I am Team Santino all the way! There is so much to love about this vulnerable sexy Italian as he reconnects with Tilly Logan, our Scottish heroine, after being apart for five years. Replay by Amy Daws is the perfect title for these second chance lovers and a must read if you love sports rom coms with all the feels.
Although a stand-alone, I do encourage you to read Blindsided first where Tilly’s brother, Mac, a professional footballer, and his best friend, Freya, find love. They are prominently featured in Replay as Tilly returns to London to live with them while Freya is pregnant and put on bed rest. While utilizing her business degree to help her sister-in-law with her pet clothing business, she gets offered a dream job, and starts to think that maybe it’s time that she stops running and faces her fears and the one man who understood her like no other.
This book was so addicting; I read it in one day. Couldn’t stop reading. It was filled with so many emotions as Tilly opens up to Santino, an attorney for pro European football club Bethnal Green, about her past and how much she has changed. I admired her so much, especially wanting to be a better person and realizing the damage her behavior was doing to her emotionally and physically. Santino was also harboring a deep secret and it took the love of a good woman to finally give him the peace and acceptance he was longing for.
These two had an undeniable connection, but it wasn’t the right time or place for them back then, and I liked that things weren’t easy for them when they reconnected. They had to have patience, fight for their happily ever after, bare their souls, and realize what they wanted out of life and what they were willing to share to get there. Their relationship had so much passion, and I loved how he went out of his way to plan such very thoughtful dates. Santino is one big sexy sweet swoonfest.
Amy’s writing includes the perfect combination of friendship, family, careers, sad times, and plenty of good fun, wit, romance, and steamy times. Her characters are very real and relatable and will have you quickly invested in their families, their hearts and their happily ever afters.
It’s obvious this author does her research before publishing a book as her use of terms and words used in other cultures fit into the storyline perfectly. Both Santino and Tilly experienced tremendous character growth throughout every page, and I loved how overprotective Mac embraced and welcomed him into the family and how he could admit that he was wrong. He and Freya are always such a hoot and I laughed out loud many times at their interactions, even during the birth of their son.
If this is the first time you are reading this series, no worries, the author does a fabulous job bringing everyone up to speed on the entire Harris clan without it seeming obvious. I did read and loved every book and was so excited to get glimpses of this wonderful family and where they are now. And to think there is more to come! Wait until you read the last line in Replay! Can’t wait for Sweeper. Surprise. Surprise.