Review: Taking A Shot by Jaci Burton

Taking A Shot
Book 3 in the Play By Play series
Author: Jaci Burton
Publisher:  Berkley Trade
Genre:  Erotic Romance
ISBN: 9780425245521
Release date: 3/6/12
Author's website: Link

If you want to score, you have to get in the game...

The last thing Jenna Riley needs is more sports in her life. While her brothers are off being athletic superstars, she's stuck running the family's sports bar, whether she likes it or not. Then in walks pro hockey stud Tyler Anderson. As much as Jenna would like to go to the boards with him, she's vowed to never fall for a jock-even one as hot as Ty.

Ty, intrigued by the beautiful bar owner, becomes a regular. He senses that Jenna wants to do something more with her life. And as he gains her trust, the passion between them grows, as does Ty's insistence that Jenna should start living for herself. With his encouragement, Jenna starts to believe it, too...

But first, Jenna has to figure out what she wants, what she needs, who she loves, and if she has the passion and pride to take a shot at having it all-including Ty...

In book 3 of the series we get the chance to see a little more into the life of the youngest sibling of the Riley family, Jenna.  She runs the family's popular bar and is proud to do so, but there's something that she's always dreamed of doing and has never shared that with anyone.  When Tyler Anderson enters her life she finds that he's easy going and easy to talk to.  He's an acquaintance of the family and they're both attracted to one another.  Jenna doesn't give in right away when it comes to going out on a date with Tyler but when she eventually does, she enjoys his company and let's him in on what she really wants to do with her life. Tyler encourages Jenna to take that first step into achieving her dream while providing support and giving her the confidence that she needs.

I enjoyed reading about Jenna and Tyler's relationship as it progressed through the book.  Tyler's character is probably one of the nicest and supportive male characters that I have read in a book in a while.  Because of that there wasn't a lot of drama in the book between him and Jenna until she felt that he was making her do something that she didn't want.  This wasn't the case of course, but was just Jenna's fear of taking a big step and changing her life. Their characters were perfect for one another as they seemed to have the same interests and were sexually compatible.  One of things that I enjoy most with Jaci Burton's books is the hot sex scenes and although there were plenty of hot ones in this book, I thought there were just too many.  I know that may seem weird coming from this self-professed smut lover, but I couldn't help but feel that the author was trying to make the feeling of this book feel sexier and edgier with some of the sex scenes.  I always enjoyed quality when it came to love scenes, not quantity and for me it was just too much.

I'm giving Taking A Shot a rating of:

Although I mainly enjoyed reading Taking A Shot, I feel that it just didn't contain the same excitement and sexiness that the first 2 books in the series had.  I'm pretty sure it's because the main characters of the series have been established already and I've got a pretty good feel for all of them.  In all honesty I don't know if I'll be as interested in reading the future books in this series as I have been with the ones that have already been released.  But I am curious to see where the series is headed next and to see what sport the books will be about.