Like his entire family, Simon revels in living in Melbourne, the home of Australian Rules football and mecca for serious fans. There, players are treated like gods—until they do something to fall out of public favour. This year, the public is taking Declan to task for suffering injuries outside his control, so Simon's support is a bright spot.
But as Simon and Declan fumble toward a relationship, keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret from well-meaning friends and an increasingly suspicious media becomes difficult. Nothing can stay hidden forever. Soon Declan will have to choose between the career he loves and the man he wants, and Simon has never been known to make things easy—for himself or for others.
Comment: This has been one of the m/m books I have had for the longest in the pile. Probably since I've started to be interested in this genre and I have had many recommendations for this book throughout the years. Obviously, this created some expectations.
Simon Murphy is a fan of football and he loves to talk about it which is why he is defending a player, who has had several injuries in the past, at a party he reluctantly attends. What he doesn't know is that the player in question, Declan Tyler, is there as well and hears this, which is how their relationship begins. But there are several obstacles between them, such as physical distance, the fact Declan isn't out and the difficulty to communicate... are these two ready to change something about their lives or will not last?
In this story we meet Simon Murphy, the narrator, someone who is quite lonesome, except for his best friends, couple Roger and Fran, and some people he interacts with related to his job as a film producer for a small company. Simon is a fascinating and complex character, but I have found him to be a bit too distracting, his thoughts are always all over the place and having only his POV made Declan sometimes seem rather inaccessible.
In spite of my personal preferences, I can understand anyway why this book was/is so popular among readers, even more so since it was published in 2009, and its style still holds. At least, I think so. The story is pretty much focused on Simon's struggle to adapt to a relationship and on top of it, with someone in the public eye, especially when he doesn't feel particularly comfortable being exposed too, and when his father and brother aren't close because of him being gay. He isn't mistreated by them, but they don't seem at ease around him anyway either.
Simon is quite complex and this is probably why the book made sense to me, I wanted to see how the new experiences caused by being with Declan would affect him. In this regard, I think the story was too slow in how they went from a first meeting in which they kiss immediately, to think about being a couple, which happened throughout several chapters. But in all this time, there were many thoughts with self doubt, many scenes in which Simon repetitively did and said the same things and I confess I was a little bored.
Things improved for me when they finally agreed they were a couple and when their status as a couple was outed. I think the dynamics of their relationship and even the scenes in which they interacted seemed more vibrant when they had a common element, a situation they had to deal with at the same time. I think this is how I came to care for them as a couple and I've started to feel invested in seeing them get their HEA, but Declan remained a little impersonal to me. I don't think this is a good example of a romance where first person is the best option.
The end is rather predictable, mostly because there are some things that just had to be included but as one can also imagine, there are some elements to add drama and some conflict which, while understandable, made the story drag. I think the story took too long because a good part of the things they had to deal with weren't presented in the best way. I did like the author included realistic situations if an athlete were to come out as gay in a high profile environment and I think the very flawed actions of both Simon and Declan made them seem easy to sympathize with, but... I wanted more romance out of this story.
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