In the Red Zone In the Red Zone
Book 6 - The Kelly Brothers

In the Red Zone

    • 4.6 • 15 Ratings
    • $3.99
    • $3.99

Publisher Description

All-Star linebacker Frank Kelly is as well-known for his off-the-field hits as he is for his on-field ones. When a dance club brawl ends with him in handcuffs again, he’s rescued by a well-connected woman who can get the charges dropped in exchange for a small favor. If he’ll agree to play the part of a doting boyfriend for two months, she’ll keep him out of the slammer and help restore his reputation.


Kiana Dyer may be the daughter of a Hall of Fame football player, but the charity organization she took over when he died isn’t getting the media attention she’d hoped for. A staged romance with Frank Kelly is just the ticket she needs to get in the spotlight. As the lines between fake and real start to blur, she begins to wonder if bailing him out was the best call she’s ever made. Just when everything seems to be falling perfectly in place, scandal surrounds her charity, and she’s the one left scrambling to clear her name.


Recommended for those who like:

Sports Romance

Interracial or Multicultural Romance

BWWM

GENRE
Romance
RELEASED
2015
March 25
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
219
Pages
PUBLISHER
Crista McHugh
SELLER
Christy Gibson
SIZE
1.5
MB

Customer Reviews

ficcentral ,

Not my favorite, but still a solid read

Kiana's life didn't start out so well. The illegitimate daughter of a famous football player, she left with her mother, a woman who couldn't bring herself to make an honest buck and went through men like Kleenex. As if that wasn't enough, her mother was murdered in front of her, leaving Kiana to be claimed by her father and the wife he'd cheated on — a saint of a woman who treated Kiana as if she were her own. But even with a stable family life, the road hasn't been easy, and after leaving an abusive boyfriend, she's doing her best to lay low and raise her own daughter in a better home than she'd started out in.

Frank Kelly has a fiery temper to match his hair. A bit full of himself and more than a little successful at football, he's the ultimate bad boy with a heart of gold. He wouldn't mind misbehaving with Kiana, except her brother — his teammate — might kill him, and Kiana will barely give him the time of day. But when she needs a famous face and a big name to draw money to her charitable foundation, he might just get the chance with her he's been wanting. Except he didn't count on her being a single mother…

But... While I liked Frank well enough, I never completely warmed up to him. I'm not sure what it was about him that I didn't connect with, but something was definitely missing for me. However, some of the other characters were a little too far over-the-top. Kiana's ex was little more than a walking stereotype, and her brother wasn't much better. Since they both played important roles in the story, even if they weren't seen as much as one might think, this tempered the believability of the story a bit. Sure, it's fiction, but I like to feel like there's more to the characters than a few shallow layers.

The Verdict: The story starts out with Frank noticing Kiana, all hell breaking loose, and a glimpse at just how dangerous Kiana's ex really is. And as soon as we meet her daughter, it becomes clear just how much is at stake. It's easy to immediately respect Kiana for the extreme care she's taking to keep her daughter safe, and when it's explained that her foundation, the one that meant so much to the father she adored, is just shy of failing, it's hard not to feel for her.

Frank was a bit difficult to like at first, not because he was some kind of jerk, but simply because he didn't seem to have much substance. Kiana seemed to make him wake up and realize who he truly wanted to be and that there were more important things in life than simply having fun and being famous. I love that he was really thrown off by the fact that Kiana had a child — it was a very realistic touch that stood out among so many stories where the guy is all knight-in-shining-armor from day one.

What's most interesting, though, is how serious they both don't want things between them to be. Kiana resists the attraction, thinking that getting involved with a man when she has a daughter to take care of is the wrong move. She's really kind of leaning toward a nun's life in that regard. And Frank, even though he's more than willing to have a fling, has no intention of settling down, much less becoming a part of a child's life. But Kiana's resistance to his charms backfires on them both, forcing Frank to prove himself and show who he really is underneath all that bravado. And the time they spend together has Kiana looking at him through different eyes. By the time things take a scary-serious turn, even Frank can't deny what he feels for Kiana and her child.

In the Red Zone, while not my favorite in the series, is a nice departure from your typical romance novel fare, and it's a solid read that's typical of the books in this series. There was some crazy drama that wasn't taken too far, and the interracial factor was a nice change from the usual. Frank, always ready with a cocky statement, kept things entertaining when the subject matter itself could have been a downer, and it was easy believe that he and Kiana, even though opposites in so many ways, were simply made for each other.

***FicCentral received this book from Tasty Book Tours for free in exchange for an honest review.

More Books by Crista McHugh

The Sweetest Seduction The Sweetest Seduction
2014
A Soul for Trouble A Soul for Trouble
2012
Confessions of a Queen B* Confessions of a Queen B*
2015
The Kelly Brothers Books 1-3 The Kelly Brothers Books 1-3
2014
More Than a Fling More Than a Fling
2012
The Heart's Game The Heart's Game
2014

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