Review: Infraction by Rachel Van Dyken

Title: Infraction (Players Game #2)

Author: Rachel Van Dyken

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis:

Pro footballer Miller Quinton would do anything for his best friend and teammate—including “fake dating” his friend’s sister. What no one knows is that seven months ago in Vegas, Miller and Kinsey did a whole lot more than just kiss. Miller knows that this cheerleader is off-limits to him and any guy on the team. Still, he can’t stop himself.

Kinsey’s whole world is on the verge of crumbling. Her dad has cancer. Her overprotective brother is falling apart. Dating Miller may be a fake-out, but he’s the one guy who can make her forget about everything—including all the reasons she stayed away from football players. With each heated moment, Miller feels more like a safe place…even though he’s not safe at all.

Now temptation is testing every rule in the game of love. But how long can they go on playing when winning is a harder goal than either of them imagined?

My Review:

I loved what happened in the book, but I couldn’t give it the full 5 star rating as I did with the first one. It follows the events from Fraternize, where we now have Quinton Miller and Kinsey Romanov as the main leads. But surprisingly, we also got Jax and Harley’s story included! I was already more than okay with how the story went and the cameos of Grant and Emerson (because I really love those two together and I have been rooting for them since the first book), but Jax and Harley’s story was so surprising, I wished that they had their own book!

Plot-wise, I expected a ton of things to happen, and it did. It was a bit predictable, especially with the way that Jax had them get into a fake relationship to scare off Kinsey’s ex. I’m not really a huge fan of the fake relationship thing in any books, but at least with Infraction, Kinsey and Miller already developed a tight friendship and that sexy mishap in Vegas to make it more interesting for me. Aside from those predictable moments, there were some really shocking moments that I didn’t expect at all! Those little twists in the story suddenly made the book much more intriguing because it wasn’t revealed until the end of the book what was going on with Kinsey’s life. The grief that circulated around the book wasn’t that suffocating for the characters – and also to me – so that I was able to enjoy the book more and laugh at a lot of moments. And that ending! That ending gave me so much hope for both of them – for all of them.

The best thing I loved the most about this book is the development of the characters’ relationship with one another. The first book focused more on the love triangle between Emerson, Sanchez, and Miller and how each of them weighed in each other’s lives. But for this book, aside from the romantic relationships, we finally got to see another form of relationship between with all of them – a familial and knit type of relationship. Where the guys think of themselves as brothers and the girls think they are all long-lost sisters. All of them are like a family, and it was just so amazing to read as the story progressed. The connections each one of them had were so touching, and made me wish I had a strong group of friends that treated each other like that.

Yes, the book is a bit cliche and has a lot of tropes, but I still enjoyed it! Rachel van Dyken writes phenomenally, so I never hesitate to read her books. I wished this series gets one more book!