about this hero with this problem before, another book, another series. But that aside, for as desperate as he was to keep this a secret from everyone and the main reason he declined ever doing interviews, he sure does a fast 180 on his attitude after Haven finds out and wants to help him overcome it. I expected major push back from Trevor but he was all in. Maybe the burden of the secret being out freed his mind and attitude about it, but it still his quick attitude change felt a bit abupt.

Maybe it’s just my overall love of epilogues and I really enjoy seeing the ending of story play out a bit beyond the couple finding their happily ever after and I would have liked to have a little bit more here. The ending felt too rushed for my taste and I was left wanting just something more. I did enjoy the sports aspect, especially with Trevor being a two sport athlete and wish there would have been more of it. I’m a sucker for some great sports scenes!

Now don’t get me wrong, I know the review above may be more focused on the negative, but it is a likeable story overall. The series as a whole is one of my favorites and Liz is by far my favorite character and as usual has some of the most memorable lines in Straddling the Line. But that said, everyone and everything is so friggin perfect. All the time! Perfect athletes, perfect jobs, perfect friendships. Sure it can be fun to read for the escape factor, but it can also be boring at times. This book introduces a jump to a new set of characters, brothers (yay!), so hopefully they’ll liven things up a bit going forward.

Just a quick note on the romance between Trevor and Haven – of course it’s steamy, Burton can write some great sex scenes and she delivers here. But even those got a little monotonous at the end. I liked parts of Straddling the Line, the friendship scenes always seem to be the parts I remember most, but I wasn’t in love with the story as a whole.

P.S. I swear Jaci Burton gets the BEST covers in the romance world. Seriously drool worthy, every, single time!