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A review by echoesoutloud
Center Court by Brooke Edwards
4.0
Center Court was the story of tennis players Soren Norgaard and Elias Engstrom. Elias has been in love with Soren since the first time he saw him when they were still teenagers. But Soren has been in a relationship with another player, Matisse, since then, so Elias suppresses his feelings and works on being the best friend he can be to Soren. Since they're both tennis players and they joined the circuit around the same time, they spend a lot of time together and have developed a solid friendship throughout the years.
When Soren's relationship starts to turn toxic and leads to a devastating break up, he spirals. Elias stays by his side and helps him recover and find his place in life again without Matisse. When Elias confesses his feelings to Soren, things change between them. Soren starts to reconsider a lot of things in his life and starts to see Elias in a new light.
There were a lot of really good things about this book. This was a true sports novel with intricate details about the actual sport and tennis is pretty much the third main character in this book. It can get intense at times, but I really liked that level of detail.
The friendships in this book were pretty amazing too! Being that they were all tennis players, there's still that competitive spirit, but they also truly support one another, by constantly showing up at one another's matches, practicing with each other, and truly feeling each others losses and wins, even if it's against one another.
Now onto the actual romance, there were some issues I had with it. Soren had been in a relationship with Matisse for about ten years, and even though their problems weren't sudden, but building for a while, it still felt like he moved on really fast. Also, the fact that Elias confessed his feelings when Soren was still recovering mentally, physically and emotionally wasn't that great, but I like that they didn't force anything but took their time with it.
This was very much a slow burn in terms of actual romance and was very low heat. One thing that I really liked about their romance was the way the author managed to capture certain emotions really well, like that feeling of giddiness when you're first starting out in a relationship, or that anticipation and excitement of wanting to see the other person the second they're gone, even after spending a prolonged amount of time with them!
There was a small stalker plot that played a minor role in the second half of the book and it could have been removed entirely. It just added a lot of confusion and almost managed to lower my entire rating for this book.
This book was a slow burn, friends to lovers, sports romance that was light and sweet, and if that's something you're looking for, then I'd definitely recommend it!
Full review at https://echoesoutloud.wordpress.com/2021/07/04/review-center-court-by-brooke-edwards/
*I received a copy of this book from Gay Romance Reviews, and this is my honest review.*
When Soren's relationship starts to turn toxic and leads to a devastating break up, he spirals. Elias stays by his side and helps him recover and find his place in life again without Matisse. When Elias confesses his feelings to Soren, things change between them. Soren starts to reconsider a lot of things in his life and starts to see Elias in a new light.
There were a lot of really good things about this book. This was a true sports novel with intricate details about the actual sport and tennis is pretty much the third main character in this book. It can get intense at times, but I really liked that level of detail.
The friendships in this book were pretty amazing too! Being that they were all tennis players, there's still that competitive spirit, but they also truly support one another, by constantly showing up at one another's matches, practicing with each other, and truly feeling each others losses and wins, even if it's against one another.
Now onto the actual romance, there were some issues I had with it. Soren had been in a relationship with Matisse for about ten years, and even though their problems weren't sudden, but building for a while, it still felt like he moved on really fast. Also, the fact that Elias confessed his feelings when Soren was still recovering mentally, physically and emotionally wasn't that great, but I like that they didn't force anything but took their time with it.
This was very much a slow burn in terms of actual romance and was very low heat. One thing that I really liked about their romance was the way the author managed to capture certain emotions really well, like that feeling of giddiness when you're first starting out in a relationship, or that anticipation and excitement of wanting to see the other person the second they're gone, even after spending a prolonged amount of time with them!
There was a small stalker plot that played a minor role in the second half of the book and it could have been removed entirely. It just added a lot of confusion and almost managed to lower my entire rating for this book.
This book was a slow burn, friends to lovers, sports romance that was light and sweet, and if that's something you're looking for, then I'd definitely recommend it!
Full review at https://echoesoutloud.wordpress.com/2021/07/04/review-center-court-by-brooke-edwards/
*I received a copy of this book from Gay Romance Reviews, and this is my honest review.*