{"id":13122,"date":"2016-10-23T09:45:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T13:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=13122"},"modified":"2016-10-23T09:47:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T13:47:32","slug":"review-the-baller-by-vi-keeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=13122","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Baller: A Down and Dirty Football Novel by Vi Keeland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

4.5 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

I LOVE THIS BOOK!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A funny, sexy, dramatic and emotional sports romance featuring a cocky yet big-hearted and charming football star and a stubborn, feisty sports reporter. Full of chemistry with fantastic banter and a whole lot of sexy, this book is surprising, entertaining and SO much fun! I struggled to put it down, and I absolutely loved it!<\/p>\n

Delilah Maddox is a professional sportscaster. A woman working in a male-dominated industry, she adores her job and has worked hard to get to her current position as staff football sportscaster for her network, and is about to undertake her first round of interviews with the New York Steel. All is going well until she meets star quarterback and Superbowl MVP, Brody Easton\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations on the win today, Brody. How is your knee feeling after your first game back?\u201d I lifted my microphone high, knowing Nick was filming in close.
\n\u201cI feel . . . \u201d He nonchalantly reached to the towel wrapped around his waist and tugged at the corner. The towel fell to the ground. \u201cGreat. I feel great. And how about you? It\u2019s your first trip into the locker room, isn\u2019t it? Do you like what you see so far?\u201d His lips curled up into a full-blown wicked smile.
\nBefore I could catch myself, my eyes dropped to his naked lower half. Shit<\/i>. He was dangling in the wind.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The chemistry between these two is evident from the very start. Brody is a highly confident, arrogant womaniser who makes it very clear that he wants Delilah. And his dirty flirting and smug confidence is hilarious! But there\u2019s so much more to him, and with Delilah travelling away with the team, Brody holds nothing back in his pursuit of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes dinner mean sleeping with you?\u201d
\n\u201cHopefully when it\u2019s over. But if you want to switch things up a bit and get to the fuckng first, I\u2019m happy to oblige.\u201d
\n\u201cNo, thanks.\u201d
\n\u201cRelax, I\u2019m joking. Dinner means dinner. You know, I take you out to some overpriced restaurant where we share a meal and I tell you how great I am.\u201d
\n\u201cGee. How can I turn that invitation down?\u201d
\nHe winked. \u201cThat\u2019s what I thought. I am sort of irresistible.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Delilah is admittedly attracted to the cocky asshole, but Brody is up front about his reluctance to become involved in a relationship and she\u2019s not interested in a one-night stand, so they are at a stalemate. But the connection is there and the more they get to know each other, they become friends and their attraction grows until Brody decides that he needs more with Delilah, and he agrees to take that last leap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can do exclusive. Hell, the thought of you with anyone else makes me fucking insane. I insist on exclusive. And dating. I\u2019m game for whatever you want to do. The relationship part, I\u2019m probably going to need you to bear with me on. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve had one. I\u2019ll probably fuck up and piss you off a lot, but I\u2019d like to try.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is such a wonderful relationship! Open and honest, they both throw themselves into it, going with the flow and following their hearts (and the rest of their bodies) into it. The sexy time is crazy passionate and so freaking hot, and their emotional connection develops beautifully as they share themselves and their lives, and it all feels so natural. They are fun, flirty, and deliciously dirty together, and I revelled in their developing romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you really don\u2019t have anything against women in the locker room?\u201d
\n\u201cI have something against you in the locker room.\u201d He pulled me from sitting to lying on top of him.
\n\u201cWhy?\u201d
\n\u201cBecause the only dick I want you seeing these days is mine.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s an oddly sweet statement.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m an oddly sweet kinda guy. Now shut up and kiss me.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But they have both had their hearts broken before, and both of them are still struggling to overcome the pain of their pasts and the scars that have been inflicted. The whole truth is revealed slowly as the book progresses, and it adds a nice intensity to the story. And then there\u2019s the secondary storyline which brings the drama. It was unexpected, but personally I thought it was really well done. It didn\u2019t annoy me, and I thought Brody handled the situation really beautifully. I admit that I was frustrated at Delilah\u2019s reaction, and that\u2019s the reason this book isn\u2019t getting 5 stars from me, but it did its job in providing conflict for the story, and the reason I tolerated it was because of the way Brody dealt with it all, and the fact that it was resolved well, leaving me one happy and satisfied little reader.<\/p>\n

So overall, I really loved this story. I totally fell for Brody, and I loved the relationship between him and Delilah. Their sense of fun is so addictive, their banter is fantastic and Brody\u2019s constant innuendos and dirty flirting add a lightness to a book that could have easily become bogged down in drama. Instead, this is a fun, exciting, sexy and romantic book with a lot of heart (and a sensational epilogue), and I absolutely loved it.<\/p>\n

4.5 stars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review 4.5 stars I LOVE THIS BOOK! A funny, sexy, dramatic and emotional sports romance featuring a cocky yet big-hearted and charming football star and a stubborn, feisty sports reporter. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,58,29],"tags":[48,76,349],"class_list":["post-13122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-romance","category-sports-star","category-steamy","tag-review","tag-standalone","tag-vi-keeland"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/The-Baller.jpg?fit=150%2C224&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-3pE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}