Thursday, August 25, 2016

Back Off! That's My Jock by Wade Kelly


Defining his sexuality didn’t make sense until his best friend spelled it out.

Doug Archer did some pretty idiotic things in the first eight weeks of his junior year of college. First, he kissed his gay best friend, and second, he kissed a guy he’d mistaken for a girl. Not stellar moments for Doug. If he isn’t careful, he’ll lose his spot on the soccer team to the new freshman, or worse, he might misconstrue his new friend Rob’s overly affectionate tendencies for flirting. But if Doug isn’t bothered by another guy’s attention, and he normally dates girls, does that mean he’s gay or bisexual?

Sam Garber suppressed his same-sex attraction his entire life. His father told him it was immoral, and Sam did everything he could to bury his feelings. However, after meeting Doug at a party and kissing him, Sam can’t think of anything else. He decides dating girls is the best way to keep his secret hidden. With playoffs in sight, this is no time to think about guys in any other context than soccer. Only neither boy anticipates the difficulty in suppressing his attraction for another jock!

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Book 3
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Dreamspinner Press



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica☆☆☆☆
Previously I've read Names Can Never Hurt Me by Wade Kelly. However, I am new to the Jocks series, and was reading it as a standalone.

I will be honest, since I hadn't read the two previous books, I was slightly lost at the start. If you pick this book up at random, (like I did for review) the beginning may have you close to throwing in the towel.

The total of my thoughts were, "Wow, that's a lot of telling instead of showing!" "I want to read it in real-time, not be given a play-by-play."

(Obviously – hopefully – these scenes were abbreviated because they were in previous books, but I didn't know that, as I didn't know this was the 3rd in a series when I signed up to review. My bad – I'm so used to standalone series, where the new narrator connects in the series but it's 'new'.)

I'm a serious reader, who doesn't like over-the-top zany slapstick, so when Doug met Rob in the grocery store, I was so close to DNFing. Close enough that I warned our Wicked Reads' mistress that I may have to bow out of this read and review to save my Kindle from bodily harm. Rob rubbed me wrong (I'm positive if I knew Rob from the previous books, I would have continued without issue, not finding Rob annoying). I was so worried Rob was Doug's love interest, with the zany nicknames and odd behavior (becoming the assistant coach scene). But Doug was the narrator, and I was enjoying his more serious voice, so I continued.

By the time Rob asked Doug, "Do you want to play Uno?" I was on board. I'd fallen in love with Rob, and so happy I continued to read instead of not finishing due to issues. Bear in mind, I figured I was missing many things that would have connected me to past narrators, as I didn't read those books. The overall entertainment, enjoyment, and glee would have been ten times higher if I'd read the books in order. So I do plan on reading book one and two in my free-time, and I hope we get Rob's story soon.

Doug and Sam are the love interests, with an interesting backstory, which I wished I would have gotten to read in real-time. (But maybe I do in a previous book?!? Same with Chris and the kiss, I assume). Doug has 90% of the narration time, with Sam having a few scenes, as well as Chris having a voice. It wasn't quite balanced for my tastes – the switching of the narration, but it was nice to hear their sides, as well as see other characters not directly connected to Doug.

Instead of diving into the storyline, which is too spoilery for me, I'll just let you know how I felt as I read the book. Call me a hormonal/over-emotional girl, if you will, but I got teary-eyed through the book for no reason whatsoever. Whether it was sad, sweet, tortured, celebratory, funny, or conflicted, whatever was going on on-scene had me tearing up.

9 times out of 10, the guy who almost had me DNFing the book was the one who made me smile or cry. Rob.

I need more Rob.

Back Off! That's My Jock. Okay, so the title makes it appear as if it's a cheesy, erotic novella. But in truth, there was a ton of story packed in the pages, with a wealth of depth.

My only negative, which had me rating 4 stars was the length. The book just felt too long. Even though I was entertained, I found myself looking at the % read. Often. From 60% - 90%, nothing of note actually happened, and what did, could have been added to the first 60% or the last 10%. I lost interest, found myself skimming, and was generally bored as scenes were pretty much redundant to the previous ones. Filler. I don't want to sound mean, but this portion didn't drive the story or character development forward, and may cause a few readers to skim as I did.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of MM Romance and Sports Romance. I look forward to going back and reading books one and two in the series and checking out Wade Kelly's previous works.



Wade Kelly lives and writes in conservative, small-town America on the east coast where it’s not easy to live free and open in one's beliefs. Wade writes passionately about controversial issues and strives to make a difference by making people think. Wade does not have a background in writing or philosophy, but still draws from personal experience to ponder contentious subjects on paper. There is a lot of pain in the world and people need hope. When not writing, she is thinking about writing, and more than likely scribbling ideas on sticky notes in the car while playing “taxi driver” for her three children. She likes snakes, can’t spell, and has a tendency to make people cry.

Connect with Wade

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https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Back Off! That's My Jock (Jock #3) by Wade Kelly to read and review.

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