Red Zone

Big Bend Bears, Book 1

De: Nicole Dykes

Narrado por: Devon Ryder, Nick J. Russo

Dallas Boone

Welcome to Big Bend—my nightmare and my home, all in one.

I don't fit in here. I don't fit in anywhere. I've made so many mistakes. Over and over.

Two of those mistakes haunt me. One, being responsible for a friend losing his job and reputation in this town. And two, well, that one is even worse.

I ruined so many lives with one stupid decision I barely even remember. And now, I'm going to pay for it.

Colt Howe

Kensley. A place I never wanted to be again. But I had to come back home. My sister Chloe needs me, which is more important than escaping the town I grew up in.

I'm here for two reasons and two reasons only: my sister and my nephew. I'll make sure my nephew has a better life than I had. That his father is there for him, whether he wants to be or not. That's my promise.

I was so damn close to getting out of this town for good. Right in that red zone, I could see the goal, but then I got hit with a force I never saw coming.

And that changed everything.

©2024 Nicole Dykes (P)2025 Podium Audio

I May Be A Minority In This...

But I think it is irresponsible to say that Dallas is not at fault for getting his coach fired and being ostracized by his community. Yes, it is sad that we live in a world of judgmental people but it is what it is..so better judgment and extra precaution should have been taken care by Dallas. The coach told him not to go back to the gay bar so what does Dallas do? He does go back. Even worse, he takes a picture of the coach dancing with other men at the gay bar...the least he could have done is cropped the coach's face out of the picture but nope! So of course his mother raids Dallas' phone and discovers the pic....she then has a big powwow that results in the coach's ruin. Thank goodness Dykes gave the coach a soft landing and his own HEA in "Rivaled" from the Kensley Panthers series. The responsible thing is to own up to what Dallas contributed to in the ruination of another person's life and find a way to make amends or peace with it. I was glad when Dallas talked to his former coach at the end. And I loved how he found his voice and finally snapped back at the current coach. Now that I got that out of my system....
I loved Colt and Dallas together...I love that this was performed by Nick J. Russo and Devon Ryder - 2 from my personal favorites list! Great storyline - a unique one! Can't wait for Benny's story!

4 Starz - worthy of a repeat listen.

Awesome new series!!!

The relationship between the two MCs was written beautifully and the audio made it that much better!!

Loved this new series! Can't wait for more <3

I absolutely love every book this author puts out, she does an incredible job making her readers get so invested with her characters, her new worlds, the side characters, and storylines. I loved her Kensley Panthers series so I was super excited to see an audiobook for the spinoff series! A lot of things started to come back to me while I was listening and I was so happy we finally got to get this character mentioned in one of the original series and got to see his POV and see him get his happily ever ever!

I loved the small age gap, it was so cute and made me happy to see someone put Dallas first, to see him for who he was, to love him unconditionally. His family was a horrible excuse for one and was happy to see him walk away from them at the end, so proud! Do I care he is just a fictional character? No, because this author made me root for these guys and wanted to see their HEAs and have decent human beings in their made family since their blood was words I won't say in this review haha. I actually started liking Chloe, I didnt think I would. I do wish we got more time with the little one and confirmation about his parents but that would be my only critique of the situation.

I hope we get to see more of these two in the next part of the series (book 2 comes out on audio soon, can't wait!!). I loved their dynamic, loved Dallas getting to discover things about himself. How Colt took care of him but also allowed Dallas to take of him. He has good intentions in the beginning with his nephew but it ended up being even better finding the love of his life. The steam was fabulous, the swoon worthy moments were perfect, and the adorable moments even better. It was a great mix of story (with football, friend connection, etc.) and the romance. I also love they are verse, if you know what I mean! The new experiences were so much to listen to, had to stop some chores to focus more hehehe.

Narration was perfection, I loved the one narrator I have listened to before but the other was completely new to me and another narrator to add to me Automatic Listen List! I thought they both did a great job diving into these characters, esp with the length of the story it was impressive how much depth we got and the character and story building. Another testament to this author's great storytelling. Loved this, 5/5 easily from me <3