Review - Intercepted by Emma Hart

Title: Intercepted

Series: By His Game #3

Author: Emma Hart 

Release Date: April 11, 2015 

Four people. Four goals. Four endings. 

In the third and final book of the USA Today bestselling By His Game series, the rules of the game no one knew they’d have to play are blurring, and when the past becomes the opposing team, hearts aren’t the only thing at stake of being lost… 

Finding naked pictures of her best friend on her boyfriend’s phone wasn’t in Everleigh White’s five year plan. Neither was moving back to Los Angeles, the city of dreams that never managed to make hers come true. There’s only so many years you can be in love with your best friend before you realize he’s never going to love you back, after all. If only her ex would stop showing up at the gym where she works, she’d be much happier. 

Being a father at nineteen wasn’t how Reid North, the Vipers’ wide receiver, imagined his life going, but when his ex-girlfriend tricked him into parenthood, he accepted it. Eventually. Now, with his ex on the verge of being released from prison, he’s holding onto full custody of his seven year old son, Leo. Football and Leo have left Reid no time for dating… Until Everleigh comes back. 

His best friend his whole life, Everleigh never knew Reid loved her. She left before he could tell her. Now she’s back in front of him, and he’s not letting go. Even if all he gets is her friendship again. But in a city like L.A., dreams come true when you’re least expecting it. 

So do nightmares. 

With their exes beating down their doors with demands and explanations, their hesitant and building relationship is threatened at every corner. They’re at serious risk of being intercepted by the past, and that’s a ball Reid is determined to catch. 

Except desperation can lead to stupidity—and Reid soon realizes he can’t catch every ball, no matter how perfectly it’s thrown to him. This time a fumble could cost more than a few points. 

It could cost him everything. 

(INTERCEPTED is the third and final book in the By His Game series and can be read as a standalone, although it is advised to read BLINDSIDED and SIDELINED before, in this order.) 

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Favorite book alert!! Of the books in this series, the By His Game series, Intercepted has easily become my fave... Emma Hart, I FLOVE REID, can I have him? Pretty please, with a cherry on top?!?

Everleigh White and Reid North. Best friends for twenty years. Apart for four. In love with each other but neither aware of how the other feels....

With Ever back in LA after a stint in New York -- and no contact with Reid during those years -- is now their time to finally admit their feelings and come together? Or will Reid's soon-to-be-released ex and Ever's begging-for-forgiveness ex ruin everything?

Sigh. This was a fucking good book. Reid was...perfect. I mean, he's a single father and a football player. Does it get hotter? Oh wait, he dirty talks like a pro and backs it up in the bedroom, so yeah, it DOES get better...

Intercepted was an exceptionally well-written book. It had perfect amounts of everything. Tension. Angst. Sex. Humor. Sass. Friendship. Heartbreak. It flowed and moved and was just the right pace. Never overwhelming you with crazy antics or over-the-top shenanigans, but never dull.

Reid and Ever were sensational together. Ever was hands-down the best female character in this series. She was strong, kind and I got her. I loved how she was with Leo, I understood her concerns, and I ached for her. And Reid, well, I already covered him. He. Was. Divine.

This was the best possible ending to this series, except for the fact that I WANT MORE. I'm hoping there'll be a spin-off for Cole and Ryann; I feel like there's still more story to tell -- the photos from book one, Blindsided, for example, need to be wound up. However, for these three men, the By His Gameseries ended with a bang, on a high note and with this reviewer desperate to call Reid her own...

~ Review by Beth

Have you ever found yourself both anxiously looking forward to something and dreading it at the same time? That was me withIntercepted—really dying to read Reid and Ever’s story but dreading it knowing this is the final book in the series. Right now, I’m in a very happy and very sad place. Happy because I FLOVEDIntercepted—everything about it! And sad because I don’t want to say good-bye to these characters...

Everleigh “Ever” White and Reid North have been friends, best friends, since they were kids. Ever’s loved Reid since she was fourteen. But, due to their age gap, Reid never acted on his feelings for Ever. He’d planned to, but she disappeared without saying good-bye. Now five years later, she’s back.

Ever never planned to return to LA; she was a New York City girl until she found pictures of her boyfriend and best-friend in a compromising position. Now she’s back and doing her damnedest to avoid Reid because how much rejection can one girl take?

Reid can’t believe his eyes when he spots Ever in LA. And he quickly realizes he’s never stopped loving her—and this time he’s not letting her go, no matter how hard she fights! But Reid has to also think of his son, Leo, and how a relationship will affect him. Reid’s crazy ex-girlfriend is soon to be released from prison and will cause all kinds of unwanted, unneeded, unnecessary stress and problems for Reid. Is Reid willing to give up his own happiness to keep Leo protected or will he realize before it’s too late that Leo’s happiness depends upon Reid’s?

I can honestly say Intercepted is now one of my top five favorite books, and the best one in this series. Both Reid and Ever were perfect characters in my view. Ever, with her smart mouth, sense of humor, vulnerability, strength, and ability to forgive and move on, is an ideal heroine. Her interactions with Leo were moving and adorable. And with Reid, some serious heat was coming off the pages!

And Reid. Sigh. Who wouldn’t want a Reid in their life? He’s a great man—dedicated to Leo and his family, as well as to his football team. And now that Ever is back in his life, he’s finally happy. He makes lots of mistakes with his relationship with Ever, but damn if he doesn’t make up for it in the end.

I truly hate saying goodbye to these characters, especially after this fantastic read. I think Emma needs to give us more Cole and Ryann. And what about the future with Corey and Leah and Macy and Jack? Hint, hint.

~ Review by Missy

Since reading the first book in the By His Game series, I've wanted to know more about Reid North. There was just something about him that made me want his book right away! So when Intercepted appeared on my Kindle, I couldn't wait to start reading about him.

Reid and Ever were so great together. They started out as friends and after years of not seeing each other, they came back together as friends again and quickly became lovers. They just got each other from having had a connection for a long time.

I loved Leo! He was so cute and Reid was such a great father to him. He had to raise him by himself, with the help of his family, and he turned out to be a great kid. I really liked how Reid didn't just assume that Ever would automatically take a mom role to Leo. She was nervous about that and wanted to not rush their relationship.

I love this series so much because sports romances are one of my favorite genres. It was great to catch up with the rest of the gang also in this one! This series definitely didn't disappoint and I am sad that it is over. I do hope that we get a Ryann and Cole book though!

~ Review by Leah

By day, New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult author Emma Hart dons a cape and calls herself Super Mum to two beautiful little monsters. By night, she drops the cape, pours a glass of whatever she fancies - usually wine - and writes books.

Emma is working on Top Secret projects she will share with her followers and fans at every available opportunity. Naturally, all Top Secret projects involve a dashingly hot guy who likes to forget to wear a shirt, a sprinkling (or several) of hold-onto-your-panties hot scenes, and a whole lotta love.

She likes to be busy - unless busy involves doing the dishes, but that seems to be when all the ideas come to life.

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Review Tour - Sidelined by Emma Hart

Title: Sidelined

Series: By His Game #2

Author: Emma Hart 

Release Date: March 2, 2015 

Three people. Three motives. Three reasons.

When the game leaves the field in the second book in the USA Today bestselling BY HIS GAME series and mixes with sex, lies, and betrayal, the future isn't the only thing on the line...

Macey Kelly has sworn off men. Unless they’re going to zip in and out of her apartment—and her vagina—quicker than they can give her an orgasm, she’s not interested. Finding out her boyfriend of three years got her cousin pregnant was a total confidence knock. Luckily for Macey, confidence is something she has in abundance, so all Mitch’s asshole move did was make her pretty cynical toward men.

The last thing Jack Carr needs at the start of the season is for a dark-haired, sexy as sin, gyspyesque beauty to be consuming his thoughts. Football is his life, which leaves no time for girls. Unless they’re the love ‘em and leave ‘em girls. Becoming one of the best running backs the league has ever seen by racking up the yards is his top priority… not bedding Macey Kelly, despite her affinity for blow jobs and total sexual abandon.

Avoiding each other is the perfect solution, but when your best friends are in a serious living together kind of relationship, that isn’t always an option. Sometimes, sex on tap is the easiest option. And the sweetest.

Until Mitch shows up with a bombshell that could shatter Macey’s perfectly carved out life. It’s been a year, but he isn’t giving her up, not now he has a chance at winning her back. And he knows her buttons. Every single one of them.

Unfortunately for him, Jack Carr isn’t a loser. The star running back has his eye on the Vince Lombardi—and on Macey. But seeing her hanging between them both isn’t something he’s down with, not when he discovers why she’s so against anything more-ish, as she puts it.Macey quickly realizes she’s the ball being passed between two desperate yet opposing teams, and that only one of them can score the touchdown. But will the winner be the guy she lived with and loved for three years, or will the winner be the guy who understands her and makes her body come alive?

In this game, someone will be sidelined, and calling the play isn’t always as easy as it seems.

SIDELINED is a full-length, standalone novel. It's not necessary to read BLINDSIDED before this book, but it is advised.

ADD TO GOODREADS

I'm totally in love with Emma Hart. Damn, this girl knows how to write a book that sizzles, that makes you smile, that's smart and interesting, and that makes you wish that characters were real and that you could really slap some sense into them.

Jack Carr is the star running back for the LA Vipers, and not looking for anything more than a good time girl. Football is his priority, not relationships, not after being burned by love before.

Macey Kelly knows all about being burned by love. Her ex knocked up her cousin and took off to play daddy, and she was left trying to work out what happened to her 5-year plan.

When Macey and Jack get together, they burn up. And because neither one wants anything more than hot sex, it's perfect. Until Macey's ex returns to try to win her back, throwing her life into disarray. Now Jack and Macey are trying to navigate a relationship that's more than sex, and Macey's trying to decide if three years of history is worth more than chemistry that sets her body on fire.

I could not put this book down! I loved Macey and Jack in their brief, but memorable, moments in Blindsided and was really keen to see how the player and the good time girl would come together. And come together they did! The characters played off each other really well. I enjoyed the way they flirted with each other - and with the true nature of their relationship. Although I was, at times, beyond annoyed with both Macey and Jack for their silly, immature decision making, it just worked, for the story and for me.

Added bonus? Fun little interludes with Corey and Leah from Blindsided, Ryann (who needs a book), Corey (who should be in Ryann's book) and Reid (who also needs a book). I love the way the secondary characters work into the story - Macey's family, new additions in this book, were excellent, in particular. They humanized her, made her sometimes silly thoughts and plans and her indecisiveness in the face of BLATANT OH-MY-GOD OBVIOUSNESS seem more realistic.

Despite my aforementioned frustration with Macey, I did love her ballsy-ness. She was sassy and spoke her mind, and she was an excellent foil for Jack, who was just plain YUMMY. I loved him!! I, like M, know nothing about football, but I bet Jack could persuade me to learn...if only he were real.

Sidelined in the second book in the By His Game series and can be read standalone. No cliffhanger.

~ Review by Beth

After her last debacle, uh, relationship, resulted in her long term boyfriend getting her cousin pregnant, Macey Kelly, has sworn off men. Well, okay, not sworn men off completely—she’s happy to deal with them for a night of “wham bam thank you ma’am sex” but nothing more. No relationships, no strings—just sex.

Enter Jack Carr. Oh, Jack. *swoon* Jack is a busy man. Busy getting ready for football season to start. Busy getting into the pants of any woman he wants for a night. But when Jack finds all his thoughts are now taken up by the dark-haired beauty, who happens to be the best friend of his best friend's girl, Jack can’t avoid it anymore--he wants is Macey.

Macey and Jack are status quo in their f@ck buddy relationship until Mitch re-enters the picture. Mitch, yeah, the douchebag ex who got the cousin pregnant. He’s back to stir up feelings and trouble. Jack does not take this sitting down. Jack is a running back—a playmaker and he’s playing to win. Can Macey figure out her feelings to decide whether she’s brave enough to look to the future or is she going to settle for what she knows from her past?

I loved this book. I loved Jack—his personality traits, his ability to admit he’s screwed up and doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing in a relationship, make him a dream book boyfriend! And Macey—part of you wants to hug her and the other part wants to slap her, but damn, she’s just a great character too! Add in Leah and Corey, Ryann, Reid and Cole and you’ve got a group I’d love to hang out with every weekend.

Sidelined is Book 2 in the By His Game series. It can be read as a standalone. No Cliffhanger.

~ Review by Missy

“You’re not goin’ anywhere, baby.” He steps closer, his fingers twitching, his breath ghosting across my neck. “At least, you ain’t fuckin’ moving until you’ve told me why you’re avoiding me.”

“Isn’t it obvious? You and I are cut from the same cloth, Jack. We don’t do the post-sex thing.”

“Yet here we are.”

“It’s unfortunate.”

“That what you call it?” he laughs, low and husky.

“Yep.” I drink.

“Put the drink down, M,” he whispers. “It’s fucking with you.”

“Really? I thought that was you fucking with me,” I respond, turning to him and pressing a hand against his chest. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Like, right here. Literally.

“It’s my best friend’s birthday.” He smirks. “Why’ve you been staring at me all night like you wanna suck and bite my cock simultaneously?”

“I assure you it was the latter.”

“Sure it was.” Jack steps closer to me again, and I grab my glass with the hand closest to him so I don’t grab his ass or something, ‘cause, shit. He has a sweet-as-hell ass.

“It was.” I drink. Again. Where the hell are my girls? “I feel like dancing.” I finish the glass and twist my body away from his.

His hand finally falls from me as I stalk toward and then down the stairs. I slip into the moving crowd, but I’ve barely moved my hips when two large, strong hands clasp me and tug me backward. The wall of muscle my back slams into is solid, and I exhale on a whoosh even as I close my fingers against the ones clasping my hips.

“Nice try, baby,” Jack says into my ear. “Run if you want. I’m a running back. I’ll chase you and catch you every fuckin’ time.”

“Sounds like a promise you can’t keep, doll,” I reply, my breath catching when he moves my hips against his.

“Sounds like a promise you’re afraid of.”

By day, New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult author Emma Hart dons a cape and calls herself Super Mum to two beautiful little monsters. By night, she drops the cape, pours a glass of whatever she fancies - usually wine - and writes books.
 

Emma is working on Top Secret projects she will share with her followers and fans at every available opportunity. Naturally, all Top Secret projects involve a dashingly hot guy who likes to forget to wear a shirt, a sprinkling (or several) of hold-onto-your-panties hot scenes, and a whole lotta love.
 

She likes to be busy - unless busy involves doing the dishes, but that seems to be when all the ideas come to life.

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Blog Tour - Blindsided by Emma Hart

Title: Blindsided

Series: By His Game #1

Author: Emma Hart

Release Date: January 12, 2015

From Emma Hart, the New York Times bestselling author of the Game series, comes a brand new series where the game is realer, the tension is tighter, the sex is hotter, and the stakes are the highest of all…

Two people. Two agendas. Two games.

What happens when the out-there It-Boy of football meets the secret It-Girl of fashion?

As the daughter of Hollywood’s sweetheart, Leah Veronica can’t even buy a coffee without finding her face on a magazine stand, so it’s no wonder she’s launching her first fashion line in secret. With it debuting at New York Fashion Week in just under a month, extra time in the spotlight is the last thing she needs.

The son of the best quarterback the league has ever seen, filling legendary shoes as the L.A. Vipers’ quarterback was inevitable for Corey Jackson. So was meeting Leah Veronica—the first girl to hand him his ass without putting a hair out of place.

Getting the handsome, prickly blonde into his bed becomes his number one goal. But getting the sexy, over-confident footballer the hell away from her becomes Leah’s—at least until she realizes the best way to do that is to give him what he wants.

If only it was that simple.

When Corey discovers who she is, and private photos of Hollywood’s finest find their way online, everything they thought they knew is thrown into disarray.

And when secrets are exposed and hearts are shattered, they have to figure out if they’ve been blindsided by love or reality, and if it’s worth running the extra yard to win the game they never meant to play.

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AMAZON US / UK

Having loved Dirty Secret, I was very interested in reading more of Emma Hart's books, and a cocky athlete/daughter of Hollywood's sweetheart story seemed like a good place to start. And this sexy and funny story definitely was.

Leah Veronica knows what it's like to be in the spotlight. As the daughter of the Grace Veronica, her name and face are easily recognizable. But she's determined to make her own way, which is why she's so secretive about her career as fashion's newest star.

Corey Jackson has no reason to be secretive. He's young, good-looking and, as the quarterback for the LA Vipers, a hot commodity. When he spies Leah, he knows he has to have her. But sassy Leah isn't about to give in to his arrogant charm. Her career is on the line and she can't afford anyone to know that she's the force behind her upcoming clothing line.

Corey's working on winning her heart when Hollywood's elite are targeted by a celebrity hacker and secrets threaten to break; now Corey has to prove to his girl that he can be trusted and that football is the only game he's playing.

I wanted to love Blindsided. I liked it, very much, but there was something about Leah I struggled to connect with. I never really understood her urgency about keeping her secret. It seemed....*hmmm* unrealistic? I found it difficult to believe no one else knew (if she's as "famous" as it's made out, I feel like the connection would have been made well beforehand). Plus, the fact she didn’t confide in her best friends bothered me. Why not trust them, especially Cole?

However, I found her banter and chemistry with Corey to be exceptional. Her sass and feisty, kind of prickly attitude toward Corey were fun and kept Leah interesting. Blindsided was an excellent book when it focused on them together, both before and after they started getting it on. And a lot of that has to do with Corey. He says it best himself:

“I’m the best kind of gentleman, darlin’. I’m polite in public and filthy in private.”

And he was that. He was definitely that. His cocky demeanor was charming and I really wanted a bit more, a bit better for him at times than the seemingly ungrateful Leah.

In the end, I found myself thoroughly invested in this book. I kept reading it long after I should have stopped and thought about it during those moments when I wasn't. I loved the secondary characters enough to want to read more from them and I smiled a happy smile when I reached the end of Leah and Corey's story. Yep, I definitely want to read even more of Ms. Hart's work.

Blindsided is the first book in the By His Game series. No cliffhanger. 

~ Review by Beth

Leah Veronica, daughter of America’s sweetheart, secret designer of the highly anticipated Lea V fashion line, needs more publicity as much as she needs a hole in her head. Leah can’t buy a cup of coffee without paparazzi in her face, so she avoids being in the public as much as possible.

Corey Jackson, star quarterback of the LA Vipers, self-proclaimed man-whore, wants to get Leah underneath him and in his bed. He’s about to step up his game to make it happen.

So, what happens when Leah and Corey find themselves truly attracted to each other? Is there really a winner and a loser in this game? Has the game changed from bedding the babe and leaving the quarterback to something more like winning in love?

Leah and Corey are like oil and water, fire and ice—but when mixed or melted together, sparks fly, pithy barbs are thrown and their relationship is magic. I LOVED their playful interactions and damn if Leah doesn’t hand Corey his ass on a regular basis!

Not so magical is the level of trust Leah has for her supposed best friends of many, many years. Why does Leah keep her fashion line such a big secret? Have her friends done something in the past that she doesn’t trust them enough to share the information with them? It just doesn’t seem genuine—especially with her relationship with Cole as they’ve known each other most of their lives.

All in all, I did really enjoy this book! I can’t wait to see what Emma has in store for us for the rest of the series!

~ Review by Missy

By day, New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult author Emma Hart dons a cape and calls herself Super Mum to a terrible two year old and growing bump, due September 2013. By night, she drops the cape, pours a glass of juice and writes books. 

She likes to write about magic, kisses and whatever else she can fit into the story. Sarcastic, witty characters are a must. As are hot guys. Emma is currently working too many books to even count - including Playing for Keeps, the companion book to the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel, The Love Game. She likes to be busy - unless busy involves doing the dishes, but that seems to when all the ideas come to life.

 

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