AUDIO REVIEW: 'Winter Ball' by Amy Lane'
Title: Winter Ball
Series: Winter Ball #1
Author: Amy Lane
Narrator: Nick J. Russo/Dark Night Sound
Published: December 25, 2015
Audio: February 23, 2017
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Anne Cain/Deviant Art
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance; New Adult
Length: 200 Pages/5 Hours 35 Minutes
Tags: Gay; M/M; Coming Out; OFY; First Time; Angst: Light; Friends to Lovers; Audiobook; Holiday: Christmas
About Winter Ball
Through a miserable adolescence and a lonely adulthood, Skipper Keith has dreamed of nothing but family. The closest he gets is the rec league soccer team he coaches after work—and his star player and best friend, Richie Scoggins.
One brisk night in late October, a post-practice convo in Richie’s car turns into a sexual encounter neither of them expected—nor want to forget. Soon Skip and Richie are living for the weekends and their winter league soccer games—and the games they enjoy off the field. Through broken noses, holiday decorating, and the killer flu, they learn more about each other than they ever dreamed possible. Every new discovery takes them further beyond the boundaries of the soccer field and into the infinite possibilities of the best relationship of Skipper’s life.
Skipper can’t dream of a better family than Richie—but Richie’s got real family entanglements he can’t shake off. Skipper needs to convince Richie to stay with him beyond winter ball so the relationship they started on the field might become their happy future in real life!
REVIEW:
Winter Ball, in my opinion, is Amy Lane at her finest.
She expertly blends humor, friendship and the beginnings of a romance into a truly lovely story in this, the first book in her Winter Ball series. Ms. Lane has a way with words that completely enraptures me and I literally lose time because her books are so hard to put down.
This is Skipper and Richie’s story. Friends for about six years they also went to tech school together and play on a rec soccer team.
One night while talking after practice the two men surprisingly find themselves kissing and touching. Although they’ve each only dated women in the past, they soon find themselves “living for the weekends” when they get to hang out, play soccer and just be together.
Skip and Richie are two wonderful characters. Skip has had a tough childhood with a mother who didn’t care enough. He’s such a caretaker and needs to feel like he’s part of a family. Holidays are really important to him and I found it so sweet that he went all out when decorating for Halloween and Thanksgiving, since his mother was always more concerned with getting her next drink and holidays always took a backseat in their family.
Richie’s family cares a little too much barely letting him breathe. His father and step-mother take advantage of Richie constantly and he feels like he’s suffocating under their scrutiny.
It’s not just the two men who move this story along, the author really does an amazing job with all of the secondary characters.
Skip and Richie’s teammates are all kinds of awesome and Skip’s co-worker, Carpenter, is the best. There are some moments in the story that get a little heavy but it’s not gut busting, trust me, and Ms.Lane incorporates all kinds of humor throughout the tale making it impossible not to laugh along.
Nick J Russo does a tremendous job with the narration. He literally becomes the characters and it’s just an amazing listen.
Each voice is distinctive, each character’s emotions are well done, yet I must admit Richie is the character I fell in love with the most. I read Winter Ball when it was first released and I remember how it was Skipper I fell in love with, but this second time around it was all Richie and I have the narrator to thank for that. Russo became Richie! I could hear it in his voice. I could hear the nervousness, the hesitation in his narration, making me adore every moment of his interpretation of Richie.
I love stories when the two MC’s are best friends. And when that friendship turns to romance it’s better than sliced bread. These two men move seamlessly from friends to lovers, although not without a few hiccups along the way. They are not shy about exploring each other and trying new things and believe me it is all kinds of sexy. Nick J Russo perfectly emphasizes this with his narration. He starts off strong and when he gets to those breathy exclamations I was truly fanning myself. Having been a fangirl for a while now I am always amazed by his talent.
Amy Lane and Nick J Russo made me laugh, made me hot, made me tear up and made me believe in love through Winter Ball.
Lane knows how to write the sexy, tender scenes and Russo’s narration only magnifies that. They make the men’s emotions ring true for long-time friends and I wondered why they hadn’t gotten together before. I was caught up in their romance as much as they were. I love how Skip and Richie realize how much it is the two of them that belong together. They were what they were missing. That "spark" was between them.
An audiobook of Winter Ball was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by Dreamspinner Press, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Author
Angst and pain, Amy Lane has two kids in college, two gradeschoolers in soccer, two cats, and two Chi-who-whats at large. She lives in a crumbling crapmansion with most of the children and a bemused spouse. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and m/m romance--and if you accidentally make eye contact, she'll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She'll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.
For more from Amy be sure and visit her website.
