Review: Changing The Game by Jaci Burton

Most people play by the rules. Gavin and Liz aren't most people...

Win at any cost. That's always been the mantra of sports agent Liz Darnell. When she carries things too far and risks losing her number-one client, baseball pro Gavin Riley, Liz realizes that she'll have to work extra innings to win him back. It might not be too much of a stretch. She's had a thing for this player's moves since she first laid eyes on him, and by the looks of it, he wants her just as bad.

Gavin's more than ready—especially when Liz is offering herself as part of the bargain. And as much of her as Gavin wants. For added thrills, he decides to throw a little curve ball Liz's way to see just how far she's truly willing to go to keep him as a client. But when love unexpectedly enters the playing field, neither Liz nor Gavin are ready for the biggest game-changer of them all.

Last year, The Perfect Play was exactly the kind of book I needed to read at exactly the right moment.  When I discovered Changing the Game featured Elizabeth "Liz" Darnell, the antagonist of The Perfect Play, I was very skeptical on how Ms. Burton could redeem Liz.  

Oh ye of little faith. 

Ms. Burton does an excellent job making Liz Darnell human, feminine, and most importantly, apologetic (sometimes beyond the necessary realm of apologies). 

We learn a lot about what makes Liz tick, how she's been in love with Gavin for years, though she hotly denies it when confronted, and how devoted she is to operating a successful agency.  An evening that starts out as sex only quickly escalates into something more between Gavin and Liz, but Gavin's brother and Liz's former client Mick is always around to cast a negative shadow on the situation.

Changing the Game is a book about mistakes and how one makes amends after said mistakes.  Neither Liz nor Gavin are perfect -- we learned Liz's big mistake in The Perfect Play and Gavin makes one here -- but they are most certainly human and completely in love with one another.  Changing the Game is a super sexy addition to the Play-by-Play series  with more at its heart than just a romance.