sports romance

REVIEW: Power Play by Nancy Warren

REVIEW: Power Play by Nancy Warren

Dear Ms. Warren: Emily Saunders was in Elk Crossing for “a wedding she didn’t want to attend with far too many of her family and friends asking nosy questions about her own continuing single status” when her hotel becomes infested with bed bugs. Another traveler at the hotel is Jonah Betts playing in his Old(…)

REVIEW: Paradise Rules by Beth Kery

REVIEW: Paradise Rules by Beth Kery

Dear Ms. Kery: I really enjoyed Wicked Burn, your debut novel, enough so that I hunted down and purchased quite a few of your ebook backlist titles.   From those I can see that you have eclectic writing tastes and from those I’ve come to acknowledge that, personally, only your straight up contemporaries work for me.(…)

REVIEW: A Dark Love by Margaret Carroll

Dear Ms. Carroll: I picked this book up because I had the jones for a good romantic suspense and when I paged through it I discovered that the hero is a former football player. WIN! I love sports related books. Alas, it wasn’t a sports related book but I still liked it. I’m not sure(…)

REVIEW: Cold Midnight by Joyce Lamb

Dear Ms. Lamb: I wanted to read this book because a) I love sports books and b) so few of the sports books ever feature female athletes. The sports/athletic aspect of the book was the best part. The rest of it? Didn’t work so well. <—What is going on with that chick’s breasts? Kylie McKay(…)

Thursday Haiku Moment:  True Love and Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson

Thursday Haiku Moment: True Love and Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson

You are new to me And I love a good contemp (And hockey heroes) Sadly, this was not The read I was looking for. Almost, but not quite. Faith is ex-Playboy Bunny and stripper who wed A millionaire Sound familiar? Yep. It’s a romance spin of Anna Nicole Smith. But Faith is ‘special’. Because she(…)

WINNERS OF GIVEAWAY: Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy

The winners of the Hard & Fast Giveaway sponsored by Berkley, a division of Penguin publishing, are below. Special thanks to Berkley for giving away these books. We all appreciate it. If you are curious about the book, there is a review written here. This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent(…)

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy

UPDATE: I’ve closed the comments and will announce the winners later tonight. Dear Readers: As you know, Sarah of SmartBitches and I have been making an effort to read and promote the straight contemporary. We’ve taken May off to recover from our DABWAHA tournament and we’ll have another STC candidate coming soon. In the meantime,(…)

REVIEW: Snowbound by Larissa Ione

REVIEW: Snowbound by Larissa Ione

Dear Ms. Ione: When I finished this book, I felt a bit regretful. In looking at your publishing schedule, it doesn’t appear like you’ll be writing more straight contemporaries anytime soon. Snowbound was a sweet and sexy contemporary that could have easily been published at say, Harlequin, in the Blaze line.   (just for a frame(…)

REVIEW:  Bodycheck by Elle Kennedy

REVIEW: Bodycheck by Elle Kennedy

Dear Ms. Kennedy: I was excited to see another sports book in the Harlequin Blaze line.   My last encounter with a sports Blaze was Hard and Fast by Lisa Renee Jones and I enjoyed that book quite a bit.   Bodycheck is a hockey book and it suffered a bit in comparison to another hockey book(…)

Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment:  a Deirdre Martin Two-fer

Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: a Deirdre Martin Two-fer

Power Play by Deirdre Martin Celebs faking love Same plot as the SEP But here I love it Eric’s a player Both in hockey and dating His new team hates him Monica? Soap star In trouble — about to be Upstaged by rival Cure to their problems? Fake romance for publicity It’s a win for(…)

REVIEW: Crash Into Me by Jill Sorenson

REVIEW: Crash Into Me by Jill Sorenson

Dear Ms. Sorenson: I have read your category novels and thus I was excited to make the transition to full length mass market novels.    This book had very real characters and very steamy love scenes. I found the suspense to take kind of a back seat to the deception/romance story and that, at times,(…)

REVIEW:  Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis

REVIEW: Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis

Dear Ms. Shalvis: I’ve read and enjoyed Blaze books written by you and I’ve purchased your full length books   in the past but it wasn’t until I got a prod from SB Sarah that I actually read one of your full length novels. I’m so glad I did. Katie Kramer survives a near fatal tragedy(…)

Midweek Links of Interest

Freedom to Tinker provides 2009 predictions which include netbook/larger iPhone at $899; civil lawsuits over violation of terms of service based on Lori Drew case; Obama administration prosecutions for large scale bittorrent abusers. Alpha Heroes wonders what is up with the animal-like genetalia.   Rhev (the hero in JR Ward’s next book) is a sympath whose(…)

REVIEW:  Driven to Distraction by Ashleigh Raine

REVIEW: Driven to Distraction by Ashleigh Raine

Dear Ms. Raine: I think someone brought this to my attention because I mentioned I liked sports books.   I never really equate sports and cars, but I suppose it falls under the same rubric of entertainment.   This story is a car book and a movie book.   I liked the movie aspects more but for a(…)

Stephen King Does SportsCenter, the Commercial

I haven’t been watching SportsCenter lately so I missed this commercial of Stephen King serving as a ghostwriter for the anchors. Sports Center Kingby bsap11 It’s a better bit than the Amex commercial he did: Send to Kindle