Review: All Lined Up (Rusk University #1) by Cora Carmack
It’s no secret that myself and my BookCrushin cohort Kelly are huge Cora Carmack fans. Her Losing It series is one of my fave’s of all time. Read on to see how her newest series compares.
All Lined Up by Cora Carmack
Publication: May 13th, 2014
Purchase: Amazon
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack follows up her trio of hits—Losing It, Faking It, and Finding It—with this thrilling first novel in an explosive series bursting with the Texas flavor, edge, and steamy romance of Friday Night Lights.
In Texas, two things are cherished above all else—football and gossip. My life has always been ruled by both.
Dallas Cole loathes football. That’s what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers, and put the playing field (and the players) in her past.
But life doesn’t always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football star ex wasn’t bad enough, her father, a Texas high school coaching phenom, has decided to make the jump to college ball… as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again.
Carson McClain is determined to go from second-string quarterback to the starting line-up. He needs the scholarship and the future that football provides. But when a beautiful redhead literally falls into his life, his focus is more than tested. It’s obliterated.
Dallas doesn’t know Carson is on the team. Carson doesn’t know that Dallas is his new coach’s daughter.
And neither of them know how to walk away from the attraction they feel.
Review
[book rating=4.5/5.0]After devouring the Losing It series I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next series by my boo Cora Carmack. The problem? When I read the description, it’s an NA on a college campus, revolving around football and JOCKS, I immediately pushed it down my TBR list. HUGE mistake. While I will admit I’m not into football, and my idea of a hot male lead involves bad boys with tattoos, versus hot bodied dudes in sweatpants, I learned you can’t judge a book by its cover or in this case its description.
From the very minute that fiery redhead Dallas Cole meets Carson Mclain I was hooked. It may of had something to do with the epically hot circumstances under which they met, but no spoilers here. I also love when books focus on dual view points. Getting to be inside both characters heads really added a unique perspective and as a reader I appreciated that.
Although Carson was a jock, his dedication, integrity, and ok yes, his sexy smile and hot abs were enough to suck me and and have me cheering louder than a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader for him. Although my vision of Carson’s face for some reason kept going to Philip Phillips (it’s his smile and dimples) ultimately I think this works just fine for his body. And Dallas? Where do I begin with her? She’s a total firecracker and on top of that an elegant dancer and someone that is able to go toe to toe with her intimidating father, who just so happens to be the coach of the Rusk University football team. For her character I really saw actress Galadriel Stineman.
I loved reading how Dallas and Carson’s relationship unfolded. They were like two flames coming together to ignite. This book gave me more than a few scenes that had my stomach doing the swoosh thing. Through it all everything just seemed so real. While the romance was hot, it wasn’t rushed and everything was paced out nicely, which provides the ultimate pay off (sexual tension my friends). The supporting cast of characters were equally charming. Dallas’s BFF Stella, in particular, gave me more than a few laughs in this book (can’t wait for her book to come out!). I am so happy I gave All Lined Up a chance, if they had these football players when I was in college, I may not have graduated.
I’ve already moved on to the next book in the series, All Broke Down, and if Silas is anywhere near as awesome as Carson, you can bet it will be featured here.
I have a feeling this series, may actually take the mantel from Losing It as my new fave NA series, but I’m still not watching football.
