Thursday, July 9, 2009

Review - Playing The Field Play On by J. M. Snyder

Playing the Field: Play On by J. M. Snyder is another stand-alone installment in her m/m contemporary series about sports. Play On is a novelette at about 12K words. It's told in close third-person viewpoint in present-tense by our hero Sean and features some hot sex scenes that come in at a sizzling 4 to 5 on the 1-to-5 sex scene scale.
Sean is a junior at Patten University and one of the best players on the college soccer team. His story opens at soccer practice when he notices a new guy Cordero who has joined the team. Cordero is also a junior.

Sean is white and Cordero is black; to them, opposites mean immediate sexual attraction. They can't keep from ogling one another. Sean even tramples over a team-mate because he's so caught up in staring at Cordero who finds this very amusing. But who could blame Sean when Cordero looks like this (from page 3):

"… His shirt is off, tied around his narrow waist, exposing a smooth chest the delicious color of dark mahogany. Sweat glistens like water on thinly-defined muscles bunched in his abdomen and flexing along his arms and legs. … High cheekbones, strong nose, dark eyes like black jewels set in his face. A razor-thin line of hair traces his jaw and circles his full mouth. He has large lips, the color of garnet, which Sean can almost feel pillowed against his own."
When they are ordered to run laps together, Sean openly flirts with Cordero who reciprocates without the slightest sign of surprise. (He knows he's good-looking.) To quote some of their dialogue here may push the no-sexual-content limits of my blog, but it's so funny I can't resist. From page 4:

"[Sean says] I'm in the D and A program."

Cordero grins, like he knows Sean's joking. "What the hell's that?"

"Dick and ass." Sean throws him a wink, heart thudding in his chest. The ball is Cordero's to play.

… Cordero shakes his head, his grin widening. "Damn, man. I got to sign up for that one. I'm sure I've racked up enough credits already."
The two of them get together for some extremely hot sex. But it leads to two problems. First, they can barely concentrate when they're on the soccer field together, and their playing suffers.

In the time-honored tradition of coaches everywhere, their coach threatens to toss them off the team. In a refreshingly modern twist on this particular situation, the coach either doesn't know or doesn't care that they're lovers. He just wants them to shape up and play.

Second, they seem to have nothing in common other than sex and soccer. This makes Sean worry that he means nothing to Cordero. It also leads him perilously close to a romance cliché, the Big Misunderstanding.

He tries to break it off with Cordero in a scene that I here at Obsidianbookshelf.com will admit is believable for a naïve guy feeling insecure about his first real love affair. Fortunately, Cordero has enough maturity to save Sean and us readers from any big misunderstandings.

This is a fun read, notable for the hot sex scenes – but especially for the dialogue! The author has a gift for capturing the innocent and exuberant self-confidence of these two boys. They're funny and endearing and their voices are done so well that I can hear them, their accents, and their emotions like a movie-soundtrack as I read. Highly recommended! COPYRIGHT: All content copyright © Obsidian Bookshelf, except where noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from Val Kovalin is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Val Kovalin and Obsidianbookshelf.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Click for more information.
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Posted by Val at 5:33 AM
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