Defending a teammate's right to privacy cost star football
player Gavin Brawley his season. Gavin's uncontrollable
rage flared up, and he is now under house arrest for six
months. Football is Gavin's life and this does nothing to
improve his volatile temper, which is barely helped by his
anger management counseling. His manager suggests hiring a
personal assistant to deal with the everyday stuff Gavin
neglects, as well as the deluge of hate mail that is bound
to flood his mailbox. Noah Monroe's friend Jasmine talked
him into applying for the PA job, not knowing it was for
Gavin Brawley. Noah lost his job at a youth centre after
being embroiled in a scandal; he needs money for his student
loans and for his father, who was laid off. Noah really
doesn't want this job, he doesn't care about overpaid
athletes and doesn't know anything about football or
Brawley. The initial interview doesn't go over too well:
Gavin is his usually hostile self, but he does look like a
beautiful golden lion, and only a handful of people know
that Gavin is bisexual...
I had read many very, very good things about Santino
Hassell, and it is inconceivable that, even though I read a
fair share of M/M romances, I had never read his novels; at
last, this oversight has been rectified, and only now do I
understand what I had missed! Mr. Hassell writes such
amazing dialogues that I had a smile plastered on my face
from the beginning while Gavin was being so unpleasant
because he was also wildly entertaining from a literary
point of view; he is one snarly dude! It is a testament to
Mr. Hassell's skills that I never hated Gavin, who is
seriously bad-tempered and rude. Noah is delightful: he is
terrified because he does need the job but he stands up to
Gavin's tantrums, and he tells him off, which is one of the
reasons Gavin hires him.
I thought Gavin's bisexuality was admirably dealt with, as
was everything else, to be honest. Every character was
beautifully defined, and I loved the relationships between
Noah and his friend Jasmine, and the friendship between
Gavin and his teammates Marcus and Simeon; I felt I was
included in their inner circle. ILLEGAL CONTACT is very
fast-paced, and so carefully structured that Gavin and
Noah's very bumpy road to romance is one of the most
realistic I have ever seen. The hurdles they face are
gigantic and felt so real, it hurt. There is an undeniable
feeling of authenticity that permeates ILLEGAL CONTACT which
kept me involved all the way. One thing that I did not
expect was Santino Hassell's knowledge of the game and his
understanding of every aspect of a professional athlete's
everyday life, which made the book even more compelling and
contributed to Gavin's woes.
Santino Hassell's prose is superb; casually elegant, and
masculine, and the author clearly demonstrates that there
are ways to write sex scenes without annoying euphemisms
while avoiding endless repetitions. The sex scenes are
brilliant: they felt realistic, and were so passionate,
tender and loving, that I think many romance writers,
regardless of the genre, could take lessons from Mr.
Hassell. I feel that in the past few years, a lot of
contemporary romances, whether gay or straight, have been
somewhat repetitive, lacking originality, depth, and
authenticity, which are certainly not a problem for this
author. Santino Hassell is now on my go-to list!
The rules of the game don’t apply off the field in this first Barons novel. New York Barons tight end Gavin Brawley is suspended from the team and on house arrest after a video of him brawling goes viral. Gavin already has a reputation as a jerk with a temper on and off the field—which doesn’t help him once he finds himself on the wrong side of the law. And while he’s been successful professionally, he’s never been lucky when it comes to love. Noah Monroe is a recent college grad looking for a job—any job—to pay off his mounting student debt. Working as Gavin’s personal assistant/babysitter seems like easy money. But Noah isn’t prepared for the electrifying tension between him and the football player. He’s not sure if he’d rather argue with Gavin or tackle him to the floor. But both men know the score, and neither is sure what will happen once Gavin's timeout is over…
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