Review: Love in The Red Zone by Love Belvin
Love in The Red Zone by Love Belvin Published by MKT Publishing on July 4, 2016
Genres: African American, Contemporary, Love & Romance, Romance, Women's Fiction
Pages: 370
Format: eBook
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Can you tell the difference between a distraction and a blessing? It should be simple, but sometimes what we think is a distraction can actually be a turning of the tide required to bring life full circle, to a place of blessing.
Meet Trent Bailey, who is fighting for the right to continue his stellar professional football career after enduring striking legal woes in the recent past. Trent cannot and will not blow his second chance for anyone; after all, this is the blessing he’s been praying for. After receiving confirmation that staying focused is all he needs, it’s what he aims to do. No distractions. That’s until he bumps into two unexpected overnight guests.
Jade Matthews is doing everything she can for herself and her young son, Kyree. After journeying through her own bumps in the road, she’s finally getting it together. She’s doing what she has to do to make sure her family of two stays afloat. Life’s setbacks won’t stop Jade from providing for her little one, even though she fumbles each pass thrown at her.
What starts out as a temporary favor turns into rapid passion. There’s one agenda here, but getting to the same meeting point has never been more difficult. Fighting their way through trust and self-esteem issues, the two must meet in the right zone; the red zone, where you may think you’re safe, but life has a way of intercepting blessings and…turning the tide.
Love Belvin and Christina C. Jones collaborate on a series of football romance, staring two football greats who so happen to be in for the biggest play of their lives: for their hearts. Quarterback, Trent Bailey, and wide receiver, Jordan Johnson, give their all out on the green. But what happens when the two friends encounter true love?
Take on Connecticut Kings’ finest and journey through their discovery of developing themselves as men, and exploring love.
***Book one of the "Connecticut Kings" series***
Trenton Bailey was in the red zone. The red zone is where you need to take control, and if you’re not careful instead of getting everything you’ve worked for, you might be left in a worse state than before. What he doesn’t expect to find in this ‘red zone’ is the love he’s been anxious for his whole life.
Love in The Red Zone follows Trent Bailey and Jade Matthews. Trent was the franchise quarterback for the Connecticut Kings who lost his fame and access after a stupid decision caused him two years in jail. Jade is a single mother, who despite growing up with some privilege and money, is now barely making it day by day. Jade’s son, Kyree, loves football and that brings Trent and Jade into each other’s lives.
I can’t remember feeling this strongly about a book hero in a very long time, to the point where I was more worried for and invested in him than the heroine. It’s not that I didn’t like Jade, but there was something about Trent that simply tugged at my heartstrings. I felt his pain from the past, the guilt he’s carried with him into the present, and his struggle to trust people. I genuinely wanted him to win, to get the life that he worked so hard to get, and for him to experience the love that eluded him for most of his life.
I must admit that Jade worked my nerves quite a few times, and I found her to be overbearing and annoyingly insecure. However, I understood where that pain and behavior came from; and she and Trent made conscious effort to work on it.
Love in the Red Zone sets the tone for what I expect to be a good series. There’s football (which I love), drama, chemistry and a story of the ultimate redemption.
There are a few reasons I didn’t give it 5 stars, despite how much I liked it. I thought it was a bit long-winded, there were definitely some parts of the book that could have been trimmed. It was a lot of repetitiveness regarding Trent’s trust issues and Jade going overboard at times that caused him to regress. They would talk about it, seem to move on, just to get into the same repetitive cycle again. There were also a few inconsistencies as it pertains to the game of football that I thought could have been double checked before printing.
All in all, Love in The Red Zone was a solid weekend read and I would recommend. Excuse me while I go buy Love on the Highlight Reel, I am anxious to find out about Cole and Jordan!
Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.
You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.
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