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Football is a purely American sport that epitomizes all the values that we hold dear in our country: hard work, teamwork, toughness, victory, and glory. Football is a fast-paced game of action that could change on any single play. The anticipation of a game-changing play always keeps fans on the edge of their seats, waiting for the moment to explode in jubilation.
Football is America’s game.
So take a sports reporter trying to rebuild her career, a college football coach trying to rebuild his own position in the sport while leading his alma mater back to the glory days, and two romance shy people wondering if they dare take a second chance on romance and what do you have?
Numbers Game!
Former NFL player and coach Duncan “Hatch” Hatcher fumbled his career and marriage. Now divorced and ready to tackle his future, he has an opportunity to redeem himself as coach of his college alma mater’s football team. But how can he can turn the team’s losing streak around and keep the secret of his downfall buried when the school agrees to a documentary that will allow a lovely journalist to dig her way into his past…and into his heart?
Olivia Grant’s ex-husband almost wrecked her journalism career while he definitely did a number on her self-esteem. The documentary on Duncan Hatcher is the perfect way to rebuild both. As a freshman in college, she’d had a crush on the senior football hero, but he hadn’t known she existed. She never expects the sparks that fly between them as they work on the project nor the struggles they must face if they both want to win.
Hatch winced at the memory of how goofy he must have sounded to the lovely woman he was going to be having a fair bit of contact with this season. Olivia Grant was, without a doubt, beautiful, not to mention sexy as hell. She was a natural reporter, putting him at ease, even in the face of his high-school-ish reaction to her at first. But dear Lord, the crap he’d said? That shit about her being “better than she thought” at the race? And “looking for a foot in the door”? He’d sounded about as slick as the grandpas he’d been named for.
He groaned and pressed his forehead to the leather blotter on his new desk. After his divorce, he’d made a point not to notice women, something that was a bit of a self-imposed penalty. But there was no not noticing Olivia. Her soft, dark blonde hair that kept dropping over one of her deep green eyes as she’d look down at her notes, then back up at him. That smile, and those full, barely lip-sticked lips. And there was no denying she had a body that would be hard to shake out of his brain. Scott had told him she used to play soccer here, a few years behind him as an undergrad. How he’d not known her… Granted, he hadn’t been a big partier then, kept mostly to himself and his close group of friends and, as always, focused on the game.
But damn. He’d missed out on something then, without a doubt. He felt his face flush red and his entire body begin to react in ways that didn’t really serve him well as a fully grown man, with plenty of experience under his belt, so to speak.
Thankfully, she’d left before he could embarrass himself anymore.
Home. Shower. Beer. Stare at a string of old movies on the giant television screen. Anything to get the lovely Olivia Grant and all her many attributes out of his head. She was, after all, the media. And everyone knew how he felt about the media.
It was get a grip time—on all parts of himself.
This was his chance at redemption. The opportunity was a godsend, considering the sorry state he’d left his life in on the west coast, and he didn’t intend to do anything to screw it up. He couldn’t afford to get distracted by a single thing. But how the hell was he going to do that when Olivia Grant might prove to be the biggest distraction of all?
Meet the Authors
USA Today best-selling and award-winning author Desiree Holt writes everything from romantic suspense and contemporary on a variety of heat levels up to erotic, a genre in which she is the oldest living author. She has been referred to by USA Today as the Nora Roberts of erotic romance, and is a winner of the EPIC E-Book Award, the Holt Medallion and a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice nominee. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The (London) Daily Mail, The New Delhi Times and numerous other national and international publications.
Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville living in Central Illinois. She’s spent her time as a three-continent expat trailing spouse, mom of three, real estate agent, brewery owner and bar manager, and is currently a social media consultant and humane society development director, in addition to being an award-winning author. With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, inside fictional television stations and successful real estate offices, and even in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are compelling and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, at times frustrate, and always linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.
I’ve shared photos of my favorite fur babies before. Here are Phil, Lil, and Kimi the goats, along with Brandy the horse. Not shown in the picture is the other horse, a 35-year-old Appaloosa pony named Kansas. Our inside animals include 9 dogs and 5 cats. And yes, we have too many animals, but we’re not giving them away or dumping them on the road. They have forever homes with us.
For a chance to win a download from my backlist of books, tell me about any pets, past or present, that you’ve loved!
As a writer, it’s important to refill my muse. I relax by taking photographs of nature. One of my favorite places to visit is the marsh.
At the marsh, I never know what type of bird or animal I’m going to see. This spring, a young Great Blue Heron has arrived. He’s gorgeous, and I hope he stays.
I often see eagles at the marsh. On rare occasions, one lands nearby, and I can take close-up photos.
With the spring migration beginning, I keep watch for new birds flying through. This spring I’ve had the pleasure of seeing several new ducks.
Shore-birds are interesting to watch. One of my favorites is the seagull. They have such interesting attitudes.
Take care, and wishing you a wonderful spring!
Contest
***ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog post about, ‘Nature’s Inspiration – Life At The Marsh,’ on Delilah’s blog between 18 April 2021– 25 April 2021. The winner will receive a signed copy of His Woman, book #2 in the bestselling The MacGruder Brothers Series.
About the Author
A retired Navy Chief, Diana Cosby is an international bestselling author of Scottish medieval romantic suspense. Books in her award-winning MacGruder Brothersseries have been translated into five languages. Diana has spoken at the Library of Congress, Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC, and appeared in Woman’s Day, on USA Today’s romance blog, “Happy Ever After,” MSN.com, Atlantic County Women Magazine, and Texoma Living Magazine.
After her career in the Navy, Diana dove into her passion – writing romance novels. With 34 moves behind her, she was anxious to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met throughout the world. After the release of the bestselling MacGruder Brothersseries and The Oath Trilogy, she released the bestselling The Forbidden Series.
Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey.
TGIF! The weekend’s almost here! And my sister, Elle James, will be here for a visit! Woot! It’s been a good while since we’ve seen each other. We’re both vaccinated, but we’ll likely still keep the distancing thing going because of the kids. We have lots to talk about. We always do.
And I have to close in on the end of the book that’s coming out on April 27th. Yes, I know I’m down to the wire! I’m enjoying the story. It’s lots of sex. This couple only opens up when they’re in bed. Do you mind? 🙂
Have you ordered your copy? Click on the cover if you haven’t! I’ll be nagging you more over the next week…
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me one thing you’re thankful for this FRIDAY!
I’m currently writing, Tin Toy, the second book in the Silver Cyborg Series, about a cybernetic librarian who looks like a pin-up model, kisses like an angel, and fights like a trained assassin. I thought it would be fun to make her a huge fan of Romance, and associate common Romance tropes with various situations she’s in. Like May-December romances, secret baby, and bad boy billionaire, just to name a few.
And, as is common when I write, my characters often hijack the story. Recently, librarian Betty did just that during a conversation with her love interest, Everett Dean. While I hadn’t planned it, she took that opportunity to explain why she loves Romance novels.
And it occurred to me that we might all have our different reasons for reading Romance. For me, it’s the escapism and the HEA/HFN. Stories without an emotionally satisfying ending leave a bad taste in my mouth. Movie example: hubby and I rented La La Land a few months ago, and I walked away in tears and vibrating with anger. Spoiler alert – the two characters don’t end up together! I loved the singing and dancing and piano playing and even the rest of the story, and yes, it’s more true to real life that people can love each other and still part ways. But, I WANT MY HEA!
So, I’m here today to pose the question to you: Assuming you read Romance, why? What is it that draws you to the Romance genre?I’ll select a random commenter for a $5 Amazon gift card.
Excerpt from Tin Toy, Betty’s response to the question…
“So, is that what women really want in a man?”
Her face screwed up in a frown as she considered her answer. She glanced around the aisle and clasped the book in her hands. “I don’t think you can take romance books as a literal guide. There’s too much diversity in personal tastes in the genre to land on any one thing in common where that’s concerned. Instead, I think they are written permission for women to embrace their own polarizing desires.”
“Desires? I assume you’re not just talking about what they want in bed.”
“I can’t deny that’s one aspect.” She shrugged. When she continued, her words were hesitant and measured as if she pulled them from a deep, unfamiliar well. “But it’s so much more. I think many women like the idea of having a man who can take care of them, even if she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. That a man can be as imperfect as we so often feel we are, and it neither diminishes his masculinity nor mocks our femininity. That a man can accept our love and cherish it for the precious gift it is and not use it as leverage or sully it with selfishness. That love is not restricted by trivial things such as money, geography, social status, or physical attributes. That, for each woman, there is at least one person who finds us beautiful, desirable, and—above all—worthy.”
She stared at the floor and tapped her fingers against the holo-book in her hand, her voice soft, almost wistful. “At least… that’s my theory.”
About the Author
Ava Cuvay is an award-winning bestselling author of Sci-fi Romance featuring sassy heroines, gutsy heroes, passion, and adventure… often set in a galaxy far, far away. She resides in central Indiana with her own scruffy-looking nerfherder and kiddos who remind her daily she’s not nearly as cool and hip as she thinks. She believes life is too short to bother with negative people, everything is better with Champagne, and Han Solo shot first. When not writing, Ava is thinking about writing. Or wine. And she’s always thinking about bacon.
I talked about this movie before. It’s out on DVD now, and I’ve bought my copy! It’s destined to be a cult classic. Is it a good movie? Well, if you like serious, edifying movies, filled with deep symbolism and tragic themes, this one’s not that. If you love a crazy, silly story with characters that break out in song (really, hilariously bad songs!), this one’s for you. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I laughed so hard during a movie, but when my family humored me by streaming this movie when it first came out, I can tell you we all laughed throughout it (well, all except the SIL 🙁 ). Thought I’d just make this suggestion. It’s one I’ll probably want to watch every time I’m super bored or feel like mixing drinks and having a laugh with my dd. It’s a keeper! And did I mention it stars Jamie Dornan?!
I’m currently writing, Tin Toy, the second book in the 
