Reviewed by Mandi

I really wanted this to work for me because I love sports romance. This features a hero who is a sports analyst and a heroine who has a new job as a sports sideline reporter, both working for the same large sports network. But from the very beginning, this story never quite grabbed me. Leila is very well versed in sports, especially football, so when her new boss treats her like a dumb dumb, she holds in her frustration and smiles. She knows she can prove her intelligence once she gets started with her job, which she does very well. Leila is a good interviewer and very good at analyzing facts and statistics. As a side job, she runs a very popular fantasy football picks site. (I love fantasy football so this made me smile).

Her first day on the job, on top of having to deal with her annoying boss, she meets her co-worker, Jackson. He takes an immediate, and I mean immediate, liking to her. His lust is overflowing and he starts to call her Sunshine and Leila does reciprocate this lust somewhat..

Let me take a quick break to say how annoying it was that Jackson called Leila “Sunshine” the first day on the job. I just found it unprofessional and a bit disrespectful. It’s one thing if he has gotten to know her and they become friends and he thinks of a nickname, but she is a stranger to him and it rubbed me the wrong way that he started doing this.

While they lust after each other, it was a little over the top for me. There was just so much lusting I got tired of it. Jackson also makes it clear that he only has no-strings sex – so that puts the brakes a bit on their eye humping.

“So because of your secretly complicated life, you only date women who want…”

“Sex.” His eyes stayed glued to hers as he dropped the one word like a bomb. “Just sex. At their place, not mine. Occasionally, with lunch or dinner as well, but never breakfast.”

Wow. That was the definition of just sex, all right.

Leila does impress everyone on with her work performance, earning much respect….until they find out she runs that Fantasy Football pick site, which she could be using insider information to make those picks.

After we make it through that hurdle, we encounter another one. It’s a secret, so I don’t want to blurt it out – but I will put it under a spoiler (it’s not a huge, horrible secret or anything)

SPOILER:

This changes the focus of the story from sports to the secret. Boo. And other things are introduced – some suspense type stuff – and I just didn’t like how it all turned out.

Leila and Jackson are sweet together – but they just didn’t do a lot for me.

Grade: C

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