The Quarterback: An M|M Sports Romance (The Team - MM Sports Romances)

This book was always going to be a hard sell because one of the romantic leads has massive relationship problems. He treats the new romance like a revenge fantasy without ever addressing his problems in his former marriage.Per info from both books:1. Nick moves his family to Texas, away from their social support network.2. Nick avoids decorating the house with his wife & as a result of failing to invest time & effort to make the house a place that reflects both marriage partners, he states he spends all his time at home in areas where Cynthia is not.3. Cynthia is obviously so lonely she makes social friends at church, whom Nick proceeds to ignore completely, to the point he has no friends of his own when he leaves her.4. Nick makes no effort at socializing with Cynthia’s friends & Nick makes no friends of his own. He never invites her into a different social group, despite the distinct social groups attached to his work. According to his self reports, Nick pretty much emotionally abandoned Cynthia for years.5. It is clear from the book that Nick regularly works late. So, whatever socializing he does with Cynthia would be minimized by his schedule & the fact that he never mentions taking her to any work events.6. When he is at home, Nick’s stated habit is to talk or watch Netflix & eat before potentially being intimate. However, Nick constantly cuts off Netflix shows as a habit and he ignores Cynthia’s faith, which is her lifeline to human interaction. Therefore, Nick’s impatience with entertainment means that Nick & Cynthia are not watching shows that they can discuss together because Nick keeps cutting them off. Nick isn’t attending the social events Cynthia has with church or forming any relationships there, which means that is also not a topic of conversation. He also does not talk about her faith with her as he does not believe. These two people do not seem to communicate about any common topics between them besides the sports their son decided he didn’t like & the semi-annual international vacations Cynthia planned. Nick mentions that he doesn’t have certain types of intimacy often, but it’s clear that aside from sex, they were basically married in name only. There was no companionship & Nick never addressed his contribution to that.7. The cultural overlay of a church that tells parents to have kids pray for their future spouses is often accompanied by a misogynistic emphasis on the wife depending on her husband & pastor to interpret Scripture. The Bible states that every Christian is supposed to interpret scripture for themselves with the help of the Holy Spirit, but Cynthia never went to Seminary & Nick didn’t care enough to read the Bible even after he decided Cynthia’s Pastor was brainwashing her. (To break somebody free from brainwashing you need to surround them with people that only respond when they behave in a way that is distinct from their conditioning). Nick did the opposite & avoided Cynthia so completely that she only received input from a pastor who spiritually abused her into believing he had the right to coerce her to coerce her son to attend some kind of conditioning camp to stop him from being attracted to men. This is not according to Scripture & all Nick had to do as a man in that culture is to point out the pastor’s unscriptural behavior. If either of them had read Scripture in the original language then it would’ve been even more obvious that what the pastor was doing was not OK. However, Nick never cared enough to investigate what went wrong.8. When Cynthia repeated her pastor’s opinions & said she thought Justin was broken & should be coerced, Nick does nothing about the fact that she was spiritually abused. Instead, in response to her failure to unconditionally accept Justin, Nick decides he will not unconditionally accept Cynthia & leaves instantly with the intent to divorce her. That seems a little hypocritical to me, in addition to being irresponsible & failing to admit he offered no safe relationship or other options for socializing to Cynthia for years before abandoning her after she was “brain washed.”9. Nick never addressed his issues of failing to intentionally plan common areas meeting the needs of both partners. He never actually admits that he failed to intentionally spend time with or develop common conversation interests with Cynthia. Later, Colton offers video games, wine tasting, & sports, but Nick mostly lucks out by artificially conflating work activities & social functions with his relationship with Colton. He never addresses how he will avoid emotionally abandoning Colton as he did Cynthia.Nick carries old baggage into his new relationship - minus 1 starNick & Colton have amazing chemistry because Nick treats Colton with respect. He joins his hobbies, offers mature responsibilities, & invites him into work social life. Nick never acknowledges that Nick’s respect & protection is the difference between Colton & Cynthia - minus 1 star

I really, really love reading Tal Bauer's books.The Quarterback is a slow burn, age gap MM romance with a tons of feels, scorching hot scenes and tearjerking heartwrenching angst. Just my cup of tea!!The books main characters were introduced in The Jock, the first book in this series. The author was brilliant enough to somehow suggest the pair will get their own story without a lot of hints or anything.One MC is Colton, Wes's best friend, college football quarterback who is the most loveable marshmallow in the whole world. His actions in the first book were somewhat questionable but he learned from them and became a better friend, better player and better man.After he decides to stay and finish his degree and play with his team for one more year, a devastating shoulder injury cuts his plans in half. He needs to be patient and determined to get back in the field without any distractions. So getting friendly and cosy with his friend's dad who was kind enough to offer him a summer internship might not be the best route of action.Our other MC is above mentioned dad, Nick, Justin's dad from the first book. He has just started repairing his relationship with his son and with that he became the member of their little friendship group where Colton is the fourth one. He's a dad, but he's also going through a divorce and finds himself lonely and in desperate need of a friend.Colton and Nick quickly become friends despite the age difference, bonding over Justin and Wes, football and video games. Their friendship is innocent and so adorable. They are both in need of some platonic love and can give that to each other.But platonic love might not be their endgame.The slow burn was just a right amount of slow and it was pure and precious witnessing two aquaintances getting closer and becoming much much more. There is just something infinitely kind in falling in love with a person unknowingly just by finding friendship and companionship with them.Colton's backstory is utterly heartbreaking! A dad who walked out and a mom who doesn't care left a desperate need for love in him that he tries to fill with football. I felt my heart constricting in my chest whenever Colton felt like he was not enough or unworthy of love. That boy was just precious!!The whole story was a big warm hug for me. The smut was a bit too much, but the hot scenes were still filled with emotions.The author's strength in building up characters and putting them through a grinder shone through in this story as well! The relationships and the individual character development was really great and I loved seeing them grow.All in all, I really love this book. I loved it more than the first book! I adored the characters and felt so, so much while reading. There were some scenes where I felt Colton's pain right in my chest because it was just so relatable for me!! Great job!

3.5 stars from me. I did say in my re-read of The Jock that I wasn't wholly convinced about a Colton/Nick pairing BUT that as ever, I was perfectly happy to be persuaded by Tal that this WAS what *I* actually wanted. Unfortunately, it wasn't what I wanted, and it turned into a liked not loved story. This is the story of 2 very lonely guys who, due to something that happens in the story, develop intense feelings for each other...but who also happen to have a 20 year age gap between them.I do feel that despite Tal's best efforts, some readers will think that Colton does indeed have some underlying daddy issues which, given his background [an absent father and a mother who is far more interested in her career than her son] is only to be expected. He admires the way that Nick is now there for Justin come what may, but is so lonely himself when Wes spends all his time with Justin, that was it really such a huge surprise to see him developing feelings for someone who paid him the slightest bit of attention?I liked both MC's, got quite emotional at how isolated and alone Colton became at one point, liked Mr Kimbrough immensely but was completely gobsmacked by both Justin and Wes's behaviour when they found out Nick and Colton were together...I would never have believed it of them, and Justin especially deserved a good kick up the backside.

On the surface, The Quarterback isn't exactly a book with an oceans-deep storyline - it can be summed up as 'man meets man; men become friends after a rocky start; men fall in love; there's angst; there's a fabulous HEA'. That's not a surprise if you've read the blurb and there are, of course complexities that make this a brilliant read. To give any more away, however, and stray closer to spoiler territory would be doing it a disservice, so I'll just give my headlines.Tropes: age gap/friends to lovers/bi-awakening (possibly GFY)/slow burn.Mood: settle in for a rollercoaster of emotions. Tissues, your comfort food/drink of choice and quiet time to absorb and reflect (really, so no-one sees you ugly crying) are recommended.Takeaway message: everyone has layers - nobody is just one thing (a profession/a parent/a fried/a lover) - finding who you fit together perfectly with and how is a wonderful thing... ultimately, the heart wants what the heart wants so so whatever's in your power to make it work and be yourself.Long story short, this is a bit of a different approach/style for this author, but all of his wordsmith magic is still present, so whilst some might not think the circumstances in the plot all that realistic, every thought, feeling, word and action from all of the characters come across as authentic. Whether it's uplifting or heart-rending it's always honest, always beautiful. 5 fantastic stars from me for Nick and Colton's story.

This book really got to me. I just wanted to hug Colton all the way through and make things right for him - all he wanted was someone to love him, as his own family didn’t make a very good job of it, and he got there in the end - yay! Lots of different threads to follow in this one - the age difference, the shock to both of them about their sexuality, the close friendships that were tested. If you’re not into sport, please don’t let this put you off. I’m a Scottish female and have absolutely no idea about this sport but it didn’t detract from the story in any way - Tal’s books are so easy to read. Definitely recommend!

The quarterback is the follow-up to The Jock that I loved. I’m not a fan of sports m/m but as I love all Tal Bauer’s books I was happy to give this two book series a try.Colton and Nick meet following an incident in The Jock when their best friend and son need help. Their love for Wes and Justin brings them together in friendship. The Jock is the story of when that friendship turns in to more and it’s a slow realisation. Neither is gay nor are they looking for anything more than easy companionship to begin with. This isn’t insta-love. It’s painful realisation that each is attracted to the other. It’s father figure, friend’s dad, group of friends dynamics and a father’s love for his son mixed with love for each other and which is most important and what are they prepared to give up or fight for.Tal is a storyteller in its truest form. A page turner.Highly recommended.

These two books were so different from the usual romantic thrillers I've read from Tal before and I must admit, I loved both of them.Apart from these two books and two others by this author, the rest are thrillers with romance in, whereas these were simply two love stories.I do hope you write more of these types of books Tal as I thoroughly enjoyed them.