Collette West has always caused me to take a second glance at baseball and I have fallen in love with the New York Kings all over again! Inside Game is a fresh story that deals with one of the many hidden dangers of professional athletes and brings back all our favorites from the series. This book is one for sports fans and romance readers alike! Check out more about the book, check out Tina’s Thoughts, and enter the giveaway to celebrate this blog tour and great book!
Inside GameCollette West
Genre: Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: July 10, 2015
Third baseman Drake Schultz is the undisputed bad boy of the New York Kings. So it’s no surprise when Major League Baseball suspends him for taking performance-enhancing drugs. Furious with their superstar, the front office issues an ultimatum: either work with their sober companion or kiss the rest of his quarter-billion-dollar contract goodbye. Cocky and arrogant, Drake resists being saddled with a live-in babysitter—even one he’s insanely attracted to.
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Inside Game by Collette West takes a look at a completely different side of baseball that many try to hide. When I realized this book was about Drake Schultz, I was so excited. He is the hated player on the team, the ultimate bad boy of bas ball, and I had a feeling the animosity wasn’t always there. I wondered what triggered his role and what his story was. Well, that man’s story is full of heartache and bad decisions, ones that was beginning to destroy his life and career. This book takes a look at the hidden scandals, the choices a man makes, and the woman who fights for him.
Drake Schultz… This man is the one that everyone loves to hate and the only people who liked him at all were the people who wanted something from him. His role to many professional athletes as supplier of sports enhancement drugs is the definition of who he is but it takes someone special to show that he is more than baseball and drugs. Eva is his superior in so many ways. She gives as well as she takes. She is compassionate, considerate, and determined to bring Drake back to where he once was and show him a life of sobriety is one that is worth being clean for. When you put these two together it is high stress, high emotion, and full of ups and downs.
This book touches on some sensitive subjects that I haven’t seen much of in sports romance books. So often in life we hear scandals of organizations attempting to cover up drug use and then outing people involved and drama ensues. Inside Game takes a look at the other side: the one where the athlete must make a decision to be sober or leave the game. Collette West does a great job of showing that situation. Drake is addicted and has to make daily choices to fight his addiction in order to come back to what he loves most of all: baseball. When more about his haunted past comes to light, the reader begins to piece together his past hurt and his coping mechanisms that lead him to this low place in the present. This book could be so heavy and depressing when truth comes out about all parties involved, but instead Collette weaves this story with hope. Eva embodies that quality. She is hopeful when it seems like that is the last thing you could possible see in a situation.
The relationship between these two is wonderful. There is an undeniable chemistry between them but there is so much more. Eva is first and foremost his sober companion. Her goal is to bring him to a place of acceptance and change. Drake doesn’t make it easy but finds himself wanting to be good for her. His fear of disappointment is a huge factor in his steps to a new life but in the end it is the decision for him to want a new life for himself, a life he never thought possible filled with love of a woman and his children and love of the game, that is the deciding factor. It is a love story but above all it is the story of a man finding who he is and taking the steps to embrace it. I appreciated that the story was a bit different than I expected and such a story of triumph and bittersweet life.
To celebrate the release and blog tour of Inside Game, Collette West is hosting a fun giveaway! For your chance to win a New York Kings T-shirt jersey (reader’s choice of Drake, Scott, Jilly, Brooks or Chase) – US only OR a signed paperback of Inside Game – US only OR $10 Amazon gift card – International, enter this Rafflecopter giveaway and follow the instructions listed! That is all you need to do to be entered for your chance to win one of these awesome prizes. Don’t miss out! Good luck!
Collette West grew up as somewhat of a jock-nerd hybrid. Entering the world three weeks premature, her dad nearly missed her birth because he had seats behind the dugout for a sold-out, highly-anticipated match-up between two of baseball’s biggest rivals. Not to be outdone, her book-loving mom taught her how to read by the time she was three. A love of the game coupled with an appreciation for the written word were instilled in Collette’s impressionable brain from a young age. No wonder her characters believe in the philosophy: sports + romance = a little slice of heaven.
Splitting her time between the Pocono Mountains and Manhattan, Collette indulges her inner fangirl by going to as many games as she can from hockey to baseball and downloading every sports romance novel in existence onto her iPad. When she’s not clicking away on her laptop, she enjoys walking her dog in Central Park, satisfying her caffeine craving at the Starbucks on Broadway and keeping an eye out for Mr. Right. But above all, she loves dishing with her readers. Email her at collette_west@yahoo.com.
She is the author of NIGHT GAMES, GAME CHANGER and GAME ON.