Sporting Chance by Alexa Milne

91bYrqvGXFL._SL1500_Title: Sporting Chance
Author: Alexa Milne
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Super-Novel (312 pages)
Publisher: Totally Bound (November 6th, 2014)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
Blurb: Sometimes keeping hold of love is just as hard as finding it.
Dan and Iestyn are looking for romance. A school trip, a love of history, a wedding, a tango and the game of chess, and their friends and family all help the two men to realise that they’ve finally found true love.

Iestyn thinks that he’s completely ordinary and that Dan is the only out and currently gay rugby player anywhere. Being gay can be difficult enough. Being famous also has its problems. But being gay, famous and a sportsman can make finding love complicated. So when Dan Morgan meets Iestyn Jones and gives him his phone number, their road ahead has more than a few bumps to overcome.

Will Iestyn and Dan overcome the obstacles thrown in their paths? Or will fame destroy their lives as well as their love?

ISBN: 978-1-78430-270-2

Product Link: https://www.totallybound.com/sporting-chance-print

Reviewer: Prime

Review: If you’ve read some of my previous reviews, it may well look like I’m on a bit of a sporting kick with my reading at the moment. That could possibly be true – this is the third or fourth sport based romance I’ve read in the past week, pretty good for someone who only actually follows basketball. What was immediately interesting to me is that rugby is the sport of focus – certainly different. I don’t follow rugby but I don’t live under a rock to not know some of the terminology that I couldn’t help but show an interest.

Then throwing in some hot Welshmen doesn’t hurt either. In fact, this book brought to mind a couple things, Russel Crowe movie called the Sum of Us where Rusty played a gay rugby player. Also, I was reminded of retired Australian rugby league player, Ian Roberts, who came out a few years before he retired from the game.

Which leads me to my next point: I had to Google how to pronounce Iestyn, no matter how much fantasy I read that commonly uses Welsh, Scots and Irish language for fairies, etc. I could not get the syllable breakdown. (FYI, it’s Yes-Tin, if you’re interested).

Iestyn is a teacher, openly gay, and his classroom is certainly full of some interesting characters. Besides the crazy kids, he also has a crazy family and an equally quirky and crazy group of friends. He’s a sci-fi nerd and he loves playing online chess. Completely the opposite to the object of his desire, Dan Morgan, he is a professional rugby player who doesn’t hide his sexuality.

Unlike Iestyn, Dan only has his Nan for family and has a few good friends on the rugby team. Iestyn is completely clueless about Dan and rugby, so it’s a bit of a comedy of errors, one that I have sympathy for. I was charmed by Iestyn’s naivety, as much as Dan was charmed. Iestyn may be thirty-four or five, but he is cute, naive and intelligent. Whereas Dan is twenty-four and sometimes he acts it, so much so I wanted to cuff him on the head to knock some sense into him.

I was pleased to find that unlike many books, the author chose not to dwell on the ten-year age gap, which is fairly common in many stories and usually the number one reason why one of the pair tries to keep his distance. Instead this is played out as normal as possible. The other thing that I found interesting was that both characters were out as gay and were pretty well accepted in their places of work. Instead, the focus was on Iestyn and Dan as a couple where contending with Dan’s fame is one of the most important issues that come up between them almost immediately. The poor sods couldn’t get away too easily!

The story is absolutely filled with a range of emotion. I laughed, smiled, cried, got irritated and then got angry – I also feared that the story could not be contained within the two hundred-odd pages. The story is well paced, though two-thirds in I thought that Dan and Iestyn were ready for a happily ever after until Alexa Milne trips us up and gives us another brief roller coaster of drama.

A quick side note: since this is set in Cardiff, Wales, Doctor Who fans will be more than a little amused by the references to Doctor Who and Torchwood. Any reference to Capt. Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones is a good reference!

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *