Crossing the Touchline (Auckland Med #2)

Title: Crossing the Touchline (Auckland Med Series Book 2)
Author: Jay Hogan
Publisher: Southern Lights Publishing
Release Date: December 15, 2019
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance, Sports
Page Count: 302
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

I love rugby so I was absolutely hyped to read this story of a young Kiwi rugby player striving to make the legendary All Blacks while struggling to figure out how to handle his attraction to his teammate's brother, all the while adamantly staying in the closet. Reuben Taylor is a young talented player with a lot on his plate. His father is a homophobic hard@ss who runs roughshod over his sons Reuben and Craig. Craig's son Cory is on the autism spectrum and needs diagnosis and help but Craig is too weak to stand up against his father and casts Reuben in the role of protector and provider.

When Reuben meets Cameron Wano, he is immediately smitten but believes he can never have a relationship with the lean, lithe charge nurse with the guyliner. Becoming an All Black and getting endorsement deals would finally free Reuben of his father's toxicity and provide him with money for Cory's therapy. But Reuben just can't face becoming the first out All Black and Cam won't go back into the closet for anyone, no matter how sexy.

Anything ... between us ... Is.Not.Happening. So what are you doing? If you want to keep your gay undercover, it's maybe not the best idea to be seen talking to the guy wearing eyeliner, and who may as well have 'I love dick' tattooed on his forehead. I'm hardly a shrinking violet, yeah?

I like the premise of this story but the pacing almost made me DNF this book.

First Impressions (Auckland Med #1)

Title: First Impressions (Auckland Med Series Book 1)
Author: Jay Hogan
Publisher: Southern Lights Publishing
Release Date: December 15, 2019
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance, Suspense
Page Count: 352
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

I read the second book in this series first, and started this one with some trepedition hoping it was not as bloated and melodramatic as "Crossing the Touchline." Not to worry ... the sizzling relationship between Josh (self-described as the "boring, judgmental, vanilla, arrogant delight you see before you") and Michael, the charasmatic doctor Josh first meets in a bathhouse in flagrante delicto makes for a great read.

The author continually plays on the perceptions each man has of the other. Josh, solid single father of a daughter, prides himself on his self-control and stability. He dislikes Michael at first sight, seeing the handsome facade and the devil-may-care attitude as signs that Michael is just not hard-wired for any type of honest relationship. But despite Josh's "barely restrained pissy attitude" and his "withering dismissal," there is just something about Michael Oliver that "turned him on like a fucking switch. The guy was a menace to Josh's self-control."