This book! Sidelined – The Draft – will make your mama blush. Which means it’s a must read in my book.
Bianca Williams first book of her Sidelined trilogy starts with The Draft. The cover caught me immediately. Covers sell me. I love a sports romance. I love a gold foil. Done and done.
When I read a little bit about the author, I knew this would be a good book. I feel there’s a big hole in the romance market for black authors. I look very deliberately for my kids’ books to have representation and for diverse authors. I haven’t given a second thought to romance books that come my way.
Like, literally, I just haven’t paid attention until this book. And come to think of it, they are all white, middle-aged ladies. So, Bianca, you, my dear, are welcome breath of fresh air and I’m so glad I found you.
Within the first chapter of Sidelined – The Draft, I realized I need more authors like Bianca Williams in my book wheelhouse. She moves the story along quickly enough and writes sharp as a tack. The dialogue is witty but not auctioneer-fast-witty like Gilmore Girls dialogue. (Every X chromosome on my mom’s side of the family will kill me for even admitting that. I can’t process the speed in which they talk. Slow the hell down. Or switch to decaf, humans!)
Bryn is an absolute dynamo. Single mama to 8 year old Bailey. Works full-time. Just started a side hustle event planning business with her bestie, Jen. The cherry on top of all things friends? THEY LIVE NEXT TO EACH OTHER. Wouldn’t that be dynamite?!
Enter, Shane Smith, the 6’5″ panty-dropper for the fictional Baltimore Nighthawks football team. He signs with Jen and Bryn for a party and the ladies enter a high-profile world they only dreamed of.
Shane’s got some baggage and has serious McDreamy eyes for Bryn. However, she’s not looking for anything. With anyone. Just when Shane starts to wear a hole in her teflon, he becomes the demanding client diva role. Bryn flip flops on the regular between crushing on this man and wanting to run from him.
This author writes in a way that makes me so dang glad I’m not on the market. You know some books are written like ‘omg, the single life is the bessssssst. I don’t have a care in the worldddddddd.’ I feel like that was all of Sex and the City, no? Anywho. This book has real life-ness that I love, but I’m certain is tricky as hell to make likable, if that makes sense.
There is some serious steam in this book. A few scenes – wow! I love when books have steam (who doesn’t) but don’t feature the obvious on the front cover. I mean, my kids are in my room all the time. There is too much heavy shit to explain in life. I don’t want to add yet another thing by gently explaining that mommy sometimes likes to read hot love stories in my jammies that I’ve had on since 6pm bath time for the littles after our 5pm dinner of nuggets. Ahem.
Bianca also creates Shane’s character into this guy that I SO badly want to get it together and be the guy for Bryn. And then he does something baffling and sneaky. And I hate sneaky. So I have to read the other two books because I’m suffering from some serious book hangover here.
Favorite lines from this book:
- Preparation plus opportunity equals success. Omg. My brilliant friend Gretchen has the saying ‘proper preparation prevents poor performance.’ Love!
- Crazy as a bag of cats. I mean, any book, tshirt, mug, whatever that has this saying is the cat’s meow. (See what I did there?)
- I understand it’s your downtime, but to him it’s prime time. You can’t talk to someone at prime time if you’re not interested in any horizontal time. Freaking brilliant. Just proves nothing good happens after 9pm. 😉
- If a man lies, he’ll cheat. If he cheats, he’ll steal. And if he steals, he’ll kill. AMEN!
So, we have a total she’d-be-my-friend-IRL character and a man-child sprinkled with a fantastic bestie you’d die for. Does that not sound super fun!?
Any other black romance authors I should be dialing into? Help me out!