Reviewer: Rowena Fumbled by Alexa Martin
Series: Playbook #2
Also in this series: Intercepted (Playbook #1)
Publisher: Penguin, Berkley
Publication Date: April 23, 2019
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 336
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2019 GoodReads Challenge
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Series Rating:
A second chance doesn't guarantee a touchdown in this new contemporary romance from the author of Intercepted.
Single-mother Poppy Patterson moved across the country when she was sixteen and pregnant to find a new normal. After years of hard work, she's built a life she loves. It may include a job at a nightclub, weekend soccer games, and more stretch marks than she anticipated, but it's all hers, and nobody can take that away. Well, except for one person.
TK Moore, the starting wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs, dreamt his entire life about being in the NFL. His world is football, parties, and women. Maybe at one point he thought his future would play out with his high school sweetheart by his side, but Poppy is long gone and he's moved on.
When Poppy and TK cross paths in the most unlikely of places, emotions they've suppressed for years come rushing back. But with all the secrets they never told each other lying between them, they'll need more than a dating playbook to help them navigate their relationship.
Fumbled is the second book in Alexa Martin’s Playbook series but it’s the first book that I’ve read by Martin. It definitely won’t be the last. I really enjoyed this one and am super glad that Tracy recommended this series to me.
Poppy Patterson is a single mother who is just trying to do right by her young son, Ace. After her parents kicked her out when she got pregnant, Poppy moved to Denver, CO to live with her Aunt and raise her young son. Ace has never met his father before and Poppy never planned on them ever meeting until she runs into TK Moore at her place of employment. When they run into each other, the chemistry that was always there between them strikes right up again and Poppy realizes that TK isn’t going to go away. He’s not going to leave her peaceful life in Denver alone, which means that he’s going to meet his son and while Poppy wants nothing more than for TK to know their amazing son, someone has to protect Ace from possible heartbreak and Poppy has to do that while protecting her own heart. Things get real interesting, real fast.
TK Moore has it all. The career, the money, the women and everything is as he likes it…until he runs into a blast from the past and realizes that he very much wants Poppy Patterson to be a part of his life and he wants to be a part of her life again in a big way. When he finds out that Poppy has been raising his son on her own all of these years, TK wants in her life all the way. He has a lot of time to make up for and Ace is pretty awesome so TK starts working on the three of them becoming a family.
This story was a second chance romance and though there were times when I thought Poppy and TK both were extra (lots of yelling between the two), I still rather enjoyed their romance. Poppy talks like me and I really enjoyed that. A lot of the things she said to Ace, my own daughter Brenna has heard from me so I connected with her, hell I even connected with her yelling since Brenna swears that I yell a lot too. I admired the way that she raised Ace and connected with how she put Ace first at every turn. Ace was really lucky to have her and I loved that she knew that she was lucky to have Ace just as much as Ace was lucky to have her. When TK comes into her life, I thought Martin handled Poppy’s insecurities well. I felt her confusion and thought that she reacted to life as realistically as any normal person would. She was kicked around and knocked down but she was never out of the game. She just kept right on getting back up and I liked that about her.
TK was pretty awesome as well. I loved that they complimented each other. TK was the more solid, reserved partner and Poppy was the emotional one who would pop off because she ain’t the one…but they were both still strong on their own and even stronger together. Their romance was solid and I really enjoyed their emotional roller coaster. I recommend it period.
Grade: 4 out of 5
The Playbook
Fantastic review! I have to say, after the misadventures I’ve had with contemporary romance lately I am not in the mood for that sub genre, but this one sounds really good so it will be at the top of my TBR list for when I get back into it.