{ arc } review || SLOW AND STEADY RUSH

Slow and Steady Rush by Laura Trentham

Publisher: St. Martin's Press (3/10/2015)
Series: Falcon Football, book 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | bn || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★★




She lives by the book—and is still searching for her happily ever after.

Darcy Wilde has tried hard not to live up to her last name. As a librarian in Atlanta she lives a fine life far away from the football-obsessed town of her childhood. But when her beloved Grandmother needs help, Darcy takes a leave of absence and heads back to the home and past she left behind.

He knows how to play the field—and is in no rush to settle down.

Robbie Dalton knows a thing or two about painful pasts. After bouncing around in foster care and the Army for years he is finally ready to move on and make a home for himself in Falcon, Alabama as the newest high school football coach. Sparks fly when the sexy new coach and the sharp-tongued librarian meet, but neither of them is looking to make ties.

But when it comes to love, sometimes you’ve gotta throw away the rule book to cross the finish line…

Everything changes when Darcy falls in love, not only with the gruff, protective, and smoking hot man who's sharing her days and nights, but also with the complex tapestry of people who weave Falcon together. Could this be where she belongs - and who she belongs with?

{ review } .

What a cute story.

There's something about this story that just rings completely true to me, and that gives it major points in my book.

You have Darcy, who wants nothing to do with coming home, but does because her grandmother, who was her guardian for so long, falls ill and needs her home for a little while. While there, this book-y woman needs to run the library for her grandmother, where yes, she's comfortable talking about the classics, but children's story hour? Not her cup of tea.

Also in town is the new football couch, Robbie Dalton -- Dalt to all. After serving in the army, he came to Alabama with his army buddy, Logan -- also Darcy's cousin -- and work with the high school football team. Robbie came back from war scarred, but he brought with him his war dog. Between he and Avery, life is good. Avery is good at picking up Robbie's anger and distress signals -- even when sometimes those distress signals are aimed at Darcy.

When Logan was overseas, Darcy often wrote him letters -- and Robbie loved reading them. He had a picture of Darcy and the woman he's finally meeting? Doesn't really fit the funny, perfect girl that he read letters from.

These two have such a fun chemistry. When Logan states that Robbie's a "man's man", and Robbie starts talking about his Avery, who is also a 'he', Darcy begrudgingly admits to herself that this sexy man is gay. When she talks to her friend about it at a football practice, well...

Let's just say this is the south and things spread like wildfire.

Everything about these two was just refreshing -- from the jokes, the kisses, and the fights with banana pudding thrown at doors. I even loved that, while he was aiming for pissed off, he recruits her (without her knowledge) to school his seniors on To Kill a Mockingjay and she takes it with a grain of salt and does it not just willingly, but she wants to.

But also with that? I love that Robbie wants his seniors to succeed enough that he's helping them pass their classes -- and is reading the book himself.

I'm super excited to read Logan's book next -- again, here's that "I love my first characters" biased though coming -- because Logan and Robbie are friends, and Logan and Darcy are close cousins, so of course we'll get to see more of these two lovely people! Right? Right.