Book Review: Red Card (The Black Jack Gentlemen #2) by Liz Crowe

Title: Red Card (Black Jack Gentlemen #2)
Author: Liz Crowe
Published: August 14th 2013 by Tri-Destiny Publishing
Format: Ebook
This book was provided to me via Netgalley through RockStar PR
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads

Free will makes us human.
Choice makes us individuals.
Love makes us unique. 

Metin Sevim has it all. At the pinnacle of international soccer playing success, he has managed to craft a perfect world for himself along the way.

When fate strips him of free will and the ability to choose his own path, he retreats from everyone and everything, destroying his hard-won career in the process.

Dragged back from the brink by his desperate family, Metin reluctantly agrees to coach the Black Jack Gentlemen Detroit soccer team but remains debilitated by memories and loss. When a surprising friendship emerges, it renews his passion for life, providing much needed solace… and extreme complications.

A saga of family dynamics and gender politics that cuts across cultures and circumstance, Red Card illustrates the human capacity for forgiveness through the life of one man as he attempts to rebuild his shattered existence.

MY REVIEW

Once again Liz Crowe has done it! Red Card is a book that will leave you in an emotional wringer. I went through a whole range of emotions from frustration to happiness to sadness. There were tears and laughter and I literally flitted from one emotion the next within minutes. 

Metin, a famous soccer player, and Alicia, a woman who dreams of play professional soccer, are both compelling and captivating characters and bring their own unique flair to the book. Both characters are well developed and very realistic it's as if you know them personally. 

When these two meet, the attraction is instantaneous and then Metin befalls a tragedy that leaves him picking up the pieces of his life and starting again. Alicia is there to help.

Liz Crowe challenges her readers to feel and also breaks out of the 'norms' and writes what she wants to portray. Her first book in this series was a M/M book, Man On, that broke the silence of gay athletes. Now she is showing the differences between men and women in athletics while also telling readers that they DO NOT have to be stick thin to be beautiful. I love how Liz Crowe speaks up for the underdog, so to speak. 

I really enjoyed the plot and characters and the message Crowe manages to speak within the pages.

★★★★

This book counts as COYER Scavenger Hunt #18 - Read a book with the word RED in the title.