Sixteen years is a long time. In a marriage, it’s a milestone. On the gridiron, it’s a miracle. Reed Johnson wants more time for everything, but time is funny that way.

It can be cruel.

With a body that can’t quite take the hits it used to and a heart tired of being torn in two different directions, Reed is faced with a reality he’s not quite ready for—life without the game. He became a man under Friday night game lights and in college stadium tunnels, and without the grit and the glory that’s earned ten yards at a time, he’s afraid of what kind of man he’ll be.

But there’s more than a game at stake now.

Reed’s wife, Nolan, is afraid too. She’s seen what can happen when the love of her life pushes himself too hard, and she can’t escape the nightmares she relives after almost losing her entire world to one single play on the field.

There is no compromise when it comes to football. Same goes for the heart. You’re either all in, or you get crushed. For Reed and Nolan, the clock is ticking down. Time…it does that. One way or another, they’re going to have to make a choice.

This is their hail Mary.

This is win or lose.

(The Hail Mary is book 3 in The Waiting Series, which follows high school sweethearts Reed Johnson and Nolan Lennox through football, life, love and everything messy that goes along with it. The series begins with Waiting on the Sidelines and Going Long.)

*** ARC kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review ***

I had to admit, I started on a wrong foot with Nolan and Reed. When I met them on ‘Waiting on The Sidelines’, it was like a love-hate relationship. One moment I loved it and the second, I didn’t. It wasn’t the writing, trust me, because the author is such an amazing storyteller but their story hit so many levels of angst that well I couldn’t really stand it.

I had a little spot for them, but their young versions, seemed destructive to me and watching going from all that drama and things you had to experience as a teenager to slowly strong and struggling with life, never giving up on each other.

Now, in ‘The Hail Mary’, Reed with a successful career as a football player, living his dreams for years, with Nolan and his 15yo daughter was at that part of his life, a crossroad of leaving behind this dream or hurting his family by the choices he had to make, his marriage suffering from his absence, his wife who couldn’t stand to see him hurt and the consequences of what would happen after being on top and to stop being a high level athlete and the thrill of the game.

You know what? I adored every moment of this book. A coming of age story told with such uprightness, the reality of their couple, from the good and the bad times, both having the best interest at heart for the other, showing the real struggles that implied this lifestyle, watching your husband playing but with the fear of being ripped from the one you love in a blink of an eye, and for the other knowing how much you hated that game for all the risks.

Surprisingly, I felt more connected with them at that time of their lives. More in sync with their emotions, watching two people who loved fiercely, but a bit lost and had to find their way back to communicating, even if they didn’t have to say things out loud and could figure the other like no one else.

It was a tough road, a hard journey when they lost and found so much. I couldn’t put it down, I was so captivated by the way they shared their story, baring their souls. Fighting for their marriage and never give up even if it was hard.

It’s been one of the toughest story I’ve read but it was so worth the journey. I’ve been overwhelmed by so many emotions, just right in the feels!