As a translator for pro athletes, Eva Torres is used to dealing with self-interested super stars. But Rio seems different, and she’s blindsided when he locks eyes with her across a church pew. By now, after weeks of close contact with the endearing athlete with whom she shares a language, her thoughts are far from holy. She must remind herself flirtation is probably just his default style. Plus, she’s the only one he can really talk to. But when his ambition threatens to derail his career—and their deepening connection—they’ll both have to lay their hearts on the center line.
Comment: I've had this book to read since 2017 and what probably made it something I'd be interested in reading was the fact the heroine was a translator, something I wanted to see represented since I also got a translation degree and it's always a little thrilling to see similarities between the characters and ourselves. Sadly, this was not an engaging read for me after all.
In this story we meet Rio, a soccer player from Chile who recently got his chance to play in the American league. This means a bigger opportunity for him but he doesn't speak english, so his new club got him a translator, Eva Torres, and he doesn't really mind because she is nice to look at and he understands her, something he appreciates since he feels a little isolated due to the language barrier.
Eva is a woman who recently got into her 30s and she feels the pressure of seeing all her close friends find someone and she is single yet. She seems to be attracted to Rio but considers him to be just one more player, not interested in commitment, something she went through before with another guy in the team. Can they find common ground and find love with one another?
This comment will include spoilers.
Reading blurbs, I have said many times already, can be a misleading tactic, especially since without blurbs some books would not be picked to be read.
The one for this book made me think of two people, sharing some things, being too different in others but who would be put together in a professional capacity and had to work along for both their careers but who wouldn't exactly trust each other immediately. I imagined them getting along with time and finding love. I thought their relationship would be focused more on the professional side of things and love would be impossible to avoid.
My so-so opinion in the first sentences was mildly interested since Rio didn't seem to be such an interesting guy (apart from his vulnerability of not speaking english in an english speaking country) but to be honest, I felt like giving up as soon as we got the heroine's initial inner thoughts where she remembered that on her 30th birthday she felt depressed over her single status and went to a bar, got drunk and slept with a guy almost ten years her junior.
That she did so is not what made me think this was not going to go well but the fact she thought of herself like that. I could see I wouldn't find much to be sympathetic with Eva but her job.
In fact, from this on it as quite a duty I convinced myself of doing and I didn't give up on the book because I thought something good could still happen, after all I was only on the first two or three chapters. Although some interesting situations were presented I think my views were already colored and everything seemed cliché for me, including the angsty moments and the doubts, the reluctance to admit attraction between them, the bliss scenes followed by the conflict and the HEA.
I'd say now things got textbook in any romance novel type of story but I was not focused enough to enjoy it completely.
Eva got on my nerves. I just didn't like where she was in her attitude towards life and her thoughts sometimes felt unfair and not that relatable.
Rio was more interesting but he did act a bit contradictory. I liked his personality, so bubbly so often despite his difficulty to understand what others were saying but then, when thinking of Eva or dealing/interacting with her, he seemed to be placed in the role of alpha and it made me wrinkle my nose at him. All things considered, the romance was only meh.
Rio is a professional soccer player. I'm not any sort of expert but soccer might just be the sport that more European people see or follow and I am one of them since it's the sport I watch the most and whose rules I tend to understand as well.
I was looking for to see the sport portrayed and apart from a specific detail I don't think the focus was that much on the technical details that a non-follower wouldn't understand or would be too bored. The idea was more to showcase Rio's enjoyment and approach to the sport.
However, it did feel very odd indeed to see Eva so often near the pitch to tell things to Rio, or to explain, even during games. Perhaps it depends on the place but I never saw players in the leagues I follow having translators nearby to give them instructions, even in their initial games with a new team, in a country where they never played before. This is secondary in the bigger scheme but... it left me thinking.
Thinking on the book now that a few days have passed just doesn't give me any indication whatsoever. It was not memorable and I don't feel like trying another. I won't say this is bad on itself but the author's style and writing certainly didn't work enough for me.
Grade: 4/10
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