Author: Peyton Miller
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages/Word Count: 392 Pages
At a Glance: There is promise in this debut novel, but there are a lot of issues that piled up and made me roll my eyes way too much.
Reviewed By: Sadonna
Blurb: Seth Mercer is at the top of his game when a secret threatens to topple him. Lust draws him into a dark pit and he’s unsure how to break away from a destructive force. Angry at himself, and his mistakes, he vows to never enter into another relationship again, until he has a special hook up with Colby.
Colby Larsen learns the truth about his ex and is devastated. He throws himself into his work, vowing to never get emotionally involved again. When he meets Seth, Colby is unprepared for how connected they become.
Seth has a secret and he can’t tell Colby. Colby can’t accept betrayal of any sort after being fooled by his cheating ex. When he finds out Seth has been hiding important information from him, will it end their relationship or draw them closer together?
Review: So, I’m in a bit of a quandary as to how to write this review. Because of the extremely vague language in the blurb, virtually anything I write about the plot will, in fact, be a spoiler.
Here’s what I can say about the plot without revealing more than the blurb: Seth Mercer is a star college football quarterback who desperately wants to make it to the NFL. He’s worked harder and longer than anybody on the team to make his dream come true. The dream isn’t just for him but also for his folks. They’ve fallen on hard times, and Seth wants to be able to take care of them. The only way for him to really do that is to make it to the pros. He’s contemplating that future at the end of his senior year, and the fact that he will have to keep his sexuality under wraps if he wants to get drafted. But the problem is he does sooooo many things to jeopardize this one decision that he seems to have made.
Colby is a very sympathetic character. His cheating boyfriend is a total douchecanoe and thankfully, Colby is ready to move on from him in every way possible. This is what opens him up to the possibility of Seth. But, this is my second issue with the storyline—after a hookup, these guys pretty quickly seem to be heading toward something more serious, but they literally have spent only a few nights together.
Beyond the two main characters, there are so many things that happen in the story that are beyond the realm of reality. I realize that it’s fiction, but the unending train of unbelievable incidents just really threw me out of the story. I didn’t believe the parents’ reactions. I didn’t believe the stunt pulled by the villain of the piece. I did really like a couple of Seth’s business associates, but beyond that, the secondary characters didn’t ring true. It’s like that Coco Chanel advice: before you leave the house take one thing off. This story was just way over-accessorized with too many unnecessary and implausible things to make me believe these two were the real deal.
I really wanted to like this book—new author, football player (I’m a sucker for gay athlete stories because I think they are important), fairly lengthy, all things that should let me enjoy the story. But there were just too many things that required me to suspend disbelief. That’s too bad because in general, I like the writer’s style. I also think another edit and some trimming would have helped with the pacing.
You can buy After the Snap here:
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