Review: Can’t Take the Heat – Locklyn Marx

Can’t Take the Heat by Locklyn Marx
Series:  Brooklyn Heat #1
Release Date:  March 31, 2011
Publisher:
Page Count:  150
Source:  Free lend from Lendle user

Journalist Alyssa Cotler can’t believe her luck when she scores the assignment of a lifetime – spending a week with the major league baseball team, The Brooklyn Heat. Her objective? Write about the team and let America in on the inner workings of professional sports.

Notorious bad boy shortstop Jay Havens is in trouble. Big time. Ticket sales are down, and everyone’s blaming Jay. With his partying ways being public knowledge, and his trysts appearing in the papers daily, he’s not exactly family friendly.

When Jay gets an ultimatum from the team’s owner –shape up or ship out – he knows he needs some good PR. And what better way than to befriend the reporter sent to write about the team? He’ll impress Alyssa, and get her to write good things about him.

Except that Alyssa’s onto his game. And she’s determined not to let Jay’s infamous charm influence her. She’s come to do a job, and she’s going to tell the truth. No matter what.

But Alyssa doesn’t count on just how hot Jay can be. And Jay doesn’t count on the fact that he might just be falling in love… 

Jay Haven is the bad boy of the Brooklyn Heat.  He’s gotten some bad press lately, so the team had taken on a journalist in hopes of getting some much needed good press for both Jay and the team.  Problem is, when Jay meet Alyssa Cotler, the journalist writing the columns on the team, he’s less than professional.  That results in Alyssa writing a column that is honest in her interaction with Jay, but doesn’t paint him as a stellar individual.

Alyssa is trying to prove herself with this assignment, but Jay Haven keeps sidetracking her.  Sure, she wrote that first column after he was way over-the-top with her, but whenever she gets near Jay she feels a pull to him.  Even after she promised her editor that she would not fraternize with the players, she finds herself having a late night “swim” with Jay.  But even after that, he leaves her wondering if Jay’s like her ex and will engulf her in everything Jay or if she can really have it all.

This book was pretty good until it abruptly ended.  Jay and Alyssa had spent the night together and then there was some big trouble that just erupted.  Then, with practically two short paragraphs, we were at the epilogue and everything was nice and tidy.  I’m not sure if the author had a hard stop on the page count or what happened, but it was very disappointing to finally get engaged with this couple to have it end the way it did.  That took away from the entire story and ultimately resulted in the low rating.