Playing football ruled every decision Julian MacIntyre ever made, including leaving his high school sweetheart behind to follow his dream. Sidelined by an injury on the field, he’s now making a huge comeback to the NFL as the league’s youngest head coach. He wants it all. The glory, the job and the girl he walked away from years ago. As one of the top sports reporters, Addison Hamilton has made a … has made a name for herself in a male-dominated industry. Proven to be a hard-nosed journalist, she asks the tough questions, but when given the opportunity to interview the man who broke her heart, is she willing to cross the lines of professionalism to get the answers she needs?
more
The Play Maker is the first book I have read from L.M Carr it but it most certainly won’t be my last.
We meet AJ Hamilton a very successful sports reporter but she not so successful when it comes to love, when the one you want doesn’t want you, you have to do whatever it takes to make yourself happy, but when Julian MacIntyre comes back into her life can there be hope that there could be a second chance or is it too late.
Julian MacIntyre was a NFL superstar but when his career changes in an instant can coaching be what makes him happy or is maybe seeking out the only woman you ever loved be the answer.
There is no denying the chemistry is still there between the two of them but can past hurts stop them from trying to rekindle what they once had or will it be too late. You can’t help feel yourself cheering them on from the sidelines and hoping they can find that HEA that they wanted all those years ago.
This is my first book by L.M Carr and I am HOOKED!
Julian and Addison have a second chance at love and I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT.! I love a second chance romance – it is one of my favorite to read! L.M. Carr does not disappoint! I was totally drawn into their story and couldn’t put it down. I am so happy to have found a new to me author. If you love a second chance romance – this is a book for you!
Interesting, emotional and informative, a second chance novel about high school sweethearts who break apart and reunite years later.
AJ Hamilton and Julian McIntyre were sweet on each other since they were thirteen years old. By seventeen, they were dating, but when Julian was leaving for University, he broke up with AJ abruptly and broke her heart. He was the love of her life and for eighteen years she hasn’t been able to love another man. What she did was get into hookups and short flings. Julian was drafted into the NFL but had a short career, when he got a career-ending injury.
When Julian came back to Houston to form his own football team as the youngest coach in the NFL, his purpose was two-fold: build a Super Bowl team, and get his girl back.
Now for my comments. AJ starts the book pictured as a career woman, very bad-ass, very sexual. She’s in a relation with Justin and it’s obvious it’s just sex for her but she’s very into it. At work, she’s very assertive and scorns all chauvinistic comments from her fellow workers. She has worked hard at her career as a sports commentator and is one of the best. That all went down the toilet when Julian arrived. She caved in to her feelings, didn’t raise a lot of resistance, got very emotional and cried rivers of tears. Both behaviors didn’t jive for me. I would have expected to make him work hard for the reconciliation!
Once they are together, then it was highway driving and a beautiful couple. Job demands, some e-bullying, a couple of aggressions, AJ’s brother and his strange behavior, add spice and interest to the love story. In many instances, AJ felt guilty and embarrassed about her past, she frequently felt that some problems were her fault for her bad reputation. Again, this doesn’t jive because an assertive career woman should not feel guilty for having a strong sexual drive. Even less if she was spiraling due to a heartbreak. Blame it on the man!
In spite of the (in my opinion) discrepancies, it was an entertaining read. I loved the close relation AJ has with her brother Rence, I loved that Julian was very repentant for the estrangement from AJ and Rence. It was clear he was missing his girl and his friend and was willing to make reparation and fix the relation. As secrets are revealed, all the facts click together and make forgiveness easier to achieve. An interesting fact about this book is that understanding about the characters’ past comes in small doses of backflashes, until all is revealed towards the end. I needed to re-read to clear up some points and a lot of parts made finally sense, with the information gathered throughout the book. So you could say this book requires some studying. Great love scenes, great angsty scenes and a great forever love!
I like The Sideline…Series. Who knew being off the field was as entertaining as on!?! The Play Maker is going to make you mad. He is going to confuse you. He is going to woo you. Essentially, Julian is going to make you so hormonal and confused you have to give in or risk permanent psychosis. (Okay, that was a tad dramatic!)
The Play Maker has some great moves in this book but Julian isn’t the only one! Watching these two try to man the field single handedly is painful but when they get on the same team…its magic.
I feel like one of the family. And as a part of the family, I’m so upset that I have to wait for more! It’s okay though, it gives me time to figure out what my jersey is going to say!
WIthin a small span of time, a great story can be read and enjoyed. Appreciation is something that must be given when an author puts together very good work. L.M. Carr has done amazing work with The Play Maker (The Sideline #1) and I am happy to complement her.
This story is intriguing and had me tied to my kindle from beginning to end. Of course putting sports together with Texas and all the fun that goes with that…what’s a fella to do? But then L.M. went way deeper, bringing other underlying issues and conflicts to light. Some of those were with our characters and other issues external. How she shares Justin story as well as AJ’s story is riveting. There is bitterness, there are struggles and there are painful memories. But there is also love.
With each page I turned, I was more curious as to how L.M. was going to pull these frayed pieces together, and put some closure to their concerns. As much as Justin is straightforward he is strong an true. Yet AJ is no mousy woman either, and her strengths become very clear as the story continues. And the twist on The Play Maker as the title versus how we see it move to their relationship is priceless.
L.M. Carr, you have penned a great story worthy of so much more than the 5-stars we are allowed. I cannot wait to read the next story.
L.M. Carr told Julian and Addison’s story(back story and ‘second chance ‘) with her usual magic: making me feel! All with an interesting football background. I thoroughly enjoyed this love story, even not being a fan of sports romance and I recommend to all ‘Romantics’!
Wow!! What an emotional roller coaster of emotions read this book was. I had no idea what was going to happen next and I love when books are like that for me. When I get surprised at turn of events that happen or when I just can’t wait to see what happens next. Or also in this case the next book in the series even though it is a completely different couple!! This was such an amazing book and you need to go read it asap!!! By Tina
While I liked this book and read it in one day/sitting I also had a couple big problems with it that I felt could have been easily avoided. I liked that as a second chance sports romance the author gave us a lot of back story to greater understand Julian & Addison’s history. We got to see a lot of memories Addison had of her time growing up with Julian and the first time they dated. Addison and Julian had a bad breakup and Addison has a lot of bad feelings, hurt and resentment towards Julian.
I spent most of the first half of this book doubting his intentions for coming back into her life. That was one of the things I disliked about this book. The book never changes POV so you never get the overall picture with his side of the story explained until much later in the book. I also thought that the second half of the book had a few too many items in the plot. Some things I would have liked more detail on were glossed over in terms of resolution. It almost felt a little rushed.
Now for the biggest grievance I have of all. I would have left this as a 4 star but for this reason alone I had to knock it down to 3. There is no trigger warning at the beginning of the book or in the blurb write up online. This book NEEDS a trigger warning for rape and sexual assault! This is a huge, and completely avoidable, mistake on the author’s part. I hate having to review harshly based on a non-plot issue, but the lack of trigger warnings is a big no-no in my opinion.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A tricky 3.75 stars..
This was really unlike any sports romance I’ve read thus far. I thought I knew what to expect going into this novel, but this book did not follow any of the “regular tropes” typically found in second-chance or sports-romance, which I appreciated to an extent. However, this also meant that this novel contained lots of drama (sometimes OTT drama), which forces the reader to suspend their beliefs and not take this book too seriously.
Another hang-up I had with this novel was the two MCs–even though their separation wasn’t entirely Julian’s fault, both Julian and Addison were self-destructive and were constantly sabotaging their relationship despite claiming to love one another. Addison kept making stupid decisions and hid some pretty major things from Julian, while Julian proved to be a jealous and possessive asshole at times. Despite all of the obstacles in their path, they continued to fight for each other and eventually found their HEA, and there were some really sweet moments of love and growth between them. I’m slightly interested in Addison’s brother’s story, but I don’t know if I want to commit to something that might be OTT as well.
*ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*
Loving this second-chance romance! Julian and AJ were high school sweethearts and had their future planned out together, but that all changed when Julian decided to break up with AJ and go to college elsewhere. During his professional career, Julian has a career-ending injury, and transitions into a coaching role as a way to still be involved in the game. In the meantime, AJ has risen to fame in her own right in the sports world as a reporter. After making some poor decisions in an attempt to get Julian out of her mind, she seems to be turning her personal life around and starting to come to terms with her past, but Julian plows right back into her life and announces he wants her back. Resistant at first, after some sweet talking and a story for her station, the pair end up spending time together and because fate brought them back together, they end up getting involved again. Meanwhile, someone is blackmailing AJ with her past discretions and she’s unsure where to turn because telling Julian will risk her relationship. Overall, it was a good book mainly because of the suspense of figuring out who it was that was blackmailing AJ, and I was somewhat surprised to see who it was, but also loved the clues that the author left along the way.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
The Play Maker is a touchdown in my book! Not only is this a second chance romance, it also features another one of my favorite tropes: brother’s best friend. Plenty of steam, sports, drama, and a touch of humor – this book is a wonderful start to a new series. While I figured out early on who was behind the texts, I still couldn’t put this put down until I finished, and I can’t wait to read Rence’s story next!
Overall Grade:
“You’re my girl, Addison. You always have been, and you always will be.”
How do you move past losing the love of your life? How do you live when the ending of a relationship isn’t understood? This is one of the underlying tensions of L.M. Carr’s newest book, The Play Maker. Julian and Addison were childhood sweethearts. They were everything to each other at a time when life was difficult for both of them. After graduation, Julian just leaves. He makes a choice to break his promise to Addison that they will be together forever. And this devastates her.
Fast-forward ten years, Julian is now the youngest head coach in NFL history. Having suffered a devastating injury early in his NFL career, he has found a place for himself in the world that he loves. Addison “AJ” is a top female sports reporter, using her love for sports to find her own place among her favorite sport. Over the years, Addison has struggled with her heartbreak. In many ways, she makes careless choices to alleviate it. Instead, it only reinforces it. Addison is given the opportunity to interview Julian since he’s the new head coach of their local pro team. What she doesn’t know is that they are close to reconciling. Julian pursues Addison, trying to remedy the mistake of his past. Will Addison allow Julian back into her heart? That is the question of this romance.
In its base form, Carr’s The Play Maker is a second-chance sports romance. Addison and Julian are soulmates, fated to each other. What I think I loved about this book is they reconcile their relationship quickly. When you hit 30% in, these two are together, thankfully, and they remain so for the rest of the book. Since that’s the case, one of my issues with this book is the level of manufactured tension between them. Julian adores Addison. It’s clear. However, it takes Carr most of the book to finally divulge why Julian made his choice to leave her without explaining himself. Quite frankly, it doesn’t quite correspond with Addison and Julian’s relationship in their youth. Yes, I accept it as Carr’s plot device to split them apart, but I don’t think his decision is consistent with their early relationship. Additionally, Addison makes choices that potentially undermine their new relationship throughout the course of the book, and they don’t seem motivated by the fear she states. There were many times when I found myself frustrated with her fear because, again, it didn’t seem true to their reconciliation. That being said, these were only little concerns in the general telling of this story.
Addison and Julian together are dreamy. Carr has created a palpable chemistry between these two that sometimes seems more $exual than emotional. These two cannot keep their hands off each other. Their emotional chemistry is built over the course of the book, finding its depth at the book’s conclusion. I think I would have liked to see this come sooner, but Carr has a lot that she’s doing with this particular romance.
What the true message of this book is the treatment of women in a male-dominated world. AJ is a sports reporter, yet the men who surround her objectify her in a variety of ways. She makes choices that seem careless (and probably are); however, if men made the same choices, they wouldn’t be deemed careless. Additionally, this story has a bit of suspense when Addison receives illicit pictures from an anonymous sender, and some of the story is spent figuring out the identity of the perpetrator. This leads to discussions about cyberbullying within the story. And the most heinous story arc relates to the sexual assault of Addison by a powerful and wealthy man. Carr incorporates these situations to remind us of the dichotomy of male/female relationships especially in worlds where men tend to dominate. This is the true message of The Play Maker beyond its second chance romance.
I love a good sports romance. It might be my past with sports that drives my interest. In the case of L.M. Carr’s The Play Maker, though, I loved her interrogation of social norms. I think at times it seemed superfluous to Julian and Addison’s reconciliation and journey towards their happy ending. And there were times when I thought Carr could have revised out some of the story (namely the continued obsession that an ex has for Julian), but L.M. Carr is doing something important with this book. She’s pointing to the contradiction of perceived acceptable social behavior between men and women. This is still an issue today in 2019, even after #metoo and the scandals related to the behavior of powerful men. If you want one reason to read this book, it’s Carr’s focus on this social ill, coupled with the beautiful romance between two soulmates.
This book was the first book I have read from LM Carr. It was sports and second chance so I was excited to dive in. I had a hard time actually getting into the book though. I liked that this book was a second chance and gave insight into what happened but also focused mainly on the present.
I liked Julian and Rence. AJ has her moments. She didn’t seem to have a fluid character which was frustrating. She would be strong one minute and immature the next. It was frustrating to follow. There were too man storylines to really get invested too.
While it was something to read, unfortunately, this book wasn’t a hit for me.
The Play Maker is a sweet second chance sports romance. I enjoyed the characters although I did find them frustrating at times. Julian and AJ have known each other since they were young. They fell in love as teenagers but something big happened and Julian left. It took most of the book to find out the reason why, but I felt bad for all the years they wasted. I was surprised that AJ being a reporter and always asking questions didn’t want to find out the real reason Julian left and never looked back all those years ago before she let him into her life again. Now they are both ready to jump back into a relationship and pick up where they left off, but she is keeping secrets from him. Will these secrets threaten their future or is their love enough to overcome years apart and secrets now?
Overall, I enjoyed this book and I think you will too.
Football, second-chance romance with a dash of suspense. LM Carr gives us AJ a strong and smart sports reporter. Julian is an player turn coach as well as AJ past. Julian wants to become her forever. The spark between them gets ignited again but it’s not with out some turmoil. I enjoyed the POV from AJ. Her internal fight to overcome the emotional walls she put up and how to coped with her heartbreak. Julian I love to hate. Why do men do stupid things? I wish I could have shake that man so many times. In the end he gets his head out his you know what. AJ gets justice and her happy ending.
The Play Maker is the first novel I’ve read for LM Carr and I’m not sure how I feel about it overall. I could only rate it 3 ¾ out of 5 stars for some reasons I’ve written below. But up first, a summary of the novel.
Addison Jane “AJ” loved Julian way back in the day. She has never gotten over the heartbreak of losing him, though she tries to keep him far from her every day thoughts he creeps in. She has some wild days trying to get him out of her system, but now her career is the most important thing in her life.
Julian is a hometown hero coming back to town to accept the head coach job for the local NFL team. The first thing he wants to do is win back his girl. Has too much time passed between them for him to have a chance? The only way he will know is to try, he goes for it full steam ahead. Will she give in to a second chance?
Having never read the author before I wasn’t sure what to expect. First, this novel is written solely in the female first person POV. I’m not crazy about first person novels, I enjoy feeling what they feel but all the I sentences usually end up driving me crazy. With it being only female POV, I really missed getting into Julian’s head and thought process. I want to know more about why he did what he did, how he felt during difference scenarios etc.
The novel also bounced around in the storyline really, really quickly. Some shifts made sense others did not. There were a couple plot points that I was scratching my head over, where they actually needed to move the storyline along?
I don’t know if all that would discourage me from reading another novel by the author but I will put all that into the mix whenever another pops up on my feed. I voluntarily read and reviewed a provided copy without expectations. All opinions expressed are my own.
If you enjoy sports romance with a second chance to make love work again then look no further. Julian had made a mistake in the past by choosing football over Addison. Addison heartbroken goes on with life never fully opening herself up to anyone with all the hurt she suffered. Little does Addison know that football is gonna drop the “playmaker ” in her life again. Prepare yourself for the journey that Julian will take you on to sweep Addison off her feet.
The Play Maker was the first book I’ve read by L.M. Carr and there was lots to love here. As a lover of both football and romance, it stands to reason that football romance is my favorite trope and when I find one that doesn’t shy away from the football, I luxuriate in it. That’s what I found here. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re not a football fan (or you don’t know much about it), I don’t think you’ll be lost or bored. But if you, like me, spend your Sunday afternoons reveling in your love of the game – you’ll love that there’s plenty of game in this book.
And also romance. It took a while for the romance to take the stage, but once it did – I loved that it wasn’t a book about two people finding their way back to each other. I mean, it was. But it didn’t take the entire book for that to happen. My favorite part of any given romance is the time the couple actually spends being a couple – and there’s lots of that in The Play Maker. And while the reconciliation happens pretty quickly, I still felt like Ms. Carr did a great job of showing that it wasn’t without bumps in the road. I adored how fiercely devoted Julian was. I love it when an alpha hero is brought to his knees by his love and devotion to his heroine. These two as a couple were sexy and swoony and so much fun to read.
All that said, the first half of the book was more solid than the second half for me. It’s almost like there was too much squeezed into the second half and so things felt a little scattered. The pacing felt off at times, and in the end I was left with a few loose ends and unanswered questions. I was disappointed in Addison’s handling of much of the conflict, and the lack of maturity in some of her decisions. I lost the thread of the story a bit, and – because I’m not a very patient reader to begin with – I found myself skimming to get back to the heart of the story.
And I did – get back to the heart of the story, that is. Overall, I really enjoyed the time I spent with Addison and Julian. I love desperate love, so for the most part this fell right inside my wheelhouse and I am definitely on the hook and wanting to explore more of this new series!
Julian and Addison were high school sweethearts. Julian focused on his football career and left Addison and everything else behind. Years later, Addison is a journalist and has the chance to interview Julian after he broke her heart all those years ago. Julian is now a coach after being injured during a football game. This is a second chance romance with great chemistry and interesting characters.
The Play Maker book 1 The Sideline Series
By L.M. Carr
Quite the enjoyable fast paced second chance football romance. I fully enjoyed. Kept my interest throughout.
“They don’t call me the ‘Play Maker’ for nothing, dude!”
I recommend. Can not wait to read the next book in the series.