Of all the romance subgenres in existence, the one that has always appealed to me the least is sports romance. Maybe it’s because I don’t like sports (if you went to a high school with the worst football team in the league all four years, you might feel the same). Maybe it’s because there are so many other subgenres calling like a siren singing to Odysseus and his crew. Whatever it is, it almost made me skip over this book in favor of something – anything – else. What a mistake that would have been. I loved The Inside Edge by Ashlyn Kane and can’t imagine not having this story in my heart.
The story is fairly straightforward. Boy meets boy. Boy insults boy. Boy falls in lust then in love with boy. Etc. Nate Overton, sportscaster and former NHL hot shot, gets a new cohost: Aubrey Chase, former figure skating hot shot and new sportscaster. They clash at first but then things smooth out. Then life interferes and they almost lose each other. It’s a romance novel, though, so things resolve and the boys get their happily ever after.
So, why do I love this book? A few reasons. First, I so appreciate the fact that both of the main characters have lots of queer friends. Too many lgbtqia romances have the protagonists as the only queer people in sight. I also love that the changes these two make are so they will be better men all on their own, not just for the object of their affection. There’s almost something Fitzwilliam Darcy about the changes they make. Finally, I love that the third act angst of this book comes from the possibility of their careers pulling them in different directions instead of anything between the two of them. The story is the boys against the world instead of against each other.
One final note about this book – I first borrowed this book from the library January of this year. Then, when I was talking to a friend about it at the beginning of this month, I got a strong urge to read it again. I loved this book so much I think I might have to buy a copy for my own collection so I can reread it again whenever I want.