Sometimes the endgame is only the beginning. In the heated world of the Premier League, Earl Alex Beaufort, a charming Liverpool midfielder, collides on-pitch with Lee Taylor, Manchester United’s top striker. But when England’s World Cup dream brings them to sunny Spain, the real game sharing a room. Rivals to teammates to … more?
Dive into this banter-filled MM sports romance where football meets unexpected feelings. A tale where a “pretty boy” comment isn’t just playful teasing, and a kiss isn’t just a kiss. As the tension of the World Cup escalates, so does the connection between Alex and Lee.
But amidst the drills, goals, and growing team camaraderie, shadows of family legacies and personal battles loom large. Can Alex, struggling with duke-sized expectations and his bisexuality, embrace his true self? Will Lee learn to dribble past his trust issues? Get ready for emotional offsides, family fouls, and a journey of self-discovery as thrilling as a last-minute goal.
With doses of British humour and heartwarming honesty, Be My Endgame serves up a pitch-perfect contemporary MM romance against the electric backdrop of the World Cup. Expect the unexpected—because when it comes to love and football, anything can happen in 90 minutes (plus injury time).
I GOT THIS BOOK ON KU
Review:
Dear Zarah Detand,
I loved soccer a/k/a as real football when I was growing up, cheered for my favorite team for years, was never any kind of the expert in the sport, but as a fan I knew it pretty well.
As I came to live to US with my family over couple of decades ago, I watch football significantly less but it always remains the team sport that I will love the most of all the team sports and when I catch occasional matches of the Premiere League (of course always the Europe Cup and the World Cup), I am ridiculously happy.
I was so happy when I saw a sports m/m romance set against the background of my favorite team sport. Off the top of my head I actually think that during all the years of reading m/m romances I have never read one about football players. I may have forgotten one or two, but I definitely have not read more than that, I am pretty sure.
I dived in this book. After I finished it the first good thing I want to mention is that I think that this book, for me, warrants the tag of sport romance. Too often a book promises that and shows no matches or practices in the sport it is set in which this was not the case here. The writer showed practices and also showed the excitement of the actual matches.
I was happy. Moreover, again, not an expert, but I thought that the parts of the games shown reflected what could have happened on the actual football field. I liked it a lot.
I also liked the two main characters Lee and Alex a lot. They were both very appealing young men to me in many ways and even though each of them had their issues (let’s face it, often a character without any issues ends up not being a very interesting character in my opinion), I thought they tried their best in dealing with whatever life threw at them. I also thought they had a lovely chemistry going and enjoyed their interactions. I enjoyed their interactions for the most part I should say. I added the qualifier for two reasons.
The first reason was because as the book begins both of the men think that they dislike another person and all because a couple years ago when they met for the first time they had an interaction that both of them misread quite badly – I will let you discover what that interaction was but I dislike conflicts based on the miscommunication. I was glad that when both of them were drafted to the national team, they finally talk and resolved that and it was pretty early in the book, I think in the chapter 3.
But wait! If you think that the miscommunication, or should I say not full communication, time was over, you will be wrong.
Spoiler: Show
Alex however wants to tell Lee, he really really does and watching him twist himself in the knots over it for the next four or five chapters was a tad annoying.
It was resolved in the chapter 7 or 8. I was glad it did not drag for almost the whole book though.
Another reason why I did not fully enjoyed the two main characters being together on page all the time is because the writer seems to have a writing quirk of the sorts, where Alex’s smile/ mouth was getting a lot of exercise and this read a little weird to me. I am not saying that it was grammatically incorrect, I am saying that I did not enjoy it. See below as to what I am talking about:
“Lee’s mouth twisted into an exaggerated smile as he gestured for Alex to go ahead. “After you.””
***
““Yeah.” Alex inclined his head. “If that.” “Colour me honoured.” Jeff joined Alex at the window, his smirk merging into a softer grin.”
***
““Ave, Caesar,” Jeff muttered out of the corner of his mouth. “Morituri te salutant.” Alex bit his lip against a smile.”
***
““We’ll be late.” Lee made no move to pull away—angled himself closer, in fact, and Alex pressed his grin against Lee’s cheek.”
For the most part though the dialogue was light and snarky and amusing and I was rooting for both of them.
I previously said that I enjoyed the actual football being shown on the pages.
The book ends with both men coming out to the general public as gay and bi footballers and it was nice and everything, but I googled and as of 2022 there was one gay footballer playing in England. Brings one right back to how hard it still is for professional athletes to come out.
Grade : C+/B-
