A-Z Challenge Review: Offside by Ryan Loveless

Why I bought the book: Two reasons.  Firstly I had no O books in my TBR pile, and secondly, I'd read a really great short story, Off the Page, by this author so when I saw that she'd written this O book, then it seemed a good reason to buy.

Plot: The story is set in the world of football (or soccer to those across the pond who felt they had to change the perfectly legitimate name of a sport because it clashed with their own American football) where our rather big-headed hero, Adam, is transferred from super-club Galaxy to St Louis, who seems to be a mid-low league club.  Adam is openly gay, and although he has had the support of his club, it's still tough for him at times  When he arrives in St Louis, he meets fellow striker Colin, who he finds rather attractive.  Mistaking Colin's friendly nature for come-on, Adam  makes his move, only to be rebuffed.  This innocent mistake is a catalyst for Colin to reassess his own sexuality.

Now I have to admit that even though the whole of the UK is completely football mad, I don't really follow it. Hub made sure I had a good understanding of the off-side rule so I wouldn't embarrass him with my total ignorance and I do watch some of the more exciting matches when the World or European cup is taking place.  This meant I had a decent understanding of the parts of the book which explained some of the games - don't worry if you're not keen on long descriptions of football matches, there was only a few pages on this in the book.  My knowledge of the British/European football transfer system is very sketchy, but I knew enough to know that some of the situations which happened in this book wouldn't have taken place under our football rules.  It was interesting to read about the frustrations of the US transfer system, and I suppose it also seemed odd that some of the top strikers were being transferred for so little money when over here good strikers get million pound transfers.

Characters: The main story though is the way that Adam's presence in Colin's life forces him to accept that he's gay, and on the whole this aspect worked well in the story.  Part of me wishes I'd been able to see some of the book from Colin's perspective because Adam is rather self-centred at times and a little oblivious to the feelings of others.  His 'bulldozer' approach to getting Colin to think about his sexuality made me cringe a little and a few times I wanted to slap Adam for being so insensitive.  I wanted to see Colin's thoughts and the soul searching that must have gone on with the decisions he makes but unfortunately we only get to see the results, not the process.  What did work was the way the author portrayed the various management and team members who make up life with a football club.  The Australian goalie, Michaels, and mid-field player, Logan, especially stick in my mind for their contribution to the story and support to Adam.

Overall:  It was an interesting challenge to set a gay man in such a high profile sport, although I have to remember that soccer is still in its infancy in the USA, whereas it's a megabucks industry here in the UK.  I liked that theme of being gay and relatively famous was dealt with in the way that the public responded to Adam, and later to Colin.  This isn't a gaytopia where everything is suddenly peachy for these guys and I sympathised with some of Adam's reactions when he's confronted with homophobia.

I have to admit that I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I'm not always keen on sports themed romances but with Offside I thought that the author had given us a good balance between romance and drama, keeping the story firmly grounded in romance but still having enough of the sport theme to keep the interest and provide a fully realised setting.  The writing has a good flow to it and the characters are well rounded.  The slight antagonism I felt for Adam at the beginning melted away as he redeemed himself by the end and I was happy with the way the book ended.  I'm giving Offside a grade of 'Very Good' and I shall keep an eye out for more from this author.

Buy this book HERE.