Book review: Goalie ~ M.E. Carter

Title: Goalie
Author: M.E. Carter
Series: Texas Mutiny #3
Release date: February 18, 2017
(Sub)genres: Sports
Pages: 299
Buy: Amazon US ~ Amazon UK
Rating:
I received this book from Enticing Journey Book PR in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Goalie
[goh-lee]
noun
a player in the goal whose duty is to prevent the ball from entering or crossing it

See Santos and Mariana DeGuajarado

As goalie of the Texas Mutiny, Santos is damn good at protecting that net. But he never bothered to protect his marriage.

Letting the fame and notoriety go to his head, he lost the things he loved the most… his wife and kids. Now he has one shot to make it right before losing at this relationship game and he’s determined not to miss this time.

Mariana has been scarred so deeply by Santos’s betrayals, she will carry the wounds forever. After almost ten years of marriage though, she knows him well, and she knows he won’t let go without a fight. Still, she refuses to be a push over.

Because love is never enough…

I love reading romantic stories in all its various degrees. Happy, sad, brutal, I have no subject I’m ‘scared’ off. However, there’s one topic I try to stay away from as much as possible; cheating. I just can’t read about it, it makes me sad for the person who’s cheated on and so angry at the cheater. M.E. Carter’s new book Goalie is about cheating and the effects on a couple’s marriage. In previous book from ‘the Texas Mutiny Series’ – Groupie – we’ve seen a bit about Santos and his wife Mariana. Goalie gives us the full picture of their heartbreaking and realistic story. I love it.

“My mind is spinning. She left me. She took my kids and she left me. I had everything I ever wanted but just lost it all. And it’s all my own damn fault.”

Santos has it all; a beautiful loving wife, three amazing children and a great job as the Texas Mutiny’s goalie. However, with the team also come the wild after-parties and the team groupies. And Santos indulges himself with the groupies, a lot. He knows his wife will be very hurt if she finds about his escapades, but he buries his feelings of guilt, talking it right for himself. When Mariana finds out about his activities, Santos is broken when she leaves him, taking the children with her. Finally realizing the full impact of what he has put his wife through, Santos is in for the fight of his life.

“I wept. Like a fucking baby. I wept for the loss of my wife. I wept for the loss of my children. I wept for the loss of the life I loved. In a weird way, I wept for the loss of myself. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that I was living a weird double life. What is wrong with me that I could so easily push down the guilt every time I did it?”

Mariana thought she was the luckiest woman in the world; a devoted, loving husband and three adorable little children. But somewhere in the back of her mind she always questioned Santos’s afterparties with his team members. Being the sweet, gentle soul she is, she doesn’t ask about it, doesn’t want to push for information. When she finally finds out what goes on at the parties – and the full depth of her husband’s betrayal – Mariana does what most women would do, she leaves with her children. A devastated Mariana wants to put the past behind her and move on, but unfortunately her heart still belongs to Santos.

“I miss Santos so much I can hardly take it. I miss the way he always has a smile on his face. I miss the way he sings off key in the shower. I miss the way he would smack my ass on his way out the door and say “I love that this is mine.” I miss his smell, and his voice, and his presence. I miss my life with him, and I’m so pissed off that he did this to us. That he ruined everything.”

From the moment Santos and Mariana met in college, they fell hard and fast for each other. Now they are married for ten years and have three young children to take care of. Mariana can’t wish for a better husband and father, when he’s home he’s an all-in hubby and dad; he loves her and helps with the kids whenever he can. Mariana is Santos’s soulmate. He worships her and loves how she takes care of him and the children. To the eye, they have the perfect marriage, but Santos’s cheating wrecks it all, and although she loves him, Mariana can’t trust him anymore. Going through with the divorce procedures breaks Mariana’s heart, she still loves him but the trust is gone. Since they share children Santos and Mariana keep seeing each other, and very slowly it becomes clear they might have a chance to overcome the breakdown of their marriage.

M.E. Carter, what have you done to me? Starting Goalie I knew this would be a brutal and heartbreaking book and the author did deliver. Cheating in my romance books and in real life is something I don’t want, in my opinion it is one of the things a relation can’t recover from. However, Goalie changed my view. There are cases in which a relation can survive a betrayal, even can get better. The marriage of Mariana and Santos is one of those cases.

Yes, what Santos did to Mariana was terrible and devastating. But he owned it. He didn’t make excuses and didn’t blame other people for his actions but himself. Throughout the story there are reasons given for Santos’s infidelities, but the author makes it very clear it was his choice to act on his needs, no one forced him. I love Mariana, she’s such a sweet soul who didn’t deserve to suffer because of her husband’s actions. I understand why she choose to give Santos another chance, he still had her heart. However, she’s not a pushover but a strong woman who does what’s right for herself and her children.

“Mari, the kind of trust I broke doesn’t take weeks or months to rebuild. It takes years. Years. You have every right to doubt me. I can promise all day long, but in the end, the only way to help you feel better is to show you. Never be sorry for looking. Never be sorry for reminding me not to let my guard down. This is how we’re going to rebuild what was broken. Together.”

I love Mariana and Santos and their raw and painful story, love isn’t black or white. I give Goalie 5+ stars.