Why 1 Star?
When someone reviews with the words ‘if you liked Kulti, then you’ll love this one’, I actually expect to read something amazing and NEW.
What I don’t expect is a re-write of Kulti and Wait for It.




*****SPOILERS******












In this book the heroine is the coach. The hero is still the antagonist that is a form set super star (athletically). He retired and ended up being drunk all the time. This leads him to leave the retirement and give the up and coming team a chance.
Sounds familiar (hint: KULTI!!)

Then we have the heroine who’s ‘inherited’ her nephew when her brother died (WAIT FOR IT) and at a game, the nephew asks for the hero’s autograph, only to have him be a dickwad to the kid. When the heroine finds out and tells him off, he apologizes by giving the kid a ton of merchandise (KULTI!)

The heroine also has this cricket camp for the kids at her nephew’s school and the hero shows up with his friends and makes the heroine soooo grateful (STILL MOTHER FRICKIN KULTI!)

Oh, but we’re not done!

In the epilogue they are at her nephew’s cricket game and they’re joking about how ‘funny it is that we’re both super good at this sport but both our kids suck at it’....

Now why does this sound familiar?! Hmmm... it wasn’t in a Kulti... No, but it is up on Mariana Zapata’s website as a KULTI outtake/ future scene.

No... just NO!

Tragedy has turned Alyssa's life upside down. After loosing her brother and sister-in-law in an accident and being appointed guardian to her young nephew, Alyssa takes on the job of fitness coach to a top T20 cricket team. Alyssa has given up much in the last year, including the cricket she loves, so this is a way for her to keep some of her former life, but she was not supposed to fall in love the captain of the team. Slowly their relationship developes and they both realise some times there is more to life than cricket.

Over the past year I've become a huge fan of Anna Bloom's stories. She really knows how to capture her audience and keep you turning the pages. Each book that she writes just seems to get better and better. The Game was no exception. Jase 'The Lion' Willis is a god in the cricket world. However his is also an a** and proves that daily. Alyssa Rivers has had her life turned upside down and has taken a job as the fitness coach for the Red Cats cricket team, the very same team The Lion is caption of. These two butt heads on a regular basis until things start to change between them. However, because of the contracts they signed they have to keep their "relationship" a secret. To Alyssa the people she loves becomes more important to her than the game of cricket. To Jase, the game is more important, r is it? These two were fun to read. Their attitude toward each other in public and then in private was so different. You really got to see the amazing man that Jase was away from the public eye. And their connection! When you finally learn about how they are connected to each other and how Jase never forgets... wow. It was a slow burn to them finally getting together, but it was so worth it in the end!

Finally a cricket sport romance! This was was first book by Anna Bloom, a low angst read for me, sexy, sweet and all about my first love-cricket.
I enjoyed this story and read it all in one sitting. Jase is a complex with his own issues buried under his a/hole exterior. And Alyssa is self sacrificing lamb, all for the greater good. I love how this story came full circle and there are so many sweet and memorable points that made my heart swoon. Maybe having and understanding of cricket and my first crushes on cricketers made this story all the more impressionable for me.

4 BOWL ME OVER STARS.

The Game falls into what I’ve come to refer to as my paradoxical reads. These are books that take topics I dislike in real life but positively adore in the bookish world. Reality television and the sporting world make up the bulk of these reads. This is particularly true when it comes to the sport of this book.

I really don’t like cricket. If I were to pick a sport, I’d take rugby any day. Cricket is right up there with golf on my list of sports I’m not interested in list. Nevertheless, as I’ve enjoyed quite a few baseball reads I decided I would give a cricket book a read. After all, it was only fair of me to read a book set in the sporting world on my side of the pond.

Not to mention, I’ve recently become a big fan of Anna Bloom. I love her Truth About Love stories, super excited for the next one, and I decided if anyone could make cricket interesting it would be Anna Bloom. After all, the synopsis alone was interesting – I was hopeful the rest of the book would grab my attention just as much.

It turns out that the book was even more than I’d anticipated. Whilst cricket is the backdrop to the story, you do not need to know or like the sport to enjoy this story. In many ways, you could substitute cricket to any sport – all that would change is the specific details of the sporting world. I’m oversimplifying to the extreme, I admit, but I’m merely trying to highlight how this isn’t a cricket book with romance rather it is a romance book with cricket.

As I’ve come to expect from Anna Bloom, this book was thoroughly addictive. From the very first page, you’re pulled into the story, addicted, unable to put it down. It was one of those wonderful stories that begged me to read it in a single sitting, despite how I didn’t start my reading until the early hours of the morning. Sleep took second place to finding out how this story played out. I needed answers. I needed to see how everything came together.

This book has so many elements – enemies to lovers, past ghosts, finding oneself, to name a few – and each element is woven together so beautifully. Everything links back to a gripping story, told through wonderful characters. If forced to choose what I loved more – the amazing storyline or the brilliant characters – I would be unable to do so, because this book hit all the spots. If I knew cricket lingo I would crack some kind of joke regarding it being a high scorer (I want to say it’s a sixer, but I fear I’m wrong here).

Honestly, this is a prime example of Anna Bloom’s work. It is wonderful, and I cannot wait to pick up even more of her work. I have a couple on my Kindle I have yet to read, but I know they won’t last me long – as soon as I’m done, I’ll be eagerly anticipating her next release. If you’ve yet to pick up an Anna Bloom book, I would certainly recommend this one.

Ever if, like me, you’re not a fan of cricket (or even sports), this book is wonderfully gripping and well worth the read.