Bending the Rules: a sports forbidden romance

 Bending the Rules by Mariah Dietz is the first book in the Dating Playbook series. It started with a crush. Raegan Lawson crushed on her older brother’s football teammate, Lincoln Beckett for two years. Realizing that a relationship wasn’t going to happen, she starts her freshman year of college with a list of rules including a rule against dating Lincoln. Lincoln Beckett aka President is the star wide receiver at Brighton University. Smart, funny and devilishly handsome that leaves behind a string of broken hearts. An added strike against Lincoln is he is her brother’s best friend. However, despite her rules and the obvious stay away warning from her brother, Raegan and Lincoln are drawn to each other. Will it be worth it to bend the rules? Or will she be left with a broken heart? 

Bending the Rules popped up on my newsfeed and I was intrigued. I love a good football, forbidden romance story. Added bonus, it was free with Prime Reading! I eagerly dove into this story and sadly, I was disappointed. It took so long to get to the romance that it was underwhelming. Raegan and Lincoln were flat as characters and I didn’t care enough to see them finally get together. Also, there were a lot of scenes with Raegan at her job at the aquarium or in her classes which outweigh her interactions with Lincoln. Lincoln supposedly has a painful past that influences his love ‘em and leave ’em reputation but it wasn’t explored to help him be sympathetic. Overall, I’ve read better sports romances and I will not be continuing this series. I do not recommend Bending the Rules. 

Bending the Rules is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook