Intercepted by Alexa Martin

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Title: Intercepted
Author: Alexa Martin
Series: Playbook #1
Published by: Berkley
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Format: eARC
Pages: 320
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Sports Romance
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Marlee thought she scored the man of her dreams only to be scorched by a bad breakup. But there's a new player on the horizon, and he's in a league of his own...

Marlee Harper is the perfect girlfriend. She's definitely had enough practice by dating her NFL-star boyfriend for the last ten years. But when she discovers he has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. There's just one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past, has Marlee in his sights.

Gavin fights to show Marlee he's nothing like her ex. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her past. The team's wives, who never led the welcome wagon, are not happy with Marlee's return. They have only one thing on their minds: taking her down. But when the gossip makes Marlee public enemy number one, she worries about more than just her reputation.

Between their own fumbles and the wicked wives, it will take a Hail Mary for Marlee and Gavin's relationship to survive the season.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — This one had me all kinds of entertained, but was balanced by some actions that confused me.  Maybe it’s even a 3.5 stars, but whatever, I’m going to stick to my gut.

I will admit, I had a love-confused relationship with Marlee. She would make me LAUGH AND LAUGH at her antics, and I would just want to high five her all over the place sometimes with the way she would stand up for herself or the smart-ass things she would say.  I loved how forthright she was, and how valiantly she pursued her career and her goals.  But she was also a much more…aggressive? heroine, and I had a harder time connecting with that.  I wasn’t always that big on the way she was over the top competitive, or how occasionally her taunts felt a little juvenile and more fitting for the reality shows she liked to watch (which, since I’m not a fan of those, it makes sense that wasn’t my favourite aspect of her personality).

I think I also had a hard time at the beginning of the story understanding why she was with Chris for so long.  He truly treated her horribly, and while we get some explanation, it wasn’t enough for me to make it fit with the Marlee that we know for the rest of the book.  And while I got in general where she was coming from wrt her relationship with Gavin, it took me a while to get there and get behind her decisions.  I initially found her harder to sympathize with…or rather I was torn, b/c part of me did and part of me didn’t.  Which probably doesn’t make sense, but when do I ever make sense?

Gavin for the most part was awesome.  He was sweet, persistent, fun, kind, just the opposite of the stereotype of a NFL player that we’re usually presented with.  But damn was he oblivious sometimes, especially at the end.  It made me wonder if he knew Marlee at all, and honestly it didn’t fit with what I’d come to know of him up to that point…

I appreciated the way the end played out, because it was the right decision for them, and it made me have more faith in their relationship, though I will admit I still wanted something more out of Gavin.

Their chemistry was pretty awesome.  I actually loved the way they connected on a friendship level the most, they really meshed well on an everyday level.

In general, the secondary characters were pretty great  I especially LOVED Marlee’s friendship with Naomi and Brynn.  I was a bit bummed that most of the other WAGs were fairly villainous.  For some reason I’d like to believe there would have been a few more good ones in there…

I like this author’s voice in general, she’s pretty freaking funny…but there are moments of disconnect for me as well.  It’s *really* hard to articulate what is missing for me though, but there is something preventing me from full on fangirling.  Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to TK’s book!