On the Line by Liz Lincoln
Milwaukee Dragons #1
Publication Date: April 17, 2018
Contemporary Romance
Loveswept

Reviewed by Kini

Favorite Quote:

The contact seared him. Jesus, he wanted her. Wanted every bit of her, and he was done fighting it. Nothing else he’d tried made his hunger for her go away. Maybe it would complicate things. Maybe it would ruin their working relationship. But in that moment, he didn’t care. She tasted like wine and desire, and Seth never wanted to stop kissing her.

The cover for this is abtastic! The hero is a football playing single dad and the heroine is the nanny. I couldn’t turn this book down. First things first, there is obviously a power imbalance at play here and I want to acknowledge it. I know and respect some readers will not be able to move on from that and that is okay. I think the reason it worked for me was that they met, had a mutual attraction, and shared flirty texts before she becomes the nanny. The author does acknowledge it a little but it never felt stressful for me while reading.

The heroine, Carrie, is an unemployed science teacher. She is also into comic books and cosplay. One night she is at the grocery store and has forgotten her wallet. The kind, yet incredibly handsome fella behind her graciously offers to pay for her groceries. Sidenote- I wish the universe would send me a handsome fella to pay for my groceries. Okay, back on track. So as this guy pays for the groceries he adds his to the bill. All he has is super-sized tampons and bananas. He mentions the tampons are for his daughter and Carrie kindly saves the day and instructs him to buy his 12-year-old pads. It was a great meet-cute and definitely one I have not read before. Heroine and hero first exchange words over menstrual products. I was pretty much hooked from here.

The hero, Seth, is a football superstar who recently got traded to Milwaukee. He is a single dad to his daughter, Maddie, and struggling a bit with her. Twelve-year-old girls are tough. Seth went to college with Carrie’s brother Jason and gets connected with Carrie for the nanny position. This is after they have bonded and exchanged flirty texts, they don’t know the about the connection until Carrie shows up for the job interview.

It is all awkward and they vow to not act on their attraction. Carrie needs the job. Seth needs a nanny and doesn’t want to introduce Maddie to a woman who might be temporary. Of course, they can’t hold off on their attraction. They had amazing chemistry. There is lots of masturbation in this book. Seriously, each character has at least one on page and several off page mentions of self-love. So if you aren’t into that, this book is not for you.

One of the best things about this book is that although the hero is white, his football team contains… wait for it… non-white players. I know you’re like, what? Is that a thing and yes it is. This fictional football squad seems to be depicted the way real football teams are, in that it is multi-racial. According to Goodreads, the cover of the next books features a black hero. There is no blurb, but there are some light hints at potential characters for future books, and I will be here for them.

This was a fun and quick read. I liked the progression of their relationship. The will they or won’t they seemed realistic. I was very invested in them making it work. Maddie was a realistic child and at times sullen and rude, like twelve-year-olds tend to be. Maddie’s mom is not in the picture and did fall victim to the sort of evil ex-trope, which I could have done without. A football book isn’t a football book without some issue of injury and Seth does have one and at one point it is an issue and then it kind of fades out and I felt that should have been incorporated better. But it did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. If you are willing to take a risk on a potential power imbalance book, I think you will enjoy this book. Lincoln is a new to me author with a risk that paid off for me. I look forward to reading more from her.

Grade: B-

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