REVIEW: Cleats and Pumps – Blake Allwood

by
Cleats and Pumps Book Cover Cleats and Pumps
Blake Allwood
Romance, LGBTQ+, MM, Sports
Blake Allwood Publishing
6/1/2025
Kindle
293
Amazon

Amazon Link: Amazon

Amos Clark has it all: fame, fortune, and a promising career as a star NFL player. But when a night of innocent fun performing in drag leads to his being benched, everything he’s worked for hangs by a thread. As he grapples with the fallout, he’s forced to confront not just his career, but the deeper truths of his identity.

Amos’s former college roommate Tommy Sanders has loved him since their college days. As a journalist, Tommy has watched Amos' career spiral into a media frenzy, directly impacting Tommy’s life and career. Linked to their turbulent past, both men find themselves face-to-face with a love they’ve never been able to forget.

As fate intertwines their lives once more, Amos and Tommy must navigate the complexities of their past and the pressures of the present. With love on the line and their futures uncertain, they must decide: will they fight for each other, or let their chance slip away forever?

Review By Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

Amazon Link: Amazon

I love Blake Allwood’s books and this time I got more than I expected. Blake wrote a short story for the anthology, Romance in Drag and the prequel to Cleats and Pumps and that story Alec in Wanderlust is an extra bonus.
Alec is Wanderlust introduced Amos and now we get Amos and Tommy’s story. Amos and Tommy met in college at rush week they became best friends and roommates. Tommy didn’t keep his sexual preferences hidden unlike Amos whose dream of going to the NFL kept him from even exploring whether he was gay or straight.
For years Tommy hid his love for Amos not knowing if his feelings would be reciprocated. When he was finally ready to tell Amos how he felt Amos made it clear that they were just friends. Amos became a popular football player hiding his love of doing drama. When he did drag on a cruise ship it all but destroyed his football career.
Tommy heartbroken over never having Amos wrote a book revealing his feelings and everything that happened between them. He continued to write about sports and when Amos’s trouble with the NFL happened Tommy refused to write about anything to do with Amos costing him his job.
Now Tommy and Amos are both struggling while not communicating. Tommy has never stopped loving Amos, a lost cause he knows but as much as he tries to convince himself to move on his heart just won’t cooperate.
There was an opportunity for the two men to support one another; however, inadequate communication prevented them from doing so. Tommy must try to find a new job while writing freelance articles. Amos is trying to figure out if his football career is important enough to hide who he is and what he loves.
When the two men meet, they must sort out their issues and move past their history. But that is a big thing to do. They not only have to figure out if they can overcome the past while they are both fighting for a place to belong.
This was a beautiful story of two men, one sure of who is and one who is trying to figure out who he is and what he wants. It was heartbreaking to see what happens when the question of being gay can destroy everything in your life and as much as things have improved there is so much more that must be done.
Alec in Wanderlust was a delightful addition to an already excellent story.

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