The Rivalry

By: Beth Bolden

Narrated by: Darcy Stark

The first time NFL quarterback Heath Harris meets Sam Crawford, it’s just them, a luxury yacht, and a few days of fun in the sun. Sam turns out to be nothing like Heath expects. He’s kind and funny and irreverent - and also unbelievably, shockingly sexy. For three short, glorious, life-changing days, there are no rules.

The second time they meet, Sam has just been traded to Heath’s team, and instead of lovers, now they’re rivals. Heath has spent the last five years working desperately to be the best quarterback the Riptide could ever need, but when injuries threaten to derail his career, Sam is right there, standing on the sideline. Ready to take over, and ready to ruin everything Heath has given his life for.

Rival. Enemy. Teammate. Friend. Lover.

As their orbits collide, sparks fly, and Heath struggles to find the right label and the right box to shove Sam into, hoping to keep him contained. But Sam - and Heath’s feelings - refuse to cooperate.

Sam might not be just one of those things, he might be all of them, and so much more.

©2020 Beth Bolden (P)2020 Beth Bolden

A very slow burn...

Heath, starting QB for the Riptide. Sam backup QB for another team. They meet on a boat vacation getaway and spend a few days together. Sam knows he’s gay, Heath not really sure if he is. Once the vacation is over Heath basically sucks and runs. Sam is not very happy about that. Heath has a nagging injury and the Riptide decide they need to bring in another QB. Guess who? Sam. And this starts their up and down relationship. A relationship they had to keep secret. There were times I wanted to shake Heath. He could be rude to Sam. He had a lot going on with his injury and personal demons. He didn’t communicate with Sam and let him know what was going on. So I felt bad for Sam a lot of the time. Heath ends up helping Sam achieve one of his goals. Which ends up bringing the together in the end. I liked the book. I did feel it was a little too long. And it was the first audiobook I’ve listened to by Darcy Stark. He did a good job with the story.

Football and romance

I enjoyed the blend of sports and romance. The characters were interesting and likeable, especially Sam. Loved the supportive friendships. It was nice to read a sports romance where the dangers of being outed weren't really the biggest obstacle, it was there as a possibility, but the threat didn't feel as pressing compared to Heath's efforts to overcome his inner demons. Always happy to see working on mental health and going to therapy portrayed in a positive light and this did a great job of that. Satisfying story overall.

First time, sorta friends/enemies to lovers

The first mistake these fellas made was not communicating, but fear can make it hard to do. Fear, old hangups, and not communicating were big hurdles for Sam and Heath. Dealing with the fallout of coming out is a bigger one.

I loved the chemistry between Sam and Heath. Even when they weren’t communicating completely, they still saw through each other’s masks they put on.

I enjoyed this mish-mash of tropes that were in this story. It worked, in my opinion. It worked really well. I have read/listened to other series by the author, and this one is as enjoyable as the others. It’s easy to get attached to the main characters, and sucked into their story.

Darcy Stock did a good job with the book. True, there wasn’t a lot of differentiation between the character’s voices, but I never found it problematic. I was able to follow along just fine. He did a good job with putting emotions into his narration, and was pleasant to listen to.

Steamy sports romance!!❤️

Absolutely loved this opposites attract sports romance!!

The storyline was engaging and the characters were likeable and well fleshed out.

This was a fun listen and the audio delivery and on point.

Definitely recommend

MM Sports Romance

I love Sports romances (especially football!) So I was all too excited to start listening to Beth Bolden's The Rivalry, the story of Heath and Sam.  Maybe 30 minutes into the story, I was slowly losing interest.  Maybe it was the narration or the quick shift in the chapters, but I was completely lost for the start.  There were maybe three times I told myself to stop and restart but then I bit the bullet and stuck it out to the very end.  This is my first for the narrator and although he did an okay job, it was hard for me to follow; I wasn't sure if he was narrating Heath or Sam.

Overall, this was an okay listen.  It's your typical sports romance story about two quarterbacks who meet and sparks obviously fly but turns out one is closeted and the other is a rookie who is now on the same team, so both have conflicting stances on how or if they can even pursue this sudden attraction that won't go away. The Rivalry also plays in the enemy to lovers trope too so that's a plus for some.  I give it 3.5 stars, but this doesn't mean I've been deterred from MM sports romance.  Happy listening all!

I received an audio code, in exchanged for my honest review, of this audio book for Gay Romance Reviews.