Rating: 4.75🌈
A finale book is a hard one to read and I imagine, extremely hard for the author to write. For a reader, especially a fan of the series, expectations are high to see how the writer can send off the characters and close down the arc in a way which satisfies us and makes sense.
Much the same as it must be for the author who’s been writing and creating these characters and their stories over a period of time. If it’s a series like the Miami Piranhas, where we had an entire NFL football team and a whole bunch of couples, well that makes the finale that more challenging.
So I liked that Bolden chose to make her two last characters and couple in this series , men at crossroads in their lives, whether they realized it at the time. Men with doubts and thinking about their own life choices. On and around a team that’s newly reformed and establishing themselves and their own identity in the NFL. It’s looking like a a fresh start or beginning will happen but there’s to be a ending first.
So logical and well planned. While the story didn’t go into detail about some elements, it brought full circle so many aspects of this series (as as as another), that it led me back into the other series to begin again.
The character of prickly journalist Julian Anderson, who has quite the journey of emotional growth and professional development, is one I got. He is layered with the believable qualities of someone who’s experienced deep loss and abandonment, and now has the barriers to show for it.
His chemistry and relationship with Kenyon Ellis is real, emotionally fraught with issues and the tough facts of each person’s profession and painful history.
Kenyon Ellis. What an incredible man and character. Bolden shows her deep love and understanding of this sport in Ellis. His love for his team, his divided attention, his guilt, everything that preying on his mind and heart at this time of his life and career. He’s painfully, beautifully real in every aspect of his personality and my favorite character.
All the others from the team make impressive supporting roles here to come together as a team and as friends.
No spoilers this time. Just a white knuckle ride and a highly entertaining and deeply thoughtful show, that ends as it should.
I’d give a trophy for them and this. And I hope to maybe see them again someday. You never know in a Bolden book .
Yes, I’m highly recommending this and the series.
Miami Piranhas series:
🔹Playing For Keeps #1
🔹Playing The Player #2
🔹Playing By The Rules #3
🔹Winning The Season #4
🔷Playing Deep #5 – Series Finale
Buy Link:
Playing Deep (Miami Piranhas Book 5)
Description:
Kenyon Ellis knows getting involved with Julian Anderson is an enormous mistake—but from the very first night, he finds him annoying, intriguing and ultimately, irresistible.
One, Kenyon is a player, and Julian is a reporter, so hooking up with him, no matter how spectacular the nights are, is a terrible idea.
Two, he’s falling for him, even if Julian continues to be prickly and impossible. But every time Julian’s walls shift, Kenyon sees the real man behind the attitude, and he only wants more.
Three, between the Piranhas and the charity work he’s committed to, Kenyon really doesn’t have the time for a relationship—but a relationship with Julian turns out to be exactly what he wants.
Maybe even exactly what he needs.
But when Julian starts calling out his performance on the field, the last thing Kenyon expects is to feel betrayed. But is it betrayal? Or does Julian simply see something in Kenyon he’s lost along the way?
The answer leads him not only to love, but to the biggest crossroads of his life.
The fifth and final Miami Piranhas book.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 