Review: The Game Changer

The Game Changer by Megan Ryder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For someone who knows nothing about baseball (I’m British, the amount of questions I have relating to the sport is ridiculous), I really enjoy a good sports romance involving said sport. In fact, quite often I find myself enjoying a good romance that involves aspects of life I know nothing about or do not enjoy in other contexts. Thus, I was more than happy to jump into The Game Changer.

I was a little bit tentative at first, as it’s the third book in the Knights of Passion series, yet this soon passed when I realised the book works perfectly fine as a standalone novel. I want to go on and read the other books in the series – I have been pulled into the world, and I want to know more – but my enjoyment of this story was not diminished in any way through having not read the prior books. How this one compares to the other books, I cannot say; however, if the other books are as enjoyable as this one, I’m positive I’ll adore the series and have yet another sports romance series to be keeping on top of.

The Game Changer is more than a simple baseball romance, giving us all we expect from any contemporary romance read through bringing in multiple aspects. The baseball aspect is just one aspect of the story. In addition to the baseball aspect, we have dysfunctional families and wonderful dog tales. What more could you want? Those two things are always wonderful when thrown into a romance story. Dysfunctional families promise a lot of drama, leaving us hopeful of interesting interactions. Dogs… well, dogs are dogs and they’re always welcome in such stories.

Honestly, the dogs. It’s not just a simple canine friendship: the animal aspect of the story has real depth. We’re given an insight into animal rescue shelters and it’s so well done. It’s more than just a way to bring about interaction between the characters – this part of the story has real emotion behind it. Within no time at all, I was wanting to take the dogs into my arms and proclaim them as my own. It’s always wonderful when stories take such elements and make them real, rather than leaving them as a simple way to connect the two characters. I really could go on for quite some time about the dogs – but I won’t. I’ll just leave you to enjoy that aspect without any more prattling on from me.

As much as I enjoyed the animals, I also had a lot of fun with the characters. I loved the way their story developed, pulling me in as I hoped for the best. Whilst it wasn’t as charged as some romances, and whilst the tension wasn’t quite as high as it sometimes is in such stories, this made for a sweet little read. It has the necessities to keep you engaged, it pulls you in, and it plays with your emotions. It does all that good romance novels need to do without being overly complex. In other words, it’s a great quick read if you want something that hits the spot without requiring too much by way of attention.

A great read, one that has certainly left me wanting to read more of the series. As my first Megan Ryder book, it’s certainly left me willing to read more of her work.

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