Title: The Player
Author: Felice Stevens
Pages: 329
Formats: Reviewed on eBook
Rating: 3.5 stars
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Gay Romance Reviews for providing an ARC
A lot of the time in books featuring a return to small town, the main characters involved are usually written as someone “big” return and and the other character having lived in their small town, and their friendship had drifted apart from their time in high school.
In The Player, Felice Stevens throws this trope on its head when Keller Williams, an injured now former NFL player, returns home to teach his high schools’ NFL team- the same side he played for as a student and as you can imagine, has a soft spot for. Keller has hidden his sexuality since before he made it big, but time has come for him to slowly embrace it.
Niall Harper has lived in Overlook since he was born. He has settled into a routine with his son as his primary focus- while also working as the school librarian and a sometimes substitute teacher. He still harbours trauma from his time in high school, and associates that with Keller.
Stevens crafts a a well plotted storyline and it goes along at a ripper pace; you are shown the nuances and trauma of both Keller and Niall, over time this slowly unwraps and you just want to give them giant hugs.
There’s a sub plot in there that is absolutely heart breaking so I am putting a content warning in here for abuse- it isn’t too graphic, but the warning was missing from the book.
A good read nonetheless