DNF
I couldn't get into the book, for me the chemistry between the main characters was only lust, no romance or love.

I unfortunately did not enjoy this audiobook. My main issue is that the love story was not romantic at all to me. It felt like the FMC, Jade, had to convince the MMC, Trent, to be with her, and he gave into a relationship of convenience slowly. Their relationship dynamic was full of gaslighting, jealousy, miscommunication, and trust issues. It felt like Jade had to take the brunt for all of Trent’s flaws while he is reaping all the benefits. There were a lot of sexists statements and the gender roles assigned to the love interests (Jade is the house maker and Trent the ‚leader‘– whatever that means – but acts more like a child) under the guise of religion did not sit well with me. Some of the religious statements made in this book were also questionable. The pacing of the story is also super slow. I felt like I was witnessing years of Trent’s and Jade’s lives go minute by minute, and the book felt like it will never end.

Both our main characters exhibit some problematic behavior and have personal issues that contribute to their relationship dynamic negatively.
Jade still feels insecure from her previous relationship, she also has a child that she has to take care of, so she needs more security than someone without a child. Trent has very deep trust issues, both towards romantic love interests and himself, after his incarceration.

The relationship just kind of starts because of forced proximity. There is no courtship, and they also don’t communicate about their own issues or their expectations. This results in a relationship without proper communication. Trent also sends a lot of mixed signals in the beginning, where it is not very clear what he intends with his actions. He buys her sexy laundry for her birthday, for example (thinking it would be somehow less sexy than her sleeping in his shirt) and then shuts her down when she sees this as an invitation for flirting. There is also a scene at the beginning of the relationship where it is not clear if Trent wants a physical relationship with Jade, and she just goes down on him without his consent – this made me feel very uncomfortable.

The relationship progression just feels like it is a relationship of convenience without any romance.
Trent still has trust issues and therefore does not commit to the relationship verbally. This of course only adds to Jade’s insecurities. Because she does not know where she stands in this relationship, she is also ‚unreasonably‘ jealous, according to Trent. He even finds it stalkerish that she knows his schedule, even though they are living together, and she cooks most of his meals. This problem festers as the relationship progresses. <spoiler> They live together, sleep in the same bed and do everything a ‘normal’ couple does, but Jade can’t properly trust in the relationship because they have not established, they are in one. She is constantly worried that he will meet someone else or that she is not good enough for him. Trent seems to know about Jade’s insecurities. But instead of giving her some verbal reassurance, when she is upset at a party, he continues like he did before and has s*x with her at this party, while she is venerable. He rolls his eyes at her jealousy and also kind of makes fun of her for it, when it is something that is in his power to fix pretty easily. He even thinks things like “I shouldn't be getting this for free”, but still waits for a very long time to ask her to be his girlfriend. He seemingly does this because he thinks that he should only be with Jade if he makes her his wife. But why would the girlfriend stage exist then? They basically go from fbuddies to being engaged for no reason to the detriment of Jade’s emotional wellbeing. Jade spends a lot of time thinking of Trent’s wellbeing, while Trent does not reciprocate. She is not asking anything from him apart from some verbal reassurance. But Trent does not get this, he even thinks to himself: “I still don't understand the things she demands of me.”

When the proposal happens, he has gotten her so far that she is even telling him that she is sick of herself. To top it all off, when he proposes rather unceremoniously, and she is so emotional that it has brought her to tears, he tells her to “get over it” and that she should be the bad guy and tell her child that he is not coming on vacation with them. </spoiler>

This whole dynamic just seemed pointless to me and did not make me excited for them to “actually get together”, rather it made it seem like Trent is using Jade. This story is also somehow putting marriage on a pedestal, as if it would fix a relationship without proper communication or is somehow superior to relationships that are not legally tied.

<spoiler> So you would think that the story is over by now, but no, the miscommunication and the trust issues persist. They have now both committed to this relationship and Jade is practicing her trust and dealing with her jealousy, but Trent still thinks it is okay to basically lie to Jade about his wealth (Jade still thinks “my husband is way too cheap for that”) and attend his ex’s concert pretending he won the tickets in a lottery, so he could not bring Jade. They are also keeping their marriage secret from both the public and Jade’s son. </spoiler>

The overall dynamic between Trent and Jade felt toxic to me. Trent basically behaves like a child that does not take on any responsibility (Jade even acknowledges this to herself) and Jade does all of the care giving. I find this troublesome by itself, but Trent even goes so far with his carelessness that he pretends that birth control and condoms are something he/they should not be concerned about when he hasn’t even committed to Jade or talked to her about her feelings about having another child. I guess the author meant this to be romantic, but I found it childish and abusive.

I unfortunately couldn't find anything that I liked about this book and can therefore not recommend it.

I listened to the audiobook. The narrators were not my favorite, but still okay. One thing I did not like was the male narrators voice acting when it came to the children’s voices. That was just creepy, and I would have preferred it if he just made his voice slightly softer instead of trying to imitate a child.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tentor Audio for gifting me this ALC of the audiobook to review. All opinions are my own. I was not paid to leave this review.

2.5⭐️, 3.25🌶️

UGH – This was just not my book. Honestly, I fought with myself to not DNF this book like 6 different times. I just wasn’t a fan of either of the MC’s and their relationship with each other just didn’t give me the lovey vibes I wanted. (You know how sometimes you think the couple would likely break up after the book is over…yea…).

And then when the spice kicked in, the pacing of it was off. It occurred too quickly and it also had some of the funkiest (in a not good way for me) descriptions during the spicy scenes. They just took me out of the story and did nothing to ‘save’ the romance for me. Also the image of a 6’5” man being with a 5’ woman was just iffy – the math ain’t mathing for me.

🖤Sports Romance (Pro Football Player)
🏈 Single Mom Romance
🖤 BIPOC Author/ MC’s
🏈Forced Proximity

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for an ALC of Love in the Red Zone, by Love Bevlin, narrated by Elyce Anthony and Winston James. This is my honest and unpaid review!

I liked this story, but there were too many references to church and Christianity for a book not targeted to that audience. If you are looking for a redemption story with these aspects, this may be the book for you. It wasn't for me,

I’m already a Love Belvin super fan, and I absolutely love the Connecticut Kings series. I knew the story would deliver, but I was eager to see how Winston James and Elyse Anthony would do with bringing Trent and Jade to life. Both of these narrators were new to me. I LOVED Winston’s delivery as Trenton. He gave me everything I needed with his narration. It was urban and refined, just as Trenton is. Elyse gave the preppy, elite tone I would expect from Jade. I loved this audiobook, and Winston James just earned a new fan.

- Hidden Identity
- Single Mom
- Past Trauma
- Spice (3/5 🌶️)


This audio was so good! The story unfolded beautiful and kept me interested the whole way through.

Some pulling on the heart strings, some amazing spice. 10/10 recommend

Love in the Red Zone is a good sports romance this is different than the other ones I’ve read this year and I’m excited to read the next one!! Trenton and Jade just make my heart so happy! I highly recommend reading books outside of the typical white sport romance. It was such a refreshing read. The only reason this wasn’t a 5 start read is because it was a little long with the audiobook at over 13 hours.

The narration of this book was done by Elyce Anthony and Winston James. They really brought this book to life, for me, and made me love every character in this story! I can’t wait for the rest of the Connecticut Kings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the audio-arc of Love in the Red Zone!

DNF, this story just wasn't for me. I didn't really like the narration, the couple, or the plot. overall I just found it really childish and progressively repetitive.

1⭐️
This is my honest review in exchange for this NetGalley arc.
Omg i wanted this book to be over as soon as it begun. I have absolutely nothing positive to say. I hate this book with a passion. I dont like the characters, the relationships, ans the non-existing plot. This book was too damn long, all for it to be repetitive and boring. I didnt like Jade, her selfishness, insecurity, and lack of respect for Trent’s boundaries made her so insufferable. Trent started off okay and then became so boringgg, this man is less interesting than a piece of cardboard. Them together was a disaster, all they did was fight over how insecure she is and over how he cant trust her, and then have sex. That’s it, i summed up the whole book. This girl had no backbone and was begging him to have sex, like girl STAND UP. I got second hand embarassment from her. They had no connection, as a reader, all i saw was sexual attraction between them, and that’s it. Every character in this book annoyed me. The only reason i finished this is because it’s an arc. I want my time back 😭.

I was provided the Audio book Love In the Red Zone by Love Belvin by NetGalley for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this audio book. I knew nothing about this book going in, and requested it based on being a sports romance. While the book was very long at almost 14 hours, I found that it was easy to stay engaged in the story.

The Audiobook had dual POV narration, Jade is narrated by Elyce Anthony, Trent is narrated by Winston James. They did a fantastic job. I always love when you get dual narration, and sometimes when the male narrator reads any female dialog and vice versa it can really fall flat. That was not the case for these two.

This book was SPICY! I think the Spicy to Story ratio was on point, but would not recommend this to someone who likes there spice mild. There was also heavy amounts of religion, so if you are opposed to Christianity I would not suggest this book for you. I am not a religious person at all, and I didn't mind it.

#LoveIntheRedZone #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley for the audio ARC. Love in the Red Zone was originally published in 2013, so I'm not going to say that my experience reading this book is going to keep me from reading more from Love Belvin, but I am going to say that this book was not written for me. That is both literally true as Love in the Red Zone is a Black Romance that is definitely not written to the white gaze. But the way I actually mean it is that this book is not written for me because it's got an interesting flavor of Christianity in the book that is so far from my experience with Christianity that I couldn't get out of my head enough to set this aside. If you've seen my thoughts on Late Bloomer, this book felt something like that, where this piece of the puzzle was ringing such a discordant note that I could not get into it. Unfortunately, in addition to that piece, I didn't get the romance. Now, I love a single parent romance. Like, so much. And generally, I love a sports romance. But the plotting and pacing of this one just didn't quite jive for me because I feel like I never actually understood when or why Trent started to trust Jade. More specifically, I guess, I feel like I never saw him start to trust her. Their entire relationship felt more like a deck of cards that could fall at the stiffest wind than one that could go the distance.

But I was lucky enough to receive the audio ARC, so let's focus on the narration for a minute. I really liked the male narrator's narration style, but I could have done without the way "Trenton" was moaned out in both of their narrations. It's such a weird thing to stick in my mind, but stick it did.

Anyway, I want to continue this series because it's a back and forth with CCJ and I love CCJ's writing, but I'll admit, I'm a little nervous now.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio.

I really wanted to like this but I just didn’t. I couldn’t get in to it. I might give it another try sometime.

Sports 🏈
Character development
Slow burn
African American romance
Single mom
Strangers to friends to lovers


Audible narrated by: Elyce Anthony and Winston James. The narrators brought out the personality of each character well. The story was easy to follow and entertaining to listen to.

Jade Matthews and Trenton Bailey are our two main characters. They both have a past and are struggling to get to a place where they can move forward

Jade is a struggling single mother. She is very independent. She juggles, single parenting, classes, and working to make a better life for her and her son, Kyrie. Sometimes she lets her pride get in the way, but overall she is a wonderful mother that is willing to sacrifice for her son. Becoming a teen mom was not in her plans but she has is doing the best she can. Her last relationship has made it difficult to trust and she is focusing on her future.

Trent has been given a second chance after almost destroying his career. Through friends, determination and his new found faith things are finally going his way. He is a good guy, with a huge heart. He is focused on his future with no room for romance. He has been burned and is cautious.

They both learn to trust again. There are plenty of challenges along the way. They make you root for them individually as well as a couple. I found the side characters interesting. I will definitely look at others books to add to my list.

I thought this book was ok. IMO It needed more chemistry between the 2 MCs. The plot was ok, but it was a little boring, I thought it needed something thrilling to bring it up a notch.

Loved this on audio!

Really fun football series im excited to continue reading it. Belvins writing is a blast

This book has been on my TBR for a whole. Thank you for the audio ARC to read, I really enjoyed the story, I love how Love Belvin incorportes faith into her stories in a way that's not overwhelming.. I didn't care for the female narrator too much but did enjoy the male.

I decided to listen to this book because I like Winston James as a narrator. Elyce Anthony was okay as a narrator. I just didn't care for some of her male voices. Love in he Red Zone chronicles the romance between Jade, a financially struggling and ambitious single mother, and Trenton, an ex-NFL player hoping to rejoin the NFL. The story explores how family history affects the self esteem and relationship capabilities of both characters. Both characters mature through the story as their character flaws are explained and dealt with through their growing relationship. The book was longer than necessary, but did showcase character development. It also follows Trenton's attempt to re-enter the NFL after spending time in prison. The story does have several "spicy" scenes. Love in the Red Zone deals with the following topics: single mothers, ex-convicts, dating as celebrities, dating as a Christian, financial difficulties

Tropes:
NFL romance
Single mom
Opposites attract
Temporary roommates to lovers
Cinnamon role hero
She’s homeless and he takes her and her son in temporarily

I fell in love with the characters quickly. This is everything you'd want in a romance book. Story is realistic, not too far fetched compared to real life romance. Great storytelling, I am also glad there is another book coming, because I wanted to know so much more about Trent and Jade. I am excited I found a new author, and of course, am a lover of football so how can you not give this five stars! Great, easy read!

This was fun to listen to but I found the language a little hard to understand at times (White Aussie farming girl 👋). I still got the idea of what was going on but it was just a tiny bit frustrating at times. The story itself was wonderful, heartwarming and spicy. A little heavy on the Christianity aspects for me but I get it, and it was important to the story. The sport aspect was spot on. Just enough! The narrators were wonderful! Elyce Anthony and Winston James were fabulous!

Big thanks to NetGalley, Tantor Audio and Love Belvin for this early release copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review