For Kicks Black Lyon Publishing

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Author: Jenna Bayley-Burke
Publisher: Black Lyon Publishing

REVIEW:

Assistant store manager Breeze Cohen has a long-term life plan. She’s set her sights on becoming the youngest ever store manager in her company’s history. Her drive to succeed was instilled in her by her workaholic grandmother, who’s just been retired from the Mendelssohn’s senior staff. Breeze eats, breathes and sleeps her job, and doesn’t see anything wrong with what she’s doing. She hasn’t seen her family for years and can’t remember when she last went on a date.

Logan Chandler is an ex-soccer player turned brand manager for Nitrous Kicks, a special brand of sports shoe aimed at the soccer market. He’s in town to ensure that Mendelssohn’s, which has an exclusive deal with Kicks, is placing the product to its best advantage. When he discovers that the only staff member with the knowledge to deal with Kicks is Breeze, at first he’s pleased by her professionalism – but then he realises just how much her work is ruling her life.

As they work together during a whirlwind tour of several states, Logan coaxes Breeze out of her rigid, self-imposed discipline and teaches her to live a little. But what starts out as a challenge for Logan quickly becomes something more – but can Breeze take that final step and shake off her inner career woman for the sake of true love?

This is one of those ’slow burn’ books that starts off apparently going in one direction and then the heart of the story sneaks up when you least expect it. The author clearly has a background – or at least considerable background knowledge – of working in retail. The first chapter read more like a corporate report than a romance, and my attention started to wander. Too much unnecessary trivia bogs down the all-important introduction to the hero and heroine, and while I’m all for realism and scene-setting detail, it’s laid on too thickly here.

Having said that, the story really picks up after the initial couple of chapters. At first I really wasn’t sure if I’d keep going with it, but soon I was hooked by the cat-and-mouse game of seduction between Breeze and Logan. I liked the quirky character traits like Breeze’s addiction to utilising every second of her spare time with flash cards and kits. The Tarot, self-help books, astrology, reflexology… all of them are used by Logan to woo her.

I’ve lost count of how many love scenes I’ve read over the years, so it’s always nice to find a book where the love scenes catch my interest and really stand out. With this book, the phone sex scene was one of the better ones I’ve read in a long time.

It took a while for Logan to open up as a character, and similarly with Breeze I couldn’t fully empathise with her. In her workaholic attitude and failure at hitting a sensible work/life balance she reminded me a lot of one of my best friends. Sometimes I want to bang my friend’s head against a wall to make her see sense. I wanted to do the same with Breeze. So, while I couldn’t empathise with her, I did want to *help* her – and this is really what the story is about – making the time for a ‘real life’ rather than a ‘work life’.

After a somewhat shaky start, I found myself enjoying this book and rooting for Logan to overcome Breeze’s inhibitions. Ms Bayley-Burke demonstrates fine potential with For Kicks and I look forwards to her future work.