A Secret Match by Kelli A. Wilkins

71otvGoaR3L._SL1500_TITLE: A Secret Match
AUTHOR: Kelli A Wilkins
GENRE: Contemporary/Sports
LENGTH: Novella (136 pages)
PUBLISHER: Amber Allure, Amber Quill Press, LLC (
HEAT LEVEL: Explicit
HEART RATING: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
BLURB: Everett Kinkade is a world-famous professional wrestler and a sexy heartthrob for millions of adoring female fans. But Ev has a secret he doesn’t dare share with anyone—he’s gay.
After years of being Ev’s secret lover, Josh is tired of hiding in the shadows and wants Ev to openly acknowledge their relationship. Coming out, however, is the last thing Ev wants and fears it will ruin his career.

But one night in a moment of truth, Everett outs himself on live TV. There’s no going back, and his announcement sparks a firestorm of problems, both personally and professionally. He’s forced to come to grips with who he really is while facing down a tag team out to destroy him.

Torn between living a lie and losing the man he loves, Ev has risked everything. Can he find a balance between his career and his heart?

PRODUCT LINK: http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/2022-A-Secret-Match.aspx

REVIEWER: Prime

REVIEW: Everett is a professional wrestler who is deep in closest. He’s afraid that not only would he not have the support of his intolerant parents, but he would also lose his career. Josh is his lover of two years, although no one knows about them. There aren’t even any photos of them together. When Josh does speak of Everett to people, he calls him “Tony”. However, Everett’s obvious absence from Josh’s social life for the past two years has Josh’s friends questioning if Everett is really straight, if Josh is his man on the side, or even if Everett is actually real.

From the start of this book, we realise that there are problems between Everett and his lover Josh. Everett wants one last round of sex before he leaves for work and while he gets it, though Josh seems resigned about the fact and the act. It opens up for an interesting dynamic, particularly when Everett uses a wrestler’s move in bed.

Then immediately, sympathy goes out to Josh in an emotionally charged scene. From this we then switch to see the charming friendship Everett has with fellow wrestler and very straight, Vin. Likewise, there is also Josh’s charming relationship with his best friend, Troper, who doesn’t even know Everett’s real name. By the end of this, things are even more complicated than they had started.

I have to admit, I love the tone of how the book starts. In between all that, Everett has trouble brewing with his not-so-good boss on the wrestling circuit. By the time I read the first fifty pages, I was just waiting for an explosion. I enjoyed the drama filled present with the far less dramatic and sweeter flashbacks of when Everett and Josh first met. There is so much angst as Everett is practically forced to choose between his career and remaining firmly in the closest, or losing his career, living out and proud with Josh.

The best part is the emotionally charged storyline just continues throughout the book and doesn’t just stop, allowing the story to fall flat. Something, which could have easily happened and I feared it would happen. I got to one point and thought, “yep, the drama has to stop now”, but it doesn’t. Two thirds of the way through, once again I thought I could breathe a sigh of relief, but, no, I couldn’t. I know some people will be interested to know, there is some wrestling related kink too.

This isn’t your average athlete-coming-out story and the use of wrestling probably helps that along. The fact that the root of many of Josh’s worries stem from the fact that Everett is a wrestles highlights this and suddenly we see a softer side in Josh, too. I wasn’t particularly interested in the fight scenes, then again, I’m not a wrestling fan, and I’m sure many more athletic inclined people would enjoy it.

In short, this is an excellent read. Highly recommended to any fan of the MM genre.