The Deal With Love by Jamie Wesley (One-on-One #3)
Released: June 13, 2016
Contemporary Romance
Entangled

Reviewed by Mandi

When filmmaker Christian Monroe runs into fiery—and frustrating—Elise Templeton at a party, the night quickly becomes the hottest one-night stand of their lives. But then her boss hires Christian to make a publicity film about Elise, and suddenly they’re in each other’s space. All day. Every day. And things are getting hotter…

Outside the bedroom, the two have nothing in common. Elise is focused solely on becoming the NBA’s first female general manager. And Christian learned long ago that being a work-a-holic—or being with one—is a recipe for disaster.

But the more Elise reveals her deepest desires and fears to Christian—something she’s done for no man, ever—the more Christian wonders how much longer he can keep his hands off the infuriating woman who rocked his world

After reading the blurb, I found this to be a nice twist on a sports romance – the heroine is the one involved in the sport – yay! And she is set to become the NBA’s first female general manager. Girls rule! But first, she has to convince her father, who owns the team, that she is right for the job. Elise’s father still sees her as his little girl, even though she has been a successful assistant GM for some time now. The book opens with Elise at an engagement party for the Dallas Stampede’s favorite player, and his fiance, who turns out to be the sister of the hero. Elise is happy for the couple but finds herself not in the greatest of moods. She has never been in love, and doesn’t understand how getting married can be the highlight of your entire life. She understands her work but she doesn’t understand the workings of her heart. To be open and vulnerable to someone else is too scary for her.

But our sexy hero, Christian is going to try to change her mind. Christian is a documentary film maker and a teacher. Elise meets Christian at this engagement party as he gives her cheesy pick-up lines to make her smile. And oh does she smile at him. They have great chemistry and the flirtation leads to some sexy kissing. But Elise is hell-bent on getting the GM position, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for Christian. But since they are so compatible, she decides a nice friends with benefits arrangement would work for her – and he agrees as well.

Elise does get the job, but then she has to prove herself to everyone that she can do the job well, even though she is a woman. She has a lot of critics and a lot of people waiting for her to fail. Her first big move is to sign a basketball player by the name of Drew. Her father wants him signed, instantly but Elise recognizes that Drew is a little skittish. She gently introduces him to Dallas and decides to let him take his time to make his decision.

During this time, Elise and Christian are getting more hot and more heavy, and Christian wants Elise in his bed full-time, something Elise isn’t ready for. There were times during this that Christian acted a little immature. Elise had agreed to come to his school for career day, but then a meeting popped up with Drew that she needed to attend, making Christian pout and be offended she had to cancel. There is another time when she has to fly out to meet with Drew to avoid a crisis, and again, Christian is upset and gives her a hard time for canceling their plans together. I can only imagine that a GM has a very busy, and unpredictable schedule. I’m sure there are issues that come up all the time that must be addressed promptly, so I can only imagine a GM is always cancelling personal plans and working late and weekends etc.. Christian’s father was a basketball player, and although estranged from him for sometime, the basketball world is not foreign to him. I would think that with Elise’s new job, Christian should be her champion, not causing her additional stress. He does apologize – but it rubbed me the wrong way.

I liked their romance and I really liked Elise. I had to give the side-eye to Christian once in a while but otherwise it’s a nice read.

Grade: B-

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