A second chance doesn't guarantee a touchdown in this new contemporary romance from the author of Intercepted.
FUMBLED by ALEXA MARTIN
Publication date: April 23, 2019
Published by: Berkley/Penguin
Genre: romance
SYNOPSIS
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.
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Praise for Fumbled:
"I wish I could jump into the Fumbled world and hang out on the couch and drink wine and gossip with Poppy and her friends!"—Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author
"Get ready for sparks to fly..."—PopSugar
“Spending time in Martin’s world is like having a heart-to-heart with your bestie.”—Entertainment Weekly
"Martin expertly captures the struggle between the need for a quiet, ordinary life and the demands of an all-star career path that invites gossip, grudges, and jealousy. In this delicious follow-up to Intercepted (2016), Martin once again draws on her own experience as an NFL wife to create a winning sports romance."—Booklist starred review
"Readers will laugh, swoon, and grow to love every character in this entertaining contemporary romance."—Publishers Weekly
“A hardworking single mom comes face to face with the gorgeous star athlete who got away in the second installment of a football romance series by a fresh-voiced newcomer to the genre… Poppy leaps off the page as a contemporary biracial woman navigating dating, motherhood, and career with seriousness and a fantastic sense of humor.”—Kirkus Reviews
"I wish I could jump into the Fumbled world and hang out on the couch and drink wine and gossip with Poppy and her friends!"—Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author
"Get ready for sparks to fly..."—PopSugar
“Spending time in Martin’s world is like having a heart-to-heart with your bestie.”—Entertainment Weekly
"Martin expertly captures the struggle between the need for a quiet, ordinary life and the demands of an all-star career path that invites gossip, grudges, and jealousy. In this delicious follow-up to Intercepted (2016), Martin once again draws on her own experience as an NFL wife to create a winning sports romance."—Booklist starred review
"Readers will laugh, swoon, and grow to love every character in this entertaining contemporary romance."—Publishers Weekly
“A hardworking single mom comes face to face with the gorgeous star athlete who got away in the second installment of a football romance series by a fresh-voiced newcomer to the genre… Poppy leaps off the page as a contemporary biracial woman navigating dating, motherhood, and career with seriousness and a fantastic sense of humor.”—Kirkus Reviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexa Martin is a writer and stay at home mom. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a former NFL player who now coaches at the high school where they met, their four children, and a German Shepherd. When she's not telling her kids to put their shoes on...again, you can find her catching up with her latest book boyfriend or on Pinterest pinning meals she'll probably never make. Her first book, Intercepted, was inspired by the eight years she spent as an NFL wife.
You can find her on:
Fumbled by Alexa MartinMy rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Alexa Martin's debut Intercepted was hilarious and highly entertaining, but her follow up was even better. The snarky narrative that I enjoyed so much was just as present this time in the form of Poppy Patterson. Single mother, waitress, and high school sweetheart of TK, wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs. This is a lighter second-chance romance which was refreshing to read. The majority of the time they are heavier on the angst and I do highly enjoy those, but this was a nice break from the norm. Which isn't to say that this lacked in the emotion department, because there was still plenty of moments that will tug on your heartstrings.
I want our lives to become so intertwined we can’t figure out where one starts and the other ends. I want you and Ace around as much as I can have you around. I want you both.”
Poppy was a teen mother who had to sacrifice her dreams of attending Northwestern in order to raise her son on her own. After choosing to keep the baby, her parents disowned her and she didn't have an easy road. Instead of wallowing in bitterness, she works her butt off without complaint in order to give her son the happy life he deserves. I felt nothing but admiration for her drive, determination, and sense of humor-even when life threw her a curveball. Her crappy job at the Emerald Cabaret brings her face to face with a ghost from her past: Trevor Kyle "TK" Moore.
TK made brief appearances in the previous book and he always came off as a sweet and respectful guy despite his supposed reputation for partying and enjoying a wide variety of women. You're told this about him, but his player lifestyle is not really something you witness. Their first interaction is very early in the book, and from first glance on, he has his eyes set on one woman. His first love, the woman he could never forget, despite the fact that she disappeared on him ten years ago without the courtesy of a goodbye. He was a fantastic hero that is easy to love right from the start. Extroverted, and the life of the party without being ridiculous or too silly. He revels in teasing Poppy and flustering her which almost always ended in a moment of awkward hilarity.
This is not the typical second chance romance where the hero becomes famous and the heroine has stars in her eyes over his fame and glamorous lifestyle. If you think that, you'll be wrong. Rather than feeling awe over her ex's career, it's actually a hindrance to their reconciliation. Poppy makes it abundantly clear that she despises football and the danger it poses to its players.
FOOTBALL IS THE SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE EQUIVALENT TO A CULT. It seems like tons of fun and everyone around you is an avid follower of the religion. Oops. I mean sport.
Fanatics idolize football players as god-like beings, and treat them as if they're incapable of feeling hurt over insensitive words. Martin's first-hand experience as a spouse of an NFL player lends authenticity to her heroines' feelings and challenges. We see examples of what it would be like for family members attending home games in the stadium. The toll that it takes when you have to witness your loved one injured and worry about the severity of the next hit they'll have to take.
I would say that the main conflict of the book revolves around this fear of Poppy's. She has done extensive reading on the brain disease called CTE-Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This is a degenerative brain disease that's caused by repeated concussions or head trauma. She feels so strongly about the dangers of this to the players' health that she's firmly against her son's interest in the sport and won't budge on her refusal to let him play. Seeing TK out on the field scares her more than impresses her and it's not a simple roadblock for them to overcome.
There are other various things that crop up as they get to know one another again.
What I don’t know is, after all his time as a party boy, star football player supreme, if he’s ready to settle down. It might seem fun to play family man now, but how long until the novelty wears off and he wants his VIP club status back?
I loved the fact that he was all in in his pursuit of her right from the start, but that didn't mean that she was able to trust that things would work out this time around. Years had passed, and they were different people now. Could their love endure through shocking revelations and unexpected strain on their tenuous relationship? TK needed to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was in it for the long haul and that he was willing to put his new family first above all else.
Together, I thought Poppy and TK were adorable, charming, and intrinsically right for each other. Their separation as teens was caused by interference by a third party and a misunderstanding rather than any horrible action on either of their parts. When they reconnect, their love is as strong as ever, and the heat between them equally so. There was no doubt in my mind that they had the goods to remain strong partners and parents long term. There was minimal drama with a malicious person leaving threatening notes for Poppy, but it wasn't over the top. In the previous book there several moments where the heroine's safety was threatened to the point where it didn't feel entirely realistic. I was impressed with how it was toned down this time and didn't add anything unnecessary to the plot.
I simply love Martin's brand of humor and romance, and I think she's a new voice in the genre that will be around for a long time to come.
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