Rule #1: You Can’t Date the Coach’s Daughter (Rules of Love)

Rule #1: You Can’t Date the Coach’s Daughter
by Anne-Marie Meyer
Release Date:  August 1, 2018
Publisher:  Sweet Heart Books
Book #1 in the The Rules of Love series
Number of pages:  178
Kindle Edition
Source: Kindle Unlimited
YA/Romance M/F
Rating: PG-13
Read 2/10/19

 

 

 

 

There are two types of people in high school: the ones that you can date and the ones you can’t. Unfortunately for me, I’m the latter. Even though I’m around hot football players every afternoon, they are not allowed to date me. If they even come close to flirting, my dad, Coach “The Boss” Davis, makes them run laps around the field until they puke.

Nothing scares off a boy more than the threat of physical pain.

Not only has he forbidden me to date anyone at all, he’s even made me the football team’s water girl so that he can keep tabs on me. Apparently, over protective dad is a fabulous guy deterrent. Outdoor shops should find a way to bottle it and sell it. They’d make a killing.

What Dad doesn’t know is that I spend every last second of those two blissful hours of practice in the scorching California heat, staring at Tyson Blake. He is the epitome of perfection in a six-foot-two, incredibly toned, smells-good-even-when-he-sweats, senior body. And when he smiles, angels sing. Literally.

And Dad hates him.

It feels a bit cliché to say I fell for the one guy that would send Dad’s already high blood pressure over the top. But it’s true. There’s something about Tyson. Something he’s trying to hide. But I can see through his cocky persona and I know there’s something more.

A couple of months ago I borrowed this book through Kindle Unlimited (KU).  In fact, it’s most likely the first book I borrowed through KU when I got my free trial.  I never read the book, kept putting it off in favor of other stories.  Yet every time I would think I should just return the book I couldn’t bring myself to do so.  There is something about the description of this book that kept me holding on, I just had to actually take the time to read the darn thing.  I finally did and I’m so glad I didn’t return it without reading the story. 

Tiny is a very sympathetic character.  She’s not unpopular, but she’s not popular.  She’s pretty smart, but not in the overly brainy to the point of not knowing social cues type of way.  She wasn’t even painfully shy, although she was a bit awkward…but doesn’t that come with being a 17 year-old girl?  But Tiny’s mom took off on her and her dad years ago leaving Tiny’s dad a bit over-protective.  He happens to be the high school gym teacher AND the coach of the football team.  So basically, Tiny lives her life in a bubble of her best-friend since childhood, the couple of people on the Pep Squad, and her dad.  She’s the water girl for the football team when not busy with homework or Pep Squad tasks.  No boy dare to even look her way for fear of getting caught and having to run laps.  Yes, Tiny’s dad loves her very much. No, the stipulations he puts on a her social interactions is not healthy.

Not only does Tiny learn a lot of lessons in this story, but so does her dad.  He’s a bit obtuse about what is happening at first, unable to see his hypocrisy and that he’s actually holding his daughter back.  But in the end he does learn and grow.  Tiny has some big moments of immaturity, but inside she’s still a scared young girl afraid everyone will eventually leave her.

The catalyst for all of this growing Tiny and her dad do is his star quarterback, Tyson, needing help in chemistry class.  I love the way the author writes the growth of the relationship between Tiny and Tyson.  Tiny, although held back in may ways by her father, is a very strong-minded woman.  She, for the most part, is not afraid to give Tyson a piece of her mind when he needs to be taken down a peg.  But she’s also a teenage girl on a journey into her first romantic relationship.  So one moment she’s strong, the next she’s confused and weak-willed.  There’s a time where it could be easy to make Tyson out to be a jerk or unfeeling, but it’s obvious he is also struggling with his growing feelings and what that means for his place on the football team and his future.  I felt the connection between the two was very carefully crafted and beautifully done.

This story struck a chord of melancholy with me, but it also had a hopeful note.  I don’t think I’ll wait so long to read the next book in this series.

4 stars