Snapped by Alexa Martin

E-Audio, 11:21:27
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani & Cary Hite
Release Date: October 20, 2020
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: October 27-28, 2020
Playbook, #4
Source: Library (Overdrive)
TW: Death of a parent
For fans of: Realistic Fiction, Adult, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Diverse Author, Ethnic Diversity, Own Voices, Romance, Series

    With the stakes this high, it’s no longer just a game for the quarterback in this romance by the author of Blitzed.

     Elliot Reed is living her best life—or pretending to. She owes it to her dad’s memory to be happy and make the most of her new job as Strategic Communications Manager for the Denver Mustangs. Things are going well until star quarterback Quinton Howard Jr. decides to use the field as his stage and becomes the first player to take a knee during the national anthem.
     As the son of a former professional athlete, Quinton knows the good, the bad, and the ugly about football. He’s worked his entire life to gain recognition in the sport, and now that he has it, he’s not about to waste his chance to change the league for better. Not even the brilliant but infuriating Elliot, who the Mustangs assign to manage him, will get Quinton back in line.
     A rocky initial meeting only leads to more tension between Quinton and Elliot. But as her new job forces them to spend time together, she realizes they may have more in common than she could’ve ever imagined. With her job and his integrity on the line, this is one coin toss that nobody can win. 

*MY THOUGHTS*

You would think from just the synopsis this one would be my favorite book of the series. But this one had some issues so it wasn’t my favorite, but I did like it. Quite different than her lasts and it’s about a more difficult subject matter. I was glad to see she took it on.

Elliot has the perfect job, the most perfect friends, and basically the life she’s always wanted. But then things get tough when the new quarterback for the Mustangs takes a knee during the anthem. Quinton is the son of a former player, who’s experiencing some really bad side effects. Now that Q has made a name for himself, he’s trying his hardest to make sure he can bring some change to the League. Elliot is signed to keep him in line. It’s not the best meeting at first, but as time goes on, things get much more interesting between them.

Ok so first things first. I liked the writing style as per usual with Martin’s books. It was such an easy listen and definitely kept me hanging on and wanting more. The narrators also did an awesome job as well.

Unfortunately, that was the only things that really stood out as “great” to me. Normally the characters in Martin’s stories are some of my favorites, but not this one. I was not a fan of Elliot and the way she kept excusing all the things that were happening. It is explained in the book and her author’s note so I didn’t hate her for it, but it’s not explained until the end of the book. I just thought it should have been addressed before then. As for Quinton, I thought he was fine, but I wished he was more prevalent to the story.

Then there was the synopsis. It literally mentions Quinton taking a knee and being the first to do so. But his campaign takes the backburner to Elliot’s internal struggles. It just seemed weird to me that this was big enough to note in the synopsis but not big enough to keep relevant? I just wanted more. After discussing this with Amber @ Du Livre, we both said it would have benefitted from having dual POV’s between her and Q. We could have gotten more of what was in his head and understood the way it was written more.

The Own Voices aspect was a saving grace for me. As stated, I was not a fan of Elliot, but I did forgive her. If it wasn’t for the author’s note with her explanation, I would’ve given up on her long ago. But that simple explanation made me ok with it. Not ok enough to where I liked it, but I was more accepting of it for sure. That’s the power behind Own Voices if you’re on the fence like I was, maybe seeing that can help you decide.

This was an interesting book, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I think I went into this thinking it would be about something else and it just wasn’t. It was good, but to me there were just too many things missing. Hopefully there’s more and this isn’t how the story ends.

Overall, I give this

Have you read this series? Did you like this one? Let me know in the comments!