Review: Rush Me by Allison Parr

Goodreads Summary:

When post-grad Rachael Hamilton accidentally gatecrashes a pro-athlete party, she ends up face-to-face with Ryan Carter, the NFL’s most beloved quarterback.

While most girls would be thrilled to meet the attractive young millionaire, Rachael would rather spend time with books than at sporting events, and she has more important things to worry about than romance. Like her parents pressuring her to leave her unpaid publishing internship for law school. Or her brother, who’s obliviously dating Rachael’s high school bully. Or that same high school’s upcoming reunion.

Still, when Ryan’s rookie teammate attaches himself to Rachael, she ends up cohosting Friday night dinners for half a dozen football players.
Over pancake brunches, charity galas, and Alexander the Great Rachael realizes all the judgments she’d made about Ryan are wrong. But how can a Midwestern Irish-Catholic jock with commitment problems and an artsy, gun-shy Jewish New Englander ever forge a partnership? Rachael must let down her barriers if she wants real love–even if that opens her up to pain that could send her back into her emotional shell forever.

Publication Date: April 8, 2013

What a fun and cute romance! Rush Me has reignited my love for sports themed romances and I’m eager to read the rest of the books in the series. I loved the normal everyday girl and famous football angle and despite the angst of the main character, I was hoping for a happy ending between Rachel and Ryan.

Rachel was a very neurotic main character, but although she’s quirky, I still liked her. She felt real and I loved her cluelessness regarding football. NFL quarterback Ryan strays far from the artsy type of guy she usually goes for. They pretty much start fighting from the moment they meet and a dislike for one another transforms into romantic feelings.

Ryan was swoonworthy. Movie star characters in books never do it for me, but throw in a football player and I’m melting. He comes off as very arrogant at first, but I loved him by the end. I liked how Rachel was able to peel back the layers and see Ryan was much more than a “dumb jock.”

The romance was tumultuous and a few of the characters’ fights were a little over the top. This was one of those books where I felt like the underlying message was be yourself and true love will follow. In reality, I kept thinking a catch like Ryan would drop Rachel in a hot minute. But Rachel works through a lot of her issues and she seemed to grow a lot in the last third of the book.

The writing was good and I liked the secondary characters a lot, especially Rachel’s roommate and Abe. I hope to see more of the football players in subsequent books. A few subplots could’ve been trimmed, but I thought a few of them were cute like the musical Pride and Prejudice. Overall, a cute and angsty contemporary romance I’d highly recommend.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this novel for review!