A sexy and intense standalone novel from a New York Times bestselling author. This book contains heavy subject matter and is intended for mature readers.Once, the only thing that mattered to me was football—training, playing, and earning my place on the best team at every level. I had it all, and I threw it away with a semester of drugs, alcohol, and pissing off anyone who tried to stop me. Now … stop me. Now I’m suspended from the team, on house arrest, and forced to spend six months at home to get my shit together. The cherry on top of my fuckup sundae? Sleeping in the room next to mine is my best friend’s girl, Mia Mendez—the only woman I’ve ever loved and a reminder of everything I regret.
I’m not sure if having Mia so close will be heaven or hell. She’s off-limits—and not just because she’s working for my dad. Her heart belongs to someone else. But since the accident that killed her brother and changed everything, she walks around like a zombie, shutting out her friends and ignoring her dreams. We’re both broken, numb, and stuck in limbo.
Until I break my own rules and touch her.
Until she saves me from my nightmares by climbing into my bed.
Until the only thing I want more than having Mia for myself is to protect her from the truth.
I can’t rewrite the past, but I refuse to leave her heart in the hands of fate. For this girl, I’d climb into the sky and rearrange the stars.
THE BLACKHAWK BOYS, an edgy, sexy sports romance series from New York Times bestseller Lexi Ryan. Football. Secrets. Lies. Passion. These boys don’t play fair. Which Blackhawk Boy will steal your heart?
Book 1 – SPINNING OUT (Arrow’s story)
Book 2 – RUSHING IN (Christopher’s story)
Book 3 – GOING UNDER (Sebastian’s story)
Book 4 – FALLING HARD (Keegan’s story)
Book 5 – IN TOO DEEP (Mason’s story)
“Sexy and twisty, Spinning Out will hook you fast and keep you flipping pages until the very end. Another Lexi Ryan winner!” -New York Times bestselling author Meghan March
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3.75 stars–SPINNING OUT is the first instalment in Lexi Ryan’s contemporary, new adult THE BLACKHAWK BOY romance series focusing on a group of friends who attend Blackhawk University. This is football player Arrow Woodison , and nanny Mia Mendez’s story line.
Told from dual first person points of view (Arrow and Mia), using present day and memories from the past divided into nine parts SPINNING OUT follow in the aftermath of a hit-and-run accident that killed Mia’s brother Nic, severely injuring her ex-boyfriend Brogan, and the resulting fall-out as family friends struggle to move on from the pain and grief. Months earlier Mia fell for Arrow Woodison but Arrow’s best friend Brogan swooped in and fell for our story line heroine. Infidelity, secrets, and lies lead to a New Year’s eve drunk fest wherein one young man would lose his life, while another clung to what was left of his. Fast forward to present day as our heroine struggles to move on from the past, as Arrow battles his own demons and more. When Mia is hired as housekeeper and nanny for the Woodison family, Mia is placed in the direct line of fire when the young man she has loved continues comes under house arrest and continues to push Mia out of his life. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Mia and Arrow, and the fall-out as sins of the past reveal more secrets and lies than anyone could have imagined.
SPINNING OUT is a story of betrayal, of death, loss, grief and forgiveness; secrets, lies, hypocrisy and cover-up. The large ensemble cast of colorful and broken characters include Mia’s struggling father Mr. Mendez, as well as Arrow’s father Uriah Woodison and his young wife Gwen. We are introduced to Arrow’s friends and teammates: Chris, Sebastian, Keegan, Mason Dahl; Coach Wright and his daughter Trish, and Mia’s best friend Bailey.
SPINNING OUT is an emotional story line about mistakes, defamation, addiction and deceit. The premise is detailed, raw and tragic ; the characters are broken and flawed; the romance is a second chance at love, forgiveness and a happily ever after.
I think it’s great. Really sad at certain moments but it only enhanced the realistic way in which people would react had they been in that situation.
SECRETIVE & ANGSTY!
Forbidden Love + Love Triangle!
Not to mention FOOTBALL!!
Mia & Arrow have this intense connection that he’s never had with anyone; only problem is…Mia is Arrow’s best friend’s girlfriend. The circumstances that surround this entire situation is WILD! The twists & turns the author takes will have you choosing sides and if you’re like me..it might not be the one you originally thought you’d root for.
+ College Romance
+ Football
+ Love Triangle
+ Oh boy…the secrets!
I had many moments where although I was rooting for Arrow I also wanted to nut-punch him for being a jerk! But then he’d do something to bring Mia back to life and I’d love him all over again.
I’m not sure what happened with this one….I enjoyed the story. It’s exactly the kind of thing I love to read but for some reason this one just didn’t grab me emotionally like I thought it might during some parts. It could be the story or I might have had an off day!
I definitely plan on diving into the next one, it looks like the author has covered a few of my favorite tropes with this series.
This was my first book by Lexi Ryan, and I can’t wait to read more! I loved it!
Great story! Wow just sucked you in and didn’t let go until the very end. You really feel for arrow with a throng that happens and all he threw away. And then Mia and the loss and pain that she goes through. Wow. Loved the story. And some serious hot times to be had.
I love Lexi Ryan books, but struggled to get into this story with the stop start into past and present from different characters perspective. Only at the end did the story make sense to me.
I love the intense sexy characters and passion for team and life!
Love this book. Great writing. Kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. I couldn’t put it down.
Really enjoyed this story, like how it was written between the present and the past. Great mystery and surprising at the end. Great characters.
I had a hard time following the plot
At times it felt forced and seemed to jump around alot. Parts of it I loved but overall I wouldn’t reread
The teenage/early adult years. All the hormones and angst. The pain is real when you’re mourning loved ones, and when someone dies, the memories tend to sometimes leave out the hard times. The secrets are painful in this one, but there’s a close knit of characters that are there for each other to lean on. It wasn’t an easy read, but it was a good read.
This dramatic little page-turner held me hostage from beginning to end, I just couldn’t pry my eyes from the words once I got started! The characters drew me in, instantly had me drowning in feels and had my heart feeling like it was in a vise… you just couldn’t help but feel for them and all they were going through. This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while now, just waiting for me to pick it up, and boy am I really kicking myself now for letting it sit there so long… it was downright amazing! I cannot wait to see what happens in the next installment, and see what Ms. Blake has in store for Chris!! Highly recommend this one, it’s a well penned tale certain to leave you thoroughly satisfied!!
Book 1 of the series does not disappoint. Ryan strings the reader along an emotional ride with Mia and Arrow. An accident that changed many lives including Mia and Arrow. They cope in vastly different ways, but both are broken and have no idea how to become whole again. Mia shuts herself off from everyone and everything that used to make her happy. She lost a lot that night. She feels her soul is one of those things. She’s a shell just trying to survive. Arrow drinks, and does drugs to forget. Nothing helps. There’s no way to forget. Now, he’s at risk for losing the last thing that he loves–football. On house arrest, he’s forced to return home to a distant father, cold step-mother, and an infant sibling. Oh, and Mia, who’s his half-sister’s nanny. The one girl he has always been in love with but could never act upon it because she belongs to his best friend.
One nightmare changed their relationship. Slowly, they both begin to heal each other–forgive. So many questions linger between them about the night of the accident. Arrow can’t remember. Mia riddled with guilt. Can the answers set them free or forever chain them to their individual guilt? Will they ever be free of the guilt to be together the way their hearts desire?
This was fantastic. I could not put it down. I loved the characters, the backstory was insane, the forbidden lovers aspect, the semi-love triangle aspect, the mystery aspect, all very well done. First Lexi Ryan book I’ve read but definitely won’t be the last.
I honestly do not know how I feel about this book. The beginning dragged on, I felt like I was missing something. For a while, I thought there must have been a book before this one. It took a long time to find out what was really going on. The secrets are devastating. I don’t mind the flash backs, but this story went back and forth so much I was a little lost at times. This story was good, just a little slow.
Original review: https://myshelfbooks.wordpress.com/2019/06/29/spinning-out-lexi-ryan/
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
After reading a great book, the next one usually has way too big shoes to fill. Making comparisons is not fair, but it is human and unavoidable. The book that brings me here today is an example of that. I think I could have enjoyed it a bit more if I weren’t still surfing the wave of the greatness that is the Texting saga by Teagan Hunter. It doesn’t help at all that both books have similar elements.
In this first step of the Blackhawk Boys saga we meet Arrow (no, it is not Oliver Queen…), a football star who is under house arrest after some trouble with drugs and alcohol. That is the same house where Mia works as a nanny, maid, cook and everything domestic you can imagine. Mia and Arrow know each other and, for reasons, dislike each other and are not very friendly. Obviously, they end naked sooner rather than later… Naked in each other arms, in case that wasn’t clear.
I’m going to start with the good: the story is nice. Or at least most of it is. Well, maybe just the main thread of the story. Anyway, it is a nice setting with all the pieces in the right place. There is even a bit of a whodunit to keep the reader engaged. Yes, I know that is not really true, but if you really believe that the person pointed as the culprit was really the one… you need to read more Romance… So, yeah, there was a bit of a mystery to know who the killer was. I’m being generous there. It was pretty easy to know what happened, but the getting there was fun and interesting. I only wondered why Arrow was incapable of filling the holes waaaay sooner.
Too bad the story is drowned by a screaming horde of dramatic elements. I like drama as much as the next guy. I consider it a nice spice to bring some emotion to a Romance novel. But, it has to be measured very carefully or you could end with a dish too hot to handle. Let’s say that, in this case, the measuring cup of the author had to be broken and the book got ten times the required amount of drama. We must not forget that we are talking about very young people who are barely in their twenties, so at some point the bad luck in their lives feels unrealistic. Mia was abandoned by her mother, her brother a criminal who ended in jail, her father a drunk who treated her mother poorly, she barely has money, her brother was murdered in front of her, her boyfriend suffered irreparable brain damaged, her father lost his job, her mother had an affair with her father’s job… etc, etc… And that is just Mia. It is exhausting to read about all the drama in their lives. I wanted to sympathize with them, but it was too much. I couldn’t stomach half of it and the blows kept coming. That made the reading more boring than expected.
Then we have the main characters: Mia and Arrow (still without a green hoodie…). I can admire Mia’s way of facing life after everything she has suffered, but that’s about all the positive I can say. I ended the book yelling: “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT????” She has the hugest poroblem of self-esteem I have seen. She doens’t live, she survives. Mia keeps stuffing her mouth with crumbs when she could feast if she were more honest with herself. That’s the reason I do not believe her relationship with Arrow. In my opinion, she is with him just because he is available and good to her. There is zero spark. There was also zero spark with the former boyfriend or even with Sebastian in that weird date (what was that???). About Arrow I have little to say. Very basic character that just gets his role done withoout any kind of flourish. A bit gullible sometimes.
The book misses all its chances of humor, even though the situation was apropos for a good laugh. The enemies to lovers dance was a mess, that barely makes sense at all. Why do Arrow and Mia hate each other? What is the reason? I think I was given one, but it’s the weakest excuse I have read in a long time. You have failed this troupe…
So, yeah. The book has more cons than pros. But the second book looks like it could be lighter, so the hope is not lost!
Honestly, this was the best book I’ve read thus far on my “rediscovering how much I love to read” journey. It’s the first one that actually made me cry, which is usually easy to do, but the other books I’ve read haven’t done it for me. I would love to read the other books in this series eventually. I’m sure they will be just as spectacular. Kudos to the author.
Spinning Out is book 1 in The Blackhawk Boys series. This is YA and had me on the edge of my seat from the start. Arrow is the rich kid with everything until lies cause him to implode. Mia is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks and is trying just to survive. Lots of twists and turns that sometimes have you wondering what’s going on but keep going you won’t be disappointed. Looking forward to Christopher’s story.
Couldn’t put down I really enjoyed this book
Oh my word! This story was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. You find yourself smiling, cursing, crying and searching for some light in what seems a terrible darkness.
Will read more from this author.