Winning the Season
Miami Piranhas Book 4
Author and Publisher: Beth Bolden
Cover Artist: Cate Ashwood Designs
Release Date: December 1, 2022
Genres: Gay contemporary sports romance
Tropes: Second chance romance, bisexual awakening
Length: 100 000 words
Heat Rating: 4 flames
It is book #4 in the series, but could be read by itself.
Buy Links
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Asa might be the head coach, but he’s a man first.
Blurb
Coach Asa Dawson has fallen wildly in love only twice in his life.
First with football.
Then with Scott Callaway.
But Scott isn’t just the one who got away.
He’s the one person—the one man—Asa hoped might finally show him how all-consuming passion could be.
Instead, fate (and football) intervened and they never got the chance to explore their attraction. Their friendship ended in ruins, Scott left, and Asa’s been torn between hating him and loving him for the last seven years.
Asa doesn’t think he’ll ever see him again, but when his bad habits catch up to him and he doesn’t have a choice but to accept help, he’s horrified—and exhilarated—to learn Scott’s been hired to assist him.
With the final stretch of the Piranhas season falling during the holidays, maybe what Asa and Scott have needed this whole time was a little Christmas magic to remind them the most important job isn’t to win the season—but to finally win each other’s hearts.
Excerpt
Scott’s hands were still trembling.
It was like being plugged back into a socket, after so long without electricity, being in Asa’s presence again.
Since he’d gotten the call from Beau, he hadn’t really let himself consider what it would mean. What it would feel like.
He’d only allowed himself the worry.
Asa was sick; he was struggling and in the goddamn hospital. Beau had reassured him, more than once, that he’d be fine, that the doctors weren’t particularly worried, they only wanted him to change his lifestyle.
Sleep more. Eat better. Work less.
That, Beau had said, was where he came in. He didn’t know anyone else who’d be able to convince Asa to relax the reins.
Scott had agreed, because after how things had gone seven years ago, how could he not? How could he not be there for Asa when he needed him, more than anyone else?
But he didn’t tell Beau that he wouldn’t be able to convince him of jack sh*t now.
Asa was, understandably, still pissed.
Scott couldn’t even blame him.
He was still pissed at himself.
He’d known the moment he landed in Washington that it was all wrong, that he’d made a mistake, that instead of trying to be so f*cking noble, he should have just taken Asa’s hand and kissed him and learned how to be happy.
No matter what that meant.
But he’d committed to leading Washington’s program, and he’d done that, for six years.
Then a year ago, they’d let him go, and he’d gone home, not to Tennessee, because Asa was still there, and the whole damn state didn’t feel big enough for the two of them, but back home to Alabama, to the small town he’d lived in before he’d gone to college.
“You alright?” Beau asked as they lingered at the front of the conference room, the rest of the coaching staff taking their seats, grumbling all the way.
It was deep into the season, it was the Monday after a game, and they were all tired.
Scott remembered exactly how it had felt, on those Mondays, even though he’d only ever coached in college, never in the NFL.
“Yeah, fine,” Scott said automatically.
He was not fine.
Not even remotely.
He’d thought . . . well, he didn’t know what he’d thought, exactly. But he hadn’t imagined that he and Asa would meet again like this. He’d imagined running into him—sorta, kinda, on purpose—on the Tennessee campus. He’d imagined making things right.
The part of the imagining he’d purposefully forgotten was that Asa was going to be justifiably pissed at him.
Carra's Review
I was so glad when I found out Asa would be getting his own story. This has several elements that I really like - older main characters, second chance romance, bisexual awakening - and it’s all in the setting of the Miami Piranhas.
While getting the backstory between Asa and Scott, I’ll admit I was a little frustrated with Scott and the way he left Asa behind the first time around. When they’re thrown together again here seven years later, there are plenty of pent-up feelings on both sides until finally that dam breaks. Even then, there’s still some unresolved issues, particularly when it comes to Beau, Asa’s son…just enough to add a bit more drama to their story.
Asa and Scott are fantastic together, and thanks to the circumstances the first time around and the setting with the team once Scott comes to Miami, their reunion makes for some pretty entertaining reading. There’s some laughs thrown in thanks to the Secret Santa the team is doing, and if you’ve already been reading the series, all the guys are here again as the supporting cast so we get to visit with some of our favorites from the rest of the stories.
Winning the Season was a solid 4-star read for me, and I’d absolutely recommend it to any romance fan (with bonus points for sports romance fans). While this is the fourth book in the series, you could read it on its own…though you’ll enjoy it even more if you read the books in order so you have the other characters’ own backstories. This book is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content.
About the Author
A lifelong Pacific Northwester, Beth Bolden has just recently moved to North Carolina with her supportive husband. Beth still believes in Keeping Portland Weird, and intends to be just as weird in Raleigh.
Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published twenty-three novels and seven novellas.
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