review || LOVE OF THE GAME by Lori Wilde

Avon | April 26, 2016 | Contemporary Romance
Stardust, TX, book 3
★★★★1/2

SOURCE: TASTY BOOK TOURS

A sexy sports superstar discovers his body isn’t the only thing that needs healing in this newest Stardust, Texas novel from New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde…

With major league good looks and talent, Dallas Gunslingers relief pitcher Axel Richmond was living the good life. Even if the roar of the crowd could never distract him from the loss of his young son. But now with an injured shoulder and his career on the line, Axel is stuck recuperating at a ranch in Stardust, Texas . . . striking out only with his gorgeous physical therapist.

Kasha Carlyle has one week to get Axel back in action or she can kiss her much-needed job with the Gunslingers goodbye. And any chance to seek custody of the orphaned half-sister she never knew existed. She quickly learns that Axel’s guarded heart also needs healing . . . requiring all kinds of sneaky plays and sexy moves in extra innings.

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{ about lori wilde} .

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Lori Wilde has sold seventy-eight works of fiction to four major New York Publishing houses.

Her first NYT bestseller, the third book in her Twilight, Texas series, The First Love Cookie Club has been optioned for a television movie. The town of Granbury, Texas, upon which her fictional town of Twilight, Texas is loosely based, honors Lori with an annual Twilight, Texas weekend each Christmas.

A popular writing instructor, Lori is a two time RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. She's won the Colorado Award of Excellence, the Wisconsin Write Touch Award, The Golden Quill, the Lories, and The More than Magic.

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{ q+a with lori } .

Q. Lori, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today!

Your new release, LOVE OF THE GAME is the third in the Stardust, Texas Series, which features some very handsome baseball playing heroes.  What kind of research goes into writing a new series, especially a series with professional sports involved?  

A. Hi, thank you for having me. Whenever I start a new book, I do some preliminary research on the setting, the background, and the characters’ occupation. Then I dive into writing. If something comes up during the writing that I don’t know the answer to, I’ll stop and do some quick research. Then once I finish the first draft and jump into revisions, I’ll look for plot hole and missing pieces of research at that point too. Research can involve Internet searches, talking to people in the professions I’m researching, watching TV programs, going to the library, attending an event, or even hands on learning.

Q. You are probably most well known for your Twilight Texas Series, along with the Jubilee Texas Series (my favorite) and the more recent, Cupid Texas Series.  Do you have one series or set of characters that was your favorite to write?  Even a couple?  Or one title that took the most out of you emotionally to write?  

A. The most taxing title for me to write was CHRISTMAS AT TWILIGHT, which features characters struggling with mental illness. Several members of my family have struggled with mental disorders. This book took an emotional as I had to put myself back into heart-wrenching situations I’d experienced. But, it was also very cathartic.

Q. What many readers might not know about you is that you taught a romance course online, which was not only so informative but very personal when it came to feedback and critique.  (I took the class and LOVED IT).  If you have ONE piece of advice for aspiring romance writers, what would that be?

A. Thanks for the compliment. I love to teach writing. I’m actually teaching a class like that again in October through Writers University. https://writeruniv.wordpress.com

My one piece of advice is to get the book done. Just write it. Then write another one and another one. That’s what it takes. Consistent production.

Q. I read that you are newly certified as a yoga instructor.  What have you found to be the biggest benefit by doing yoga?  Do you think that it has helped with your creativity when it comes to writing?  

A. The benefits of yoga have been nothing short of life altering. Yoga has given me my health, sanity and creativity back. I’d lost myself in work and forgotten who I was. Yoga brought me back to me. I’m calmer, healthier, more balanced. It helps me lead a better life.

Q. What are you working on next?  Another Stardust Romance or are you venturing into a new series? Visiting an older series?

A. I’m going back to Cupid, Texas to write about four brothers from a ranching dynasty and the four Native American sisters they fall in love with.

Thank you again for taking the time to chat!

{ excerpt } .

It starts like this: an unexpected spark, instant attraction, the jolting jab of oh-so-you-feel-this-too? Flash fire in the belly. A corkscrew twist in the center of the chest. A physical ache that punches low and heavy and spreads out hard and fast through muscles and tendons, blood and bone.

Heady.

Erotic.

Thrilling.

Physical therapist Kasha Carlyle had felt it before, this hot flare, runaway-mine-train-express that stirred fear in the dark recesses of her mind. She’d resisted it then. Resisted it now.

But this? This here? This was something more.

Stronger.

Bolder.

Scarier.

Coal black eyes melted her resistance, seared it to ash. In that stopwatch moment when her gaze struck, and stuck to the steely stare of the Dallas Gunslingers’ most valuable pitcher, Axel Richmond.

He’d just completed a physical therapy session with his trainer, Paul Hernandez, and he was sitting on a bench wearing nothing but red workout pants, his bare chest on display. Every glistening muscle was finely etched. Not a drop of fat on him. He was a splendid specimen of adult male in top physical shape, life and passion oozing from his pores.

The only thing that seemed out of place was the black tattoo over his heart that spelled out

“Dylan.”

One look and everything and everyone blended and blurred as white-hot need transported them into their own little world far from the sports medicine facility in North Dallas, where baseball coaches, managers, administrators, and sports medicine specialists surrounded them.

For a split second.

Then pure panic set it.

It was Tuesday, May seventeenth, and the second week of Kasha’s three-month probationary period at her new job working with injured major league baseball players.

And she was already falling in lust.

No. No. This simply would not do. Keeping her job was essential.

Now that she had Emma to consider, she urgently needed the bump in salary to pay off the student loans that had gotten her through her PhD. Not to mention the excellent health insurance coverage. Finding out about Emma had changed everything.

Quickly, Kasha peeled her gaze from Axel’s and studied the insignia on the wall above his head—the blue and green Gunslingers crossed dueling pistols logo—but she didn’t see a darn thing. Purposefully, she slowed her breathing, and forced herself to listen to the conversation.

“I wish we had better news,” Dr. Tad Harrison, the lead physician on the team, said to Axel.

Dr. Harrison had been the one to hire Kasha, and the one to caution her that only thirty percent of probationary employees made it past the first three months. “It takes a special breed to work with these ballplayers. They’re long on arrogance and stubbornness and always think they know best.”

“I have a lot of patience,” she’d said because it was true.

“I heard they call you the Exorcist in your current job,” Dr. Harrison had said. “Why is that?”

She couldn’t keep from smiling. “My colleagues say I have a talent for taming difficult clients.”

“And do you?”

“I consider physical therapy a calling.” She folded her hands in her lap, and said without a hint of ego. “I was born for this work.”

Dr. Harrison stroked his chin. “That’s what Rowdy said too.”

Rowdy Blanton was the field manager for the Gunslingers. He was also Kasha’s brother-in-law, married to her younger adoptive sister, Breeanne, and he’d recommended her for the job.

“If I hire you,” Dr. Harrison had continued. “It will be on your own merits, not your relationship to Rowdy. He got you this interview, but that’s as far as nepotism goes.”

“As it should.” Kasha bobbed her head.

The uncertainty of the job was why she hadn’t yet rented an apartment in Dallas. Every day, she made the one hundred and thirty-five mile, one-way trek to the stadium from her hometown of Stardust.

While she was optimistic, she was also practical. She’d learned that fate could derail even the best intentions and you had to be ready to flow whichever way the current took you. For the next three months, until she solidified the job, she would keep making that drive.

For Emma.

Her thoughts took off in a hundred different directions at once. Stalled. Spun. Gathered momentum like an encroaching hurricane. Realizing her mind had wandered, she forcefully shut down the unproductive thoughts and directed her attention back to the patient.

Axel Richmond.

One more look and Kasha was on fire and she hated it. The last thing she wanted right now was to meet a guy, especially this guy. Whose stark dark hair was drenched in the heady sheen of sweat.

He was as sexy as ten kinds of sin, and twice as handsome, and he was studying her through heavily lidded eyes as if she was the most fascinating creature he’d seen in years.

Um . . . yes . . . that’s why her mind had wandered. To keep from dealing with the feelings his hot-to-trot gaze churned inside her.

She let out such a long sigh that everyone in the room swiveled to stare. She kept her face blank and examined her fingernails, pretending she’d discovered a ragged cuticle.

From the moment Axel had strolled into the therapy room with his pro-athlete swagger and princely sense of entitlement, she’d been mesmerized.

Spellbound by the way his fitted T-shirt hugged his intricately muscled body. Then he’d stripped off the shirt, giving her an even more arresting view. A thick head of lush brown hair curled around his ears, and those powerful thighs strained at the seams of his workout pants.

Whew.

{ review } .

First off, how gorgeous is that cover? Hands down, my favorite in the series.

Second, if you haven't read the series, you'll be ok; this can certainly be read as a standalone. But if you have, you know all about the hope chest and the supposed folklore behind it.

Slowly, Kasha's sisters are finding love and they're attributing it to the hope chest -- Breeanne and the scratchy scarf, Jodi and the perfume. While Kasha wants to believe in the chest for them, she just... doesn't. Kasha is a realist who thinks that love is great and all, but it was love and passion that tore her family apart, so no thank you, she doesn't want anything to do with it. Besides, she has Emma to think about... She has a deep need to make amends for her family's mistakes, and is more than willing to take the entire brunt of it all. While independence is a strength in characters, Kasha's borders on detrimental.

Kasha proves herself to be incredibly independent and strong right from the beginning. When Axel comes into the office she's interning at for PT purposes, his team is strong on pushing surgery for this ball player. Kasha, though, sees something the others don't and when she opens her mouth, she's afraid she'll lose her job. However, Axel, for whatever reason, wants to take her advice -- but no worries, he shows what a standup guy he can be by putting forth some stipulations for Kasha and her internship.

Axel has his own past demons and reasons for guarding his heart, but the more he's around Kasha, the more he grows to enjoy her company. These two were fun and sweet, but it's Axel's passion that has Kasha skittering away. Will she learn the differences in passion? Will she allow Axel to let down her guard? Will Axel allow her in to his heart and show her his own dark spots?

A great addition to this series.

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