CBR18 Book 1: "Only on Gameday" by Kristen Callihan

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Introverted and shy Penelope Morrow grew up an only child, but was more or less enveloped by the five children of the Luck family (all named, rather implausibly, for months - the boys, January, March and August, with the twin girls being called May and June), since their mothers were best friends. Outgoing, charming and overachieving, all three Luck boys are handsome and very talented American football players, like their father before them, but the only one who ever really interested Penelope was August. Not that she would ever going to admit this to any of his siblings, and certainly not to the man himself. Her shyness and awkwardness were perceived as disdain and coldness, so not even her best friends, August's sisters, suspect that she secretly always had a crush on him.

August Luck is the top draft in the NHL, and struggles with the pressures of living up to the legacy of his father and older brother. As a result, he goes a bit off the deep end with partying, and after yet another party video of him, this one falling off a table while doing the chicken dance, he needs a bit of an image clean-up. When he opens the front door of his parents' house to see Penelope again after several years, he is stunned by how beautiful she has become, and starts making a rather foolish plan. Like Penelope, August has also had an unrequited crush, but his awkwardness was seen as arrogance, so Penelope has never realised how strongly he felt for her. August's brothers, January and March, however, seem to have some idea of the extent of his feelings. 

Both of Penelope's grandparents worked in Hollywood, and when they bought their house, it wasn't especially expensive. By the time Penelope inherits it, it's worth about ten million dollars, and she has no idea where she's going to get the money to pay the property taxes. Her mother refuses to lend her the money, and can't understand why Penelope won't even consider selling the house. Penelope, on the other hand, doesn't really care about the property value, the house is just the only place she's ever really felt at home, and she can't bring herself to part with the house. So when August (who she believes is at best indifferent to her, at worst kind of hates her) approaches her with a rather far-fetched scheme that can help both of them, she is tempted against her better judgment.

August has decided that the perfect image overhaul would be for him to present Penelope as his long-time secret sweetheart, whom he has now proposed to. The fact that they grew up together will only help sell the story to the press. In return, he wants to pay the property taxes for Penelope, although she only grudgingly accepts a loan, and promises she will find the money to pay her own taxes, not wanting to be beholden to a man she's been crushing on her entire life. 

Any secret engagement story in romance has to end with the couple catching feelings for one another. In this case, both of the protagonists already have the feelings; they've just both bottled them so deeply that only a very few people even suspect they are anything but almost antagonistic towards each other. Once August and Penelope actually start loosening up and spending some time together, they are obviously completely gone for each other almost instantly (while still denying this to themselves for far longer than the plot needed). 

There was a lot to like in this story, even though the pining gets to the point of ridiculousness, and I just wanted them to have an actual, honest conversation so we could get to the part of the book where they get to be an actual couple. The author uses a lot of pop culture references throughout, which I'm not sure are going to age well, and might be off-putting to some readers who don't catch all of them. This is partly because Penelope is obsessed with movies, and there are so many movie references throughout. 

On the other hand, the supporting cast, mainly consisting of the large and loving Luck family are great. I'm wondering if Callihan is planning on writing a romance for each of the remaining siblings. There's January, whose career as a football player ended after a car accident (shortly after which he and his fiancée split up). There's March, the younger brother who seems to be quite resistant to any thoughts of settling down, not to mention the twin sisters who seem vastly different, but both quite quirky. 

It's been a long time since I read any of Callihan's books. Some of the previous Game On books were five-star reads for me; it would be fun to revisit them. 

Judging a book by its cover: I was sort of hoping that the cover of this was a placeholder, since I was reading an ARC. But no, it appears that this rather bland and badly computer-illustrated cover is what the publishers have chosen to market this book with. I think the only thing worse than little faceless, cartoony characters on a cover is uninspired computer renditions of the main characters. At least they look as described in the story, which is not always a given. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 9: "In a Rush" by Kate Canterbary

Page count: 480 pages

Rating: 5 stars

This was an ARC sent to me by the author. My opinions are my own, and I loved the book so much that I pre-ordered a copy as soon as I'd finished reading it. 

 

Emmeline "Emme" Ahlborg catches her boyfriend, the man she was hoping was going to propose to her, in the act, sleeping with another woman (when Emme shows up on his doorstep with home-cooked food). She's devastated, and what's worse, he's a groomsman in the wedding of her best friend (to whom she's the maid of honour) so it's not like she's going to be able to avoid seeing him. Not one to cause trouble or mess with her friend's wedding plans, Emme swallows down her discomfort and hopes to find a suitable revenge date to bring to the wedding.

During a dinner with her best friend from high school, Ryan Ralston, now a hot shot professional quarterback, he listens in both horror and sympathy to her recounting the events of her break-up and makes an unusual suggestion. He reminds her of the pact they made back in high school, that if they were still single when they turned thirty, they would marry each other. Ryan just turned thirty, and Emme will be thirty in a few months. She needs a revenge date, he has an image problem and needs a wife to reassure society at large that he's a reliable and stable guy who's worth doing business with. He claims that their long friendship and history together will make the story believable, not just to the press and his business partners, but to her friends and family. What Ryan isn't telling Emme is that she's the only woman he'd ever consider marrying because he's loved her since high school, he just never had the guts to tell her. 

After some deliberation, Emme agrees to the plan, on the condition that Ryan helps find her stepsister/roommate an internship. They agree to fake date for a few months before actually marrying, to make the story more convincing. Emme has had a series of dreadful relationships and clearly isn't used to being taken care of or appreciated. Ryan, on the other hand, who finally sees his chance to win her heart (and has also listened to all her sob stories over the years) pulls out all the stops to pamper and spoil his "fake" girlfriend, at least as much as she'll let him. She refuses to move out of her cramped and ramshackle apartment and won't really accept all the gifts he tries to shower her with.

As is always the case with the fake dating/marriage of convenience trope, the lines between platonic and romantic fade gradually. In this case, the only one in Ryan's life who doesn't know that he's head over heels for her seems to be Emme herself, so one part of the couple is already hopelessly in love and just waiting for the other to reciprocate. 

I absolutely loved this book. It worked for me on every level. Emme is a great heroine who clearly deserves the world, and Ryan is just the man to give it to her. Her parents had an acrimonious divorce and both of her parents have had a series of unsuccessful relationships. Now Emme has a very supportive stepmother, but because of her mother's bitterness and vitriol, it's difficult for Emme to accept this woman's love and affection. She's estranged from her father and doesn't seem to ever have had a decent boyfriend. She works as a teacher (so of course I would love her), and is so loyal to her friends that she's willing to put up with the awkwardness of seeing her ex (and his new fiancee, the woman he cheated on her with) at a number of pre-wedding events. 

If Ryan has any flaws at all, it must be his refusal to confess his real feelings towards Emme. In every other respect, he seems to be perfect. He's a talented athlete, a good friend, a loving son and brother, and great with kids. He worships the ground Emme walks on, and wants to use all his wealth and resources to make her life better. 

This book features characters that apparently first appeared in In a Jam, and mentions characters and places from Shucked. If I'm brutally honest, this book could probably have been a bit shorter, but on the other hand, I am hard-pressed to see which bits should have been left out. This is only my third Canterbary novel ever, but I really like her writing style and am glad she has a big back catalogue I can choose from while I wait for her next book to come out. 

Judging a book by its cover: Not exactly the most exciting cover for this one. Also not entirely sure why it's showing what I'm assuming is part of a football field, since Ryan's career as a football player mostly takes place off-page, so to speak. 

Crossposted by Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 62: "The Right Swipe" by Alisha Rai

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Having been burned pretty comprehensively in the past, both in her personal life and in business, Rhiannon Hunter has now worked hard to make her dating app one of the main competitors on the market. Now she'd like to buy the large, successful, but nevertheless a lot less modern company of one of her competitors, and she goes to a big tech conference with that in mind. Unbeknownst to Rhi, the owner and co-founder of this company is very eccentric and also suffers from social anxiety. So instead of appearing at the conference herself, she sends her nephew to act in her stead. Rhiannon is dismayed to discover that the handsome man is none other than the man who she shared a very steamy night with a few months ago, and who then ghosted her, never to be heard from again. To discover that he is now a spokesperson for the company she wants to acquire, and seems very close to the owner means having to spend more time with him, and Rhi is not one to forgive and forget once she's been hurt.

Samson Lima is a former football pro who made himself very unpopular with a lot of fans and supporters when he quit in the middle of a major game because his best friend was seriously injured on the field and the only way Samson could protest the owners of the team risking his friend's life by putting him back in the field was by walking out and throwing the game entirely. Samson lost his father and more recently his uncle to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). He had no intention of ghosting Rhiannon after their hook-up but was told his uncle was dying and had to rush to his bedside. Since Rhi never uses her real identity when occasionally using her dating app to meet guys, and certainly hadn't given Samson her phone number, he had absolutely no way of contacting her when it became clear that she'd blocked him in the app. Now he's trying to help his uncle's widow to drum up publicity for her flagging matchmaking company by publicly looking for love. Of course, as soon as he sees Rhi at the tech conference, the only woman he's really interested in spending more time with is her.

Rhi eventually reluctantly gives Samson a chance to apologise, and some internet research proves that he's really not lying about his uncle's recent passing. Barely healed emotional wounds from her past makes it very difficult for her to trust men, but she can't deny the attraction she still feels for the handsome, charming, athletic, and obviously caring man. When Samson, after one disastrous first date where he can't take his mind off Rhi, suggests a series of social media videos where Rhiannon, the dating expert, coaches him on modern dating, to promote both the companies they represent, he has the perfect excuse to keep spending time with Rhi and slowly convince her that she's the only woman for him. 

This book has thousands of positive reviews on Goodreads, and I'd heard many good things about it on the various review sites I follow. Nevertheless, it never really connected with me emotionally, the way the best romances do. It was just ok, and now, about a month later, I'm struggling to remember plot details. I think this is a definite case of just the wrong book at the wrong time for me with this one. I've liked books by Alisha Rai before, and it's not like I have anything violently against it. I may even re-read it at some point, to see if I like it better a second time when my brain is in a more receptive place for the story it tells. 

There's a lot to like here - a strong, yet slightly prickly heroine, who has worked hard and faced a lot of adversity in a male-dominated and sexist industry. There's the close friendship between Rhi and her best friend, who was able to fund her business thanks to a healthy inheritance from her husband (the BFF is the heroine of the next book in the series). Samson is a very nice beta hero, who cares deeply about his family members and getting justice for other athletes facing the same problems that eventually killed his dad and uncle. All of these things make me pretty sure that I may just not have been in the mood for this book when I read it, but it fit into several of my reading challenges, so onto the list, it went. 

I may give it another chance in a year or so. Based on the sample chapter for the next book in the series, I'm very much looking forward to that one - a reclusive, plus-size ex-model and her handsome bodyguard. 

Judging a book by its cover: Another contemporary cartoon cover, this one almost Pepto-Bismol pink. At least the little cartoon heads of the protagonists look pretty cute. I don't think there can be any doubt that this is a romance novel, aimed firmly at a female demographic. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR Book 42: "The Hot Shot" by Kristen Callihan

Page count: 337 pages
Rating: 4 stars

First of all, I want to warn my fellow romance readers that there are a LOT of distracting typos in this book. Normally, while I'm a complete grammar nazi in my daily life(comes with being a language teacher, I suspect), I am nonetheless usually able to ignore the occasional typo in my romances, mainly because I don't tend to read them all THAT closely. But in this book, there were enough that it bothered even me and took me out of the story on occasion. I know stuff like that can be a deal-breaker for some, hence the friendly warning.

Chester "Chess" Cooper (her parents thought they were getting a boy, and met at a screening of The Goonies, so stuck with the name they'd decided on, even when they got a girl) is a high profile fashion photographer who feels like she's pretty much just going through the motions. She's bored, she hasn't met a guy she liked in ages and has never really found a guy she clicked with. She's photographed a ton of handsome naked men for a variety of charity calendars, without ever being affected, so she's certainly not expecting anything to be different when she's due to shoot the local football team. That she gets all hot and bothered by the pretty boy quarterback Finn Mannus is certainly a surprise.

Finn Mannus is instantly taken with Chess, but since she makes it clear she's looking for something permanent and he's more of a one night stand kind of guy, he suggests that they just be friends, even when it's clear to everyone around them that their chemistry is off the charts. When Chess' apartment/studio burns down and she is left homeless, without even a working laptop, Finn insists that Chess move in with him at least until she gets her insurance money, and hitting on his room mate would just be rude, right? Both of them undeniably like living together, but despite their obvious attraction to each other, neither of them makes a move to change things, until Finn's going home for the holidays.

He invites Chess to come with him, and persuades her to pose as his girlfriend, as his mother seems to be nagging him to settle down. While Chess is initially reluctant, she eventually agrees. It doesn't take long before their relationship is no longer just pretend. Both Chess and Finn have issues in their past, though, and scorching personal chemistry and mutual attraction won't be enough if they're going to have a chance at a long-term future together.

I was very happy to discover that Kristen Callihan had written another Game On book, because while I really like her three contemporary New Adult books in this series, especially The Game Plan, where the action actually runs concurrently to the plot of this book, I have not really been all that impressed with her other contemporary romance series, VIP, or her paranormal historical romances. While this book is probably the weakest of all the four books in this series so far, it's still much more what I was hoping for and expecting based on the first three books, and it was an entertaining read (if you ignore all the aforementioned typos).

Both Chess and Finn are likable characters and it's fun to see them trying to initiate a platonic friendship because they have different expectations from dating and don't want to mess things up. That it takes them so long to realise that they are absolutely besotted with each other is part of the charm of the book. Their various friends certainly find it amusing. Finn's support network is obviously his teammates, while Chess' best friend is her bisexual assistant, James (who has a pretty adorable crush on Finn, yet is SO excited at the prospect of Chess actually dating him).

While most of Finn's dating history has been extremely casual, with no significant relationships, he did have a hook-up a while back that had unexpected consequences and both he and the woman in question, a beautiful Scandinavian supermodel, still seem to be working through the after effects definitely present some hurdles in the initial stages of Chess' and Finn's romance, not least because Chess cannot help but to compare herself unfavourably against Finn's gorgeous ex. Generally, Chess' low self-esteem causes rather a lot of conflict before the couple sort things out and have a chance at their HEA.

I don't know if Callihan is planning more contemporary romances about other football players on Finn and Dex' team, but as these books are so much better than her rather underwhelming rock band related ones, and there seem to be a number of hunky players to chose from as future heroes, I certainly hope this is where she focuses her attentions in the future. She would do well to invest in some decent proof-reading before publishing them, though.

Judging a book by its cover: Ms. Callihan self-publishes these, and as romance covers go, I'm sure it's perfectly fine. I'm assuming the cover model is supposed to be Finn, our athletic hero, and I suppose he bears a passing resemblance with the muscles and the tattoo and the pose the photo is taken in, but this guy doesn't fit my mental picture at all. Still, it's not offensively bad or anything.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 149: "The Game Plan" by Kristen Callihan

Page count: 323 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Once again I want to thank the lovely Mrs. Julien, whose generous gift of an Amazon voucher made it possible for me to buy this book. 

NFL player Ethan "Dex" Dexter is known to his friends and team mates as "the Wise One". He's quiet, observant, focused on his career and not really concerned with dating, or really all that bothered about the fact that he's still a virgin at 24. The only woman he's interested in is the bubbly and vivacious Fiona Mackenzie, sister-in-law to his best friend, who's been very vocal in the past about how she doesn't do long distance relationships or has any interest in athletes. Yet when they both find themselves visiting Grey and Ivy at the same time, he can't help himself. Alone in a club one night, desperate for her to really see him, he dares her to touch his beard, and suddenly they can barely keep their hands, or lips, off each other.

Fiona grew up with a father who started as a professional athlete and then became a sports agent. He travelled a lot in his work and slept around a whole lot while doing it. Her parents' marriage broke up as a result. She's also known as the family flake, who can never really settle down for long with anything, always changing her mind or focus. Having recently secured what she believed would be her dream job in a design firm in New York, she wants to prove to both herself and her family that she can stick with something. She's struggling with a co-worker who keeps copying her designs and trying to steal her thunder, but with her sister just having had a baby, she's allowed herself a short vacation in San Francisco. She's none to pleased to see Dex, her brother-in-law's best friend, show up in the club she's at, "baby sitting", but is surprised how affected she is by his presence.

Dex is a veritable mountain of muscle, with long hair, a thick beard and tattoos all over his arms. He's nothing like the guys Fiona tends to go for, but with his quiet intensity focused entirely on her, she can't look away. When he dares her to touch his beard, she can't help but move in to kiss him and discovers that the silent giant she barely even noticed in the past is absolutely crazy about her. He lives in New Orleans, she lives in New York. She's just starting her promising design career, he's a top player in the NFL. A long distance relationship is their only option if they want more than a brief fling, and after just a few days together in San Francisco, it's obvious to both that that's not a satisfying option.

I've really liked the first two of Kristen Callihan's Game On books, a New Adult series starting when the characters were still in college. This book takes place a few years after the first two, with the characters older and a bit more settled, but still starting out in life. For the most part, I think Callihan's writing and plotting has improved with each book, but my absolute favourite is probably still The Friend Zone, which worked for me on every level. Seeing the couple from that be supporting characters struggling to get used to a new baby was fun and I loved their reactions to Dex' baby whispering techniques.

Dex, for all that he is nothing like the men I tend to find attractive in real life (I go more for the tall, pale and gangly - like Benedict Cumberbatch or Tom Hiddleston, or my husband). I don't really like tattoos or piercings, I think man buns are ridiculous and big, burly lugs just don't really appeal that much to me. He may still be my favourite Callihan hero so far, though. Though he's lusted after Fiona for years, he's never really let on and he's never once crossed into creepy stalker territory, keeping his interest firmly in the fantasy realm. Being a popular athlete, there's no lack of women who throw themselves his way, but Ethan, who remembers being chubby growing up and completely ignored by girl and later women until he became famous, isn't interested in just some shallow hook up. The one time he got drunk and gave into peer pressure, things didn't go well and he's decided that if he can't have Fiona, he doesn't want anyone. During their previous encounters, she hasn't really shown any interest in him, but when they meet again in San Francisco, after a brief moment where she has trouble placing him, the chemistry between them is palpable. Hence he dares to hope that maybe his feelings might become requited and he makes his move.

I liked that with Fiona being very outgoing, impulsive, loquacious and forward, while Ethan was normally the quiet, retiring, contemplative and restrained, they complimented each other nicely. Fi becomes calmer and more grounded around Ethan and he becomes more talkative and takes control in his interactions with her. He understands her fears and her misgivings and tries to give her the space and time to make her own decisions. Even when it's about to break his heart, he's not about to counteract her agency. Luckily, while Fiona is terrified to abandon her current job, she's not too proud to admit when she's wrong about her initial decision about long distance relationships. When she returns to New York, convinced that there can be no future for her and Dex, she's called him to tell him her change of heart before her plane even takes off.

Of course there needs to be some conflict, and the long distance isn't enough. One of the reasons Fiona doesn't want to be involved with an athlete is that she's not happy with media attention, and when Ethan's cell phone is stolen and photos of an intimate nature are leaked, their relationship hits a crisis point. My main problem with this story line is that I refuse to believe that any public person with naughty photos or videos on their phone doesn't at least have a simple code lock on it. It's even mentioned a couple of times early in the story that he needs to sort that out. From the hacking scandals in recent years, I suspect a determined person would still be able to access the memory eventually, but it wouldn't be right out there to the taking for any unscrupulous person.

The "virgin hunt" that's launched in the media to prove that Dex has lost his virginity and the subsequent leaking of the photos was not my favourite way to drive a wedge between a couple, but for the most part, this romance is in parts funny, sweet, very sexy and it was nice to see the previous couples in the series as supporting characters. I haven't been able to discover whether there are going to be more books in the series, or if this is the concluding volume. Either way, I am determined that I will read more of her Victorian paranormals next.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 58:"The Friend Zone" by Kristen Callihan

Page count: 309 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

Gray Grayson does not have female friends, he has former and future conquests. The closest thing he has to a female friend is his best friend Drew's new girlfriend. That's it. So no one is more surprised than he, when he seems to be developing a close relationship with a woman he's never even met, via text message of all things. When Gray has to lend his own car to Drew for a while, he's left with no other options than to borrow the bubblegum-pink car belonging to Ivy Mackenzie, the daughter of his sports agent, whose studying overseas. She's none too happy that some jock is in control of her car, and sends him all manner of ominous texts about what she'll do to him if he damages the car in any way. Soon they are texting each other at all hours of the day, about much more than the car.

So when Ivy comes back home to the States, and Gray and Ivy finally meet, neither are wanting to risk their close friendship, even though they both find the other smoking hot. To add to the tension, Gray is one of Ivy's father's top clients, and Ivy isn't any more interested in getting involved with one of them than Gray is interested in ruining his chances with a future career. So it's best if they just stay friends...right?

Gray is the tight end (and yes, there are lots of jokes to that effect) on the same college team that Drew from The Hook Up is the quarterback of. They are best friends, and really more like brothers, considering Drew is orphaned and Gray's father and brothers were less than supportive to him growing up. Gray was a nice supporting character and he's a good protagonist as well. Not ashamed of his past sexual exploits, Gray is nonetheless aware that what he shares with Ivy is something special and shouldn't be taken lightly. Ivy, in contrast, hasn't really dated a lot, and has trust and commitment issues due to her sports agent father's lack of presence in the lives of her and her younger sister, as well as fidelity to their mother.

The friends to lovers story is a common trope in romance, but for it to work, the friendship needs to feel real and established. If this part is hurried, the romance doesn't feel as earned, in my opinion. Here, while Gray and several of his friends are surprised, he really does make a genuine connection with Ivy. This is possibly because the only visual reference he has of her is a photo of her as a young teenager displayed in her father's office, while they get to know each other though their in-depth text conversations. By the time they actually meet, and realise that the person they've been texting with is someone they find very physically attractive, they are both very invested in making their platonic relationship work.

Of course, the more time they spend together, the more staying platonic proves to be a challenge. Unlike in The Hook Up, where Drew and Anna start having sex quite early on, and Anna at least doesn't even want to like Drew, so they build the rest of their relationship slowly from there, the unresolved sexual tension between Gray and Ivy continues for a fair bit of the book, and when it's finally broken, it's quite explosive. Once they do give into their feelings for one another, the issue of their future becomes a serious question, as Ivy has been studying and working in London with the intention that she will take over one of her mother's successful bakeries, while Gray is obviously on his way to a hopefully successful sports career.

I really liked this book, and based on these two books, I really do need to check out more of Kristen Callihan's Steampunk paranormals, of which I've only read one so far. I wasn't blown away by the first one, but I've enjoyed her New Adult books so much that I'm going to give her paranormal historicals another chance.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 57: "The Hook Up" by Kristen Callihan

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Anna was either bullied or completely ignored in high school. With the exception of a few loyal friends, she was pretty much a social outcast. She has worked hard to become comfortable with herself and her body image. So when her college's star quarterback addresses her as "Big Red" in one of their shared classes, he instantly earns her animosity. Drew Baylor is tall, gorgeous, extremely athletic and popular in all areas of college life. As Anna just wants to keep her head down and finish college without attracting undue attention, he's pretty much her polar opposite. She's unsure why he even spoke to her, but they are from different worlds and she sees no reason why she needs to fawn over Drew, like everyone else.

Drew knows how lucky and privileged he is. He's a star on the football field, but works equally hard to excel in his other academic subjects, knowing that the chances of injury for a professional football player are high. Having lost his parents in a car accident, his team mates are pretty much his family. As the star quarterback, he has women constantly approaching him, but the only one he's interested in is the imperious and stubborn Anna, who won't give him the time of day. He watches her in class, wondering how to get a second chance to impress her, as it's quite clear she's completely unfazed by his prowess on the football field.

When Anna's room mate drags her to a frat party, Anna and Drew meet in a new arena. Sparks fly, turning absolutely scorching. In the coming days, they keep finding excuses to hook up. Anna is very clear that she doesn't want it to become official, and would prefer them to keep it only about the physical. Drew quickly determines that Anna is the only one he wants, he just needs to work diligently to win her over.

A lot of the New Adult books out there seem to be about a studious, often shy and sexually inexperienced young woman falling for some sort of emotionally scarred bad boy. The only previous book in the sub-genre I've genuinely loved is Trade Me by Courtney Milan. In that as in this, both protagonists have emotional baggage, and neither is exactly virginal. As in Milan's first foray into the sub-genre, the guy is the one who's the most emotionally committed, with the girl being reluctant to commit long term. With the exceptions of his team mates and coaches, Drew has no one and is ready to make a deeper connection with someone. Unlike several of his fellow football players, he's not really interested in the casual hook-ups with the many beautiful, but frequently fame-hungry women throwing themselves at him.

In addition to a whole host of confidence issues because of being bullied when she was younger, Anna also has severe trust issues. Her father abandoned her and her mother when she was little, and her mother seems to be a magnet for douchy guys who take advantage of her and frequently make Anna feel uncomfortable. Most of them end up cheating eventually. Anna's room mate is dating the captain of the lacrosse team, who pretty much treats her like dirt. So Anna's view of men in general is not great, and her trust issues are understandable. Drew is the most popular guy at their college, and she's aware of how much attention he gets at all time. She doesn't believe that there is anything about her that could hold his interest for very long. Of course, her resolve to keep everything in their relationship about the purely physical starts to erode the more time they spend together.

The book alternates between Anna and Drew's points of view, frequently letting the reader see the scenes through both protagonists' eyes and because Callihan lets us inside both parties of the romance, it's really clear how they feel about each other at all times. Drew is instantly smitten with Anna, and curses himself for making such a bad first impression on her. Anna is wholly uninterested in sports, and having been a social outcast in the past, disbelieving that any guy as gorgeous and popular as Drew could actually have any real and lasting interest in her. Of course, as it turns out, it's her being so reluctant to really commit that ends up really endangering their future relationship.

Once both parties acknowledge that they're crazy about each other and Anna works through her trust issues, an additional complication is thrown in their way. Suddenly Drew's insecurities come into play, and Anna needs to prove her commitment to him, in order for the couple to find their ultimate HEA. For those of a pearl-clutching disposition, be aware that there are a lot of steamy sex scenes in this book. More so than I am used to in contemporary romance. I didn't really feel that it got in the way of the characters' emotional journey, but if you like your romances lighter on the graphic sex (who are you and why are you reading my blog?), then you may want to give this one a miss.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 79: "Heaven, Texas" by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

The ridiculously named Bobby Tom Denton was Chicago Stars' famous quarterback until he sustained a career ending knee injury. Now he's unsure of what he's going to do with his life, and deeply frustrated about it. When the tenacious and bossy Gracie Snow turns up on his doorstep and announces she's going to escort him to his hometown Telarosa (formerly Heaven) in Texas to start shooting the action movie he agreed to star in. Gracie's spent most of her life living a sheltered existence, working in a retirement home, and is now determined to make her new job as a production assistant a success. If she can't get Denton to Texas on time, she'll be fired.

More used to leggy, promiscuous models than prim, mousy virgins, Bobby Tom is fascinated with Gracie, but not really all that interested in following her orders. When he finally does arrive on the film set, more than half a day late, he discovers that his selfishness has dire consequences for Gracie, however. She's fired, and devastated. He demands they hire her back, as his personal assistant, agreeing to pay her salary. As Gracie has already shown that she refuses to take any kind of charity from Denton, and is appalled by how many people who seem to be blithely taking advantage of him and sponging off him, the producer agrees to pretend she is still paid by the film studio.

It seems like every single person in Telarosa and the surrounding area has some eligible woman they want to introduce to the former quarterback, now future action star. Bobby Tom is sick of all the attention and declares that Gracie is his fiancee. To make this a convincing charade, he also gets his widowed mother to give her a makeover. Of course, as soon as she starts dressing her age, applying some makeup and has a decent haircut, Bobby Tom Denton is not the only man in Telarosa to notice Gracie Snow. What is he going to do if she decides that she has enough of him bossing her around, and takes off with someone else?

Mrs. Julien skipped this book because she just couldn't deal with a hero named Bobby Tom. I agree that the name is truly ridiculous, but the book is pretty much a funny romp. As seems to be the case in a lot of Phillips' books, there is also a secondary plot running through the book, involving an older couple, in this case Denton's widowed mother and the richest man in town, who is hated by nearly everyone and keeps threatening to shut down his tech company, which would be the final nail in Telarosa's coffin. He's been in love with her since they were both in high school, but never thought he could have her, and proceeds to blackmail her into dating him, in a manner that I frankly found quite despicable, but he is also filled with very believable remorse afterwards, and grew on me as a character.

Bobby Tom is quite ridiculous and I frankly don't understand why Gracie put up with him for so long before putting her dainty foot down and telling him what's what. He's used to being an adored playboy and having had his career drastically cut short, never took the time to consider what he wanted to do once football was no longer an option. Emotionally immature but sexually experienced, he seems to think that giving Gracie a makeover and seducing her is doing her a great favour, never really stopping to take in how much she's improved his life since he met her. While he's self-centred, he's also nothing but courteous, kind and far too generous with everyone around him, even when they are taking advantage of him both financially and emotionally. He doesn't seem to think that he should ever say no to anyone, and cannot for the life of him understand why Gracie won't take the expensive gifts he wants to give her, or insists on paying rent to stay in the spare room above his garage.

Gracie is awesome and my favourite part of the whole book. She's the reason I'm giving the book 4 rather than 3.5 stars. Having devoted herself to helping others in her mother's care home until said mother retired to Florida, she is finally trying to create a new life and identity for herself. Used to surrounding herself with pensioners, she's a bit overwhelmed when she starts making friends her own age and really blossoms when she starts settling in Telarosa. She sees Bobby Tom for who he is, both his good and bad qualities, and hates that everyone around him seems to take him and his tremendous wealth for granted. Since Bobby Tom barely has anything for her to do as his assistant, she makes herself indispensable on the film set, doing everything from running the catering truck to babysitting, as required. She's determined not to let Denton see how head over heels in love with him she is, knowing that they are from such vastly different worlds that she doesn't have a chance of him loving her back.

With the exception of the beginning of Denton's mother's romance, which was a bit creepy, and a minor subplot involving an old girlfriend of Bobby Tom's and the jealous town sheriff, her fiancee, which just didn't work for me at all, this was a very fun, and quite often silly romp. I can see why it's still on the Top 100 list over at All About Romance. Plus, I can now say that I've read a romance where the hero was called Bobby Tom. Never thought that was going to happen.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 77: "It Had to Be You" by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3 stars

Phoebe Sommerville is a bundle of daddy issues and sexual hangups, masquerading as a drop-dead gorgeous blonde bombshell. Clever, sensitive and oh so very vulnerable, Phoebe learned long ago that the best way to keep men at a distance and getting her own way is by pretending to be a sexy airhead. Estranged from her horrible father since she was 18, having done as much as she could to shock him, Phoebe is shocked to realise that even after his death, he is trying to manipulate her. His will stipulates that she has inherited his successful NFL team, the Chicago Stars, and has to stay in Chicago and run it until some big pre-Super Bowl championship (I know NOTHING about American football. Football to me, a Norwegian, is soccer. I finished this book more than two weeks ago and can't be bothered to go back and find the relevant name). If the Chicago Stars win this championship, she will keep the team (and rob her douche-wad cousin out of the inheritance he was sure he was going to get). If they lose, she will at least get enough money to start the gallery she's always dreamed of owning. To add to her complications, Phoebe also becomes the guardian of Molly, her fifteen year younger sister, who hates her because she believes their father loved only the eldest, and was the sort of stand-up guy to really leave his daughters with crushed self esteem.

Phoebe decides that dear old dad, the team and the terms of the will can screw it. She tries to befriend her sister, with little success. Dan Calebow, former star quarterback and the new coach for the Chicago Stars is not going to let some bimbo keep his team from achieving their chance at victory, though. His extreme masculinity is everything that Phoebe finds most attractive, but also terrifying. She agrees to do her share in the running of the team, but forces Dan to keep on the geeky Ron McDermitt as general manager. As they start working together to get the Stars to their championship, Dan starts to realise that Phoebe is not the ditz she appears. Having a wealth of insecurities and hangups of his own, due to women not treating him right, Dan now wants to find the perfect little homemaker who can bear his children. It very much complicates things when he keep his thoughts or hands off Phoebe.

It Had to Be You is the first of seven books in Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Chicago Stars' series. As Phillips has no fewer than eight books on All About Romance's Top 100 Romances (last compiled a few months ago),  and seven of those books are this series, I pretty much had to see what all the fuss was about, and I believe in starting at the beginning. This book was written in 1994, and it's quite clear that contemporary romance (and romance in general) has come a long way since this book was written. Even so, it's clearly beloved by many, as it's 19 on the top 100 list. I found a number of things problematic with the book, though.

I really couldn't stand Phoebe's father (which is probably as it should be). I also hate when rape is used as a character-building plot device. One of the things that caused Phoebe to run away, was that she was raped when she was seventeen, and her father refused to believe her. This led to her ending up in Paris and getting even more disillusioned about sex as she tried to get over her shame, before discovering that she could dress and act provocatively, but constantly reject the men around her, thus keeping herself safe. Her best friend is gay. Her scandalous and elderly artist lover was gay, although few know that.

Dan's ex-wife is a congresswoman who's bossy and into all sorts of kinky stuff and never wanted kids. Even after their divorce, they keep meeting for random hook-ups, because Dan can't really say no to her. He had an abusive father and a weak-willed mother and is determined to give his own kids the love, stability and idyllic home life he himself never achieved. He believes he's found the perfect candidate to be his baby mama, a timid, quiet nursery school teacher, who he obviously wouldn't dream of even touching inappropriately before marriage. He's convinced Phoebe doesn't have a maternal bone in her body, never getting close enough to her to realise that a stable, harmonious family life is what she has dreamed of her entire life. He has no problems using her to get rid of his pent-up sexual tension, but is surprised at how innocent and inexperienced she seems in the bedroom.

Molly, Phoebe's younger sister, is a brat. I didn't like her much, but again, douchy daddy did a number on her, so her trust issues are probably justified. Unfortunately, she's not really fleshed out much as a character and barely rises above annoying plot moppet level. Some of the other supporting characters are delightful, though. I loved Ron, the geeky general manager, who Dan is forced to realise does a really good job even though he's not a jock, and Viktor, Phoebe's gay BFF.

In my experience, current contemporary romances don't have quite as much unnecessary drama as this book does. There are some truly preposterous obstacles in the way of Dan and Phoebe's HEA, both external and emotional. The final act of the book is, as my partner in romance reviewing, Mrs. Julien points out, ridonkulous. I rolled my eyes more than a little bit. I suspect I would have liked the book a whole lot more if I'd read it when it came out.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.