Blurb:
When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to.
It didn’t take a week for twenty-seven-year-old Sal Casillas to wonder what she’d seen in the international soccer icon—why she’d ever had his posters on her wall, or ever envisioned marrying him and having super-playing soccer babies.
Sal had long ago gotten over the worst non-break-up in the history of imaginary relationships with a man that hadn’t known she’d existed. So she isn’t prepared for this version of Reiner Kulti who shows up to her team’s season: a quiet, reclusive, shadow of the explosive, passionate man he’d once been.
Nothing could have prepared her for the man she got to know.
Or the murderous urges he brought out in her.
“Sal, please don’t make me visit you in jail. Orange isn’t your color.”
This was going to be the longest season of her life.
Review: 4 Stars
Aside from having a lot of strong reviews, I did not know much about Kulti when I started reading it. Having recently finished Scoring Wilder, which has a similar premise, I figured they would be similar. Not so much. Both feature elite female soccer players entering into a relationship with a male assistant coach, famous for his skill as a soccer player and off-field behaviour. That's about where the similarities end.
If you're looking for story with a quick romance, come back to this one later. The relationship between the MCs in this book grows very gradually. In fact, I started to doubt that there would ever be a relationship between them at some points.
Kulti in an interesting character. He is so restrained, it is hard to get a sense of where his mind is at. He would definitely be in my top 5 male leads for whom I would like a separate book written from his POV. At the beginning, it seemed like there was no redeeming this guy -- his personality was just too closed off to imagine anyone connecting with him. The relationship built between Sal and Kulti is slow and seemingly platonic. I came to really respect the restraint Kulti shows. He puts Sal's career and reputation first and is fiercely protective of her while making no apologies or compromising in response to external pressure. I love that. Sometimes, you just want a strong man who is going to take charge with confidence and your best intentions in mind.
I guess my main issue with the book is that I would have loved to have more of the book devoted to the MCs being in a romantic relationship with each other. The two sex scenes, albeit hot, came very late and were relatively short.
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