Release Day Review: Personal Best by Sean Michael

Title: Personal Best Series: Personal Best Author: Sean Michael Release Date: June 8, 2018 Category: Contemporary, Erotic Pages: 200 Dreamspinner Press Mike Gauliet could be a world-class swimmer if he took better care of himself. He’s too good to let go, so his team coach calls in a private trainer, up-and-coming hardass Jessy Turner. Jessy locks Mike down, putting him on a strict regimen of diet and exercise that Mike resents a lot until he realizes the changes are making him a better swimmer. Jessy finds Mike all but irresistible but keeps his distance and remains professional, focusing all his attention on what’s best for Mike and his career. The two of them resist their attraction to each other for as long as they can, but eventually they have to give into the heat between them. When things go wrong, though, can they, and their sports careers, survive the strain?

Stacy's Review 

4 Stars

Personal Best is book one in the Going for Gold series, this book could be read as a standalone by itself, but it does finish with a slight HFN note with no cliffhanger. Like a lot of books we get from Sean Michael, this book is a mix of sweet romance and smutty dirty sex. I enjoyed reading this story and was pleasantly surprised by the BDSM-lite type aspects that were thrown into this storyline. There was nothing really hardcore, just some hot and dirty scenes between the two men, and wow, does Sean Michael know how to write some of the best and hottest sex in books.

Jessy is a hard-handed swim coach who is given the opportunity to take on swimmer Mike for some 1-on-1 training to get Mike up to where he needs to be performing at swim meets in the hopes he can win enough to make it into the Olympics. Mike is all about the water, he lives and breathes swimming, and when he’s not in the water, he bounces non-stop off the walls and just can’t seem to stay still. And while it’s not explicitly written out, Mike is definitely on the submissive side and really needs someone to give him rules, direction, and structure in life and that’s where Jessy comes in.

I almost felt like I should have been conflicted about this storyline between an older coach and his impressionable younger student, but the way the author writes these characters you cannot help but be intrigued by the perfect dynamic between these two guys. Mike is deliciously needy when it comes to wanting physical contact, and Jessy has the perfect dominating personality to give Mike exactly what he needs in and out of the bedroom. But with some bad decisions and a misunderstanding, everything they are working towards still might not be enough for them to make it through it all together.

There are a lot of steamy scenes in this book mixed into the storyline and I enjoyed reading them all and liked the progression of the characters' relationship together. I really absolutely hated what happened at around 65-70% in this book, and I wish we would have gotten a little more explanation to that part of the story and how that all played out, but I understand the author's intent in adding it in for a little more depth to the storyline. Overall, I liked this book and look forward to reading book two, to see what happens next in their story.

*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by Dreamspinner Press for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***