Callum (Pittsburgh Titans #12)
Sawyer Bennett
Callum Derringer was hired by the Pittsburgh Titans to help rebuild the organization after a devastating plane crash left its future unknown. Now that he’s got the team back on track, it’s time to put some effort into his own life. When I accepted the job of general manager with the Titans, it was just the opportunity I needed to prove myself to the sports world. Unfortunately, my career isn’t the only area in which I’ve previously made mistakes and the past is about to come back in a big way. Juniper Ryan is…complicated. Smart, funny and insanely gorgeous, she was my first love and my first heartbreak. But my loss was my stepbrother’s gain and she’s been his wife for five years now. I’ve done a decent job of putting her out of my mind but when I’m brought home for a family emergency and see the bruises on Juniper, I’m gutted to learn that she was pushed into the arms of a monster. Vowing to put our past aside, I learn dark truths about my brother and his marriage to my first love. And to make matters worse, I’m beginning to realize the feelings I once had for Juniper aren’t tucked quite as far away as I had hoped. When things take a dangerous turn, I’m willing to put myself in the line of fire to keep my girl safe. I was a fool to walk away from Juniper the first time and I’m a man who knows better than to make the same mistake twice.
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04.5 stars
This is an interesting second-chance romance. Callum and Juniper were high school and college sweethearts. While Callum has always been a great guy, he made mistakes when he was young and ambitious, believing his way was the right way. This tore their relationship apart. Callum’s stepbrother, someone whom Callum never got along with, swooped in and eventually married Juniper. Callum stayed away from his hometown after that, rarely returning to even see his mom. Fast forward 15 years and Callum is home to see his mom who just had emergency surgery, forced to see and speak to Juniper.
Juniper’s story is one of abuse and loyalty. Abuse by the hands of her husband and loyalty to her father, who requires constant medical attention which her husband pays for. Watching the different stages Juniper goes through when it comes to her abuser, the things she could have and couldn’t have done differently, and how she reacts to all the sudden changes in her life once Callum sees what is happening, is by turns terrifying and inspiring. (There are some explicit scenes when it comes to the abuse so be sure to protect yourself if reading these things isn’t good for your mental health.)
I love and appreciate how much Callum wants to swoop in and save everyone. But I also appreciate that Juniper is in a position of finally being able to make decisions herself and she asserts that want and need. She has to learn to trust her instincts again and Callum is the perfect person to do that with. He’s not infallible, but he listens to Juniper when she pushes back at him when he gets too high-handed in his desire to protect.
Having watched Callum bring this ragtag team together through the course of this series, I was glad he got his HEA. And since he’s got the inside scoop on the team, so to speak, I could see so many threads of what may be coming for this team as well as other teams in the league. This story took place during the free agency period in the league so a lot was happening on that end.
As much as I loved this story, I felt it started a tad slowly. It had to in order to set things up in a way that both Juniper and Callum are shown in a good light, otherwise things could have gotten weird with the relationships in this one. Once the anger and resentment were talked through, the story flew by.
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