At First Touch by T.A. Chase & Devon Rhodes
International Men of Sports series
Come with us around the world as the men who compete in their country’s most popular sports find that, although it’s not always easy to win in the game of love, it’s the only victory worth having.
- A Sticky Wicket in Bollywood (book #1) – click here for review
- Chasing the King of the Mountains (book #2) – click here for review
- At First Touch (book #3) – in this review
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
The Blurb…
Excelling at the game he loved was everything to King, until Lukas showed him at first touch how much better his life could be…
Ewansiha ‘King’ Kroenig is at the pinnacle of his professional football career, even with a problem knee. He keeps his cool and keeps his head down, and that control has served him well. King is bisexual and known to date beautiful women, while he also occasionally satisfies his craving for men with the team’s trainer. It’s a good life, but starting with one bizarre and personal request from his ex, Silvia, his orderly life goes spinning out of control.
Lukas has no problem admitting he’s gay, but with a loudly homophobic team captain,he knows better than to go there around the team. He has his whole career ahead of him and is being groomed to take over for their star player, King Kroenig. If he admires King for more than his athletic prowess, what can it hurt?
No harm, no foul…until a certain trainer who knows them well decides to play matchmaker, then all bets are off. And once they’ve experienced that first taste, they want more. But it’s not as simple as hooking up or dating when you’re teammates, with high profiles and little privacy. And when they each suddenly gain responsibilities they never expected, they must figure out a way to reconcile their personal lives with the expectations of others.
So what did I think?
This is the third book in the series, following A Sticky Wicket In Bollywood, which I really liked and Chasing the King of the Mountains, which I loved.
I probably wouldn’t rate this book as highly as the first two, and most definitely not as high as Chasing the King of the Mountains which was my favourite so far.
I think the second book really stood out because of the more unique nature of the sport (cycling, the Tour de France in particular) while the football in At First Touch was more common place.
The plot was also slightly more predictable however it was still very enjoyable.
My only real complaint was the name of one of the main characters. His name was Ewansiha and I have no idea how to pronounced it so I am sure I was mangling it in my head. He was known by the nickname “King” but his real first name was used enough for me to be really conscious of stumbling over it. It seems a rather silly complaint and I certainly don’t think characters should be named ‘easy’ names just to make them more pronounceable but it was just something that stood out to me.
To find out more about T.A Chase and her books, visit her website.
To find out more about Devon Rhodes and her books, visit her website.
Buy At First Touch from Amazon