Genre: Romance, Sports
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
Golden-haired Udo Holtmann is a big name in soccer. But since transferring to Premier League club Brockton FC three months ago, the star midfielder can’t score a goal. The fans, the players and the CEO are furious.
It’s not his playing style or trouble gelling with the team. Udo is hiding a secret. He wanted a fresh start at this new club yet old problems are still plaguing him.
Steven Cox, former player and Brockton’s handsome assistant manager, has to find out what’s blocking Udo. Keen to prove to the world that he could manage his own club, Steven throws himself into the mission. If he doesn’t fix Udo’s problems soon, the team could fall out of the league and Udo will be back on the market.
Spending time together, Udo and Steven ignite a passion but acting on it could end both their careers. The world of soccer can be an unforgiving place.
With the stakes so high, what will happen if Udo and Steven give in to their feelings?
The Review
I think this is my first soccer (football) romance. Not my first sports romance. I kept thinking of Ted Lasso, only a lot gayer. The challenge with this genre (even in the wake of Heated Rivalry on television), is to make it different.
Kristian Parker does this first with the two main characters—Steven Cox and Udo Holtmann. Steven was forced into early retirement by an injury, and is the assistant manager for the Brockton Football Club. Udo is a star forward at the end of his shining career, recently purchased for lots of money by Brockton. They are both men biding their time because of a secret that neither one knows about the other.
Even as someone who came out fifty years ago, and not a particular sports fan, I know all too well how deep homophobia runs in professional sports. Parker’s story doesn’t try to diminish that reality, but does suggest that the reality of closeted sports stars might be partly due to intertia and fear.
Steve and Udo are on the same team, but it is Udo’s uncertainty about being a new, high-profile player, that keeps him from playing his best. Part of that uncertainty stems from his own closetedness—in spite of his mother’s unwavering support. Steve, on the other hand, while he feels trapped in the same way, is more concerned about the team’s loudmouth owner, who worries about his investment. When Steve reaches out to Udo to try to help him relax and settle in, he learns about the secret they share.
I love the way families play into this story in many ways. It’s not just Udo’s wise mother or Steve’s big extended family, who support him and celebrate him; it’s also his own boss, Javier Tosar, whose family is present and plays an important emotional role. Even the team’s owner, Jamie, is driven by his relationship with his father, who turned the Brockton FC over to him and expects to see good results.
As classic as the setup is, the author throws in twists that keep the reader guessing, while making the two protagonists genuinely appealing enough that we root for them. Since it’s a romance, we all know where we want the story to go. The author’s delicate skill keeps us on the edge of our seats all the way.
As always in a good story, the sport itself becomes another character. The sport is at the heart of the players’ character, with its cerebral and physical demands. Every sport-themed romance is colored by the nature of the sport, and that’s what makes each story like this unique and appealing.
Four stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
