BarbsBooks

3.5 Stars

In "Hard D" by Elinor Gray, one of the characters is wearing a t-shirt that says: “Ultimate: the greatest sport you’ve never heard of”. This pretty much sums up what I know about Ultimate. Ultimate Frisbee or more accurately Ultimate, is like a cross between soccer and football using a Frisbee. (I had to look it up)

The story takes place during a tournament and focuses on two teams, Hammertime and Sasquatch. We enter in the last minutes of a game and the action is nonstop. Ben and Darius are handlers on opposite teams. They have been meeting at matches for three years, since they were both college freshmen. Ben is attracted to Darius and that has grown more over the years. Once the match is over everyone is invited back for an after game party hosted by Sasquatch as they are hosting this tournament. When Ben and Darius meet up at the party the flirting and attraction begin in earnest, eventually taking them to Darius’ dorm room. The sex is as intense as their personalities on the playing field.

I enjoyed the story but the terminology used is specific to the sport of Ultimate and description of the game play was a little confusing since I knew nothing about the sport.
The author was able to pull me into the action and intensity of the game without me knowing specifically what she was talking about. I liked that this encounter between Darius and Ben was a buildup of several years of interaction and I thought it had a realistic happy ending.
The story is action packed, erotic and gives a glimpse into a sport that I had never heard of but was definitely intrigued by.