Winter Ball

Title: Winter Ball

Author: Amy Lane

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Publishers URL: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

ISBN/BIN: 9781623808983

Genre: {M/M}, Contemporary, Holiday          

Rating: 4.5 Nymphs

Literary Nymph Reviewer: Critter Nymph

Skip coaches and plays for one of the many local rec soccer teams.  The team isn’t very good, but it gives Skip the chance to form ties with others.  Along the way, he becomes close with Richie and his feelings grow into something more than what he ever thought he would find.

Winter Ball is another well done story by author Amy Lane.  Ms. Lane brings the readers two characters that they are sure to like right from the get go.  Skipper Keith is an IT expert for a local company.  In his spare time, he plays in a recreational soccer league. He likes the group of guys he plays with but has no plans of telling any of them that he is gay.  Richie is also a member of the soccer team and Skip’s best friend.  It’s not unusual for the two of them to spend time together, but both of them are shocked when their relationship goes from friends to lovers. 

I loved the way the author brings these two together.  Their first time is unexpected and shocks both of them, but that first time forms a bond between the two men that is so strong that it can only go forward.  I liked that rather than run scared, Richie and Skip work hard to spend more time with each other to see what it is that they feel for each other.  While the relationship between the two men goes smoothly, it is outside forces that try to cause problems. 

There are many secondary characters in Winter Ball that play important roles in the story.  There is Carpenter, a co-worker of Skip’s, who becomes a good friend as well as a great addition to the soccer team.  I loved the Thanksgiving that Skip spent with Carpenter’s family.  There are the members on the rec team.  Most of them turn out to be good friends, however, there are a couple that leave a lot to be desire.  Then there is Richie’s family.  Let’s just say that there is a reason why Richie denied a side of himself for so long.

Like all of Ms. Lane’s books, Winter Ball was a story I could not put down.  I loved the way the author pulled me into the world she created and could not wait to see how the story would play out.  I will be re-reading this book again many times.