Winter Ball
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Winter Ball
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Narrated by:
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Nick J. Russo
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By:
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Amy Lane
Through a miserable adolescence and a lonely adulthood, Skipper Keith has dreamed of nothing but family. The closest he gets is the rec league soccer team he coaches after work - and his star player and best friend, Richie Scoggins.
One brisk night in late October, a post-practice convo in Richie's car turns into a sexual encounter neither of them expected - nor want to forget. Soon Skip and Richie are living for the weekends and their winter league soccer games - and the games they enjoy off the field. Through broken noses, holiday decorating, and the killer flu, they learn more about each other than they ever dreamed possible. Every new discovery takes them further beyond the boundaries of the soccer field and into the infinite possibilities of the best relationship of Skipper's life.
Skipper can't dream of a better family than Richie - but Richie's got real family entanglements he can't shake off. Skipper needs to convince Richie to stay with him beyond winter ball so the relationship they started on the field might become their happy future in real life!
©2015 Amy Lane (P)2017 Dreamspinner PressContinue the series
Lovely story
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Ritchie and Skip are well-rounded characters who have both had a tough go of it. Ritchie's mother left when he was a kid and he's become the whipping boy for his father and his 'new' family (a termagant step-mother and horrible brothers who bully him constantly); Skip 'lost' his family when his parents divorced and longs for closeness, friends and a real family life.
The author does a good job of showing the strength of the connection between them; it's clear that Skip and Ritchie have been been close friends - possibly falling for each other - for years, and the progress of the relationship is just as important as what happens in th bedroom (and elsewhere!) Both men start to understand themselves better and to see that perhaps their backgrounds - traditional (and hyper-masculine), 'working class', not college educated - means they were never exposed to any cultural influences that might have led them to question their sexualities. They both struggle to come to terms with this new facet of themselves, although they never actually question their love for each other; it's more that they have to work out where they go from here, how they define themselves now, who to tell and even whether to tell anyone - and I really liked the way they so easily create a safe, loving space for each other. Most of the conflict in the story is external courtesy of Ritchie's awful family, who has abused his loyalty to them for years; he works in the family's auto scrap yard for pennies while they charge him going rate for renting the small garage apartment - and while Skip really wants him to tell them where to go, he knows he can't force it and that Ritchie needs to make his own choices.
There are some great secondary characters - Mason and Carpenter are the leads in the other books in the series - and the guys on the footie team all rally round to create a large, supportive found family.
Nick J. Russo delivers an excellent performance - well-paced and clearly differentiated with distinct voices for the two leads and the main secondary characters. He always does a great job of conveying the emotional content of the stories he narrates, and strikes the right balance in the sex scenes.
Winter Ball is a charming, sexy friends-to-lovers story with plenty of heart and heat.
Charming friends-to-lovers tale w/ great narration
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