Lola Keeley scores another ace
I've read several lesfic books where sports are a central feature of the stories, at least three of them about tennis recently, and am not a fan of any sports so the other elements of the story need to be solid in order for me to get thru the book and to enjoy it to some degree. None of the sports books have made me more of a fan of the sports they cover but they do provide insight into the lives of professional players of team and single sports, a peek behind the curtain into the world of sponsorships, press and privacy etc.
Slammed covers aspects of this backstage view of tennis in an interesting way and the details of the sports play itself will more than please any tennis fan; by the end of the book I was invested in the matches more than I expected to be even if I didn't fully understand the minutiae of the sport itself. What really captured my attention and got me pleasantly hooked though were the characters - the variety of them in terms of age, personality, race, orientation, etc. I was leery of some characters and their motivations at times since many of them are competitors in the game but away from it are friends, lovers, rivals or cycling thru more than one of these kinds of relationships. They did grow on me though and each person is distinct so they're easy to keep track of, no small feat in a book that contains many characters in and out of the sport. Fans of tennis will love the tennis specific details and can enjoy trying to determine which real life tennis pros may have inspired certain characters. I found myself laughing alot at the humor throughout the book. The romance takes an unusual path but is no less satisfying as it progresses; approaching the end of the book had me turning pages faster than normal to see what happened next thanks to some edge of your seat action. There is plenty to enjoy in this book even if you're not a tennis fan; it's a great read and adds to a growing list of books I recommend from Lola Keeley for solid writing and storytelling. I look forward to seeing what Keeley writes about next and will most likely be reading it when it's available.
(Reviewed October 10, 2019)