Fumbled

A second chance doesn't guarantee a touchdown in this new contemporary romance from the author of Intercepted.
Single-mother Poppy Patterson moved across the country when she was sixteen and pregnant to find a new normal. After years of hard work, she's built a life she loves. It may include a job at a nightclub, weekend soccer games, and more stretch marks than she anticipated, but it's all hers, and nobody can take that away. Well, except for one person.
TK Moore, the starting wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs, dreamt his entire life about being in the NFL. His world is football, parties, and women. Maybe at one point he thought his future would play out with his high school sweetheart by his side, but Poppy is long gone and he's moved on.  
When Poppy and TK cross paths in the most unlikely of places, emotions they've suppressed for years come rushing back. But with all the secrets they never told each other lying between them, they'll need more than a dating playbook to help them navigate their relationship.

I read Intercepted a while ago and meant to pick up the next book in the Playbook series. Thanks to my local library, I was able to borrow a physical copy of Fumbled, the second book in the series. This time, it’s Denver Mustangs’ starting wide receiver, TK Moore’s turn to find his HEA. 

Fumbled is a second-chance romance story about Poppy Patterson and TK Moore, who were high school sweethearts. I really enjoy this trope and couldn’t wait to read about Poppy and TK’s second chance at romance. Poppy moved far away from home to start over and never expected to run into TK Moore again, especially at her place of work. Now, emotions she had buried for years come rushing back with TK around, and he’s more determined than ever to have a second chance with her. The problem is that Poppy has a big secret that she’s kept from TK for years, and she’s unsure how he’ll handle it, but she knows she’ll have to tell him.

(Trope Spoiler) I’m not usually a big fan of the secret baby/child trope, but after finding out what happened with Poppy when she was pregnant, I understood her hesitation in telling TK the truth when she decided to give him a second chance. Poppy was a hard-working, kickbutt single mother who had been taking care of her adorable son, Ace, for a while now. She didn’t want her son’s life to be turned upside down if TK decided to react badly about having a son. I loved that she had a support system of friends who were there for her, especially when things were not always going well in life and with TK. She also gained some friends with the football wives/girlfriends, too, who supported her. 

Now, with that being said, just with the first book, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Poppy and her son, Ace, stole the show for me in this book, while the MMC, TK Moore, drove me batty with constant flip-flopping in the book. The first red flag with him was how he reacted to finding out about Ace; then there was the issue of how he responded to Poppy not liking what happened to him during a football game. He did end up doing a 360, but after he broke Poppy’s heart and even Ace’s heart. I did like how he handled someone in his family that caused drama between him and Poppy from the beginning. 

Overall, this was an okay read for me, and I’m giving it 3.5 stars. I wish I would have enjoyed it more. I do plan on reading the next book in the series because I need more football romances in my life and need to read Maxwell’s book next.

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s an interconnected standalone in the Playbook series. 

Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you’re looking for a Second Chance Football Romance story, then check out this book from Alexa Martin. 

What to Expect:
🏈Sports/Football Romance
🏈Interracial Romance
🏈Second Chance
🏈Single Mother

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FranJessca

Owner/Reviewer at A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog

I guess I should type a bio here. I'm FranJessca, or Fran for short. I'm the owner/reviewer behind A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog. I've been reading and reviewing books on my blog since leaving the Navy in 2011, and I will keep doing it as long as possible. My favorite genres will always be Romance & Fantasy, and I read every subgenre underneath those two genres. (Sorry, not a fan of nonfiction, so don't try to convince me to read it.)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)

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