REVIEW: Only On Gameday by Kristen Callihan
Dear Kristen Callihan,
How wonderful to have a new book in the Game On series! I have missed this author’s books and I’m so glad she’s publishing again. (Only on Gameday features a hero with four siblings and I can only hope this book is also book one in the Luck Family series. Perhaps if I wish hard enough I will manifest it?)
August Luck is a quarterback for an LA-based football team (the team name is never mentioned so it may or may not be the Rams – the Rams are my team’s arch-rival so I choose to think it’s not) in his rookie year. He went number one in the draft and has a lot of pressure on him. Apart from being the number one draft pick, his elder brother, January (Jan) was also an extremely successful QB until a car accident ended his career. And, his father, Neil, was a legend of the game. August’s younger brother, March (yes, the entire family are named after months of the year – they have sisters May and June) is a year behind him and plays wide receiver.
August’s mother Margo’s best friend is Anne Morrow, a Broadway star. Her daughter is Penelope Morrow. Penelope’s father ran off with her nanny and basically abandoned her thereafter so Anne changed Penelope’s surname to match her own and it was just the two of them from thereon out. Because Anne and Margo were so close, Penelope grew up with the Lucks. Her best friends are May and June and she’s also close with March.
Penelope has had a thing for August since she was a girl but August barely spoke to her and she was/is convinced he didn’t like her. For his part, August was convinced of the same because Penelope would clam up and stop talking when he entered a room and would never meet his eye. We romance readers know what that really means of course.
When Penelope visits the Luck family home in Boston while on a visit from California where she’s in her last semester at UCLA, she and August come face to face with each other as adults and suddenly things are different. Oh, it’s still awkward, but things are happening nonetheless.
…March rests his arm around my shoulders and turns to a stone-faced August. “How long has it been since we’ve seen Penny, Gus-Gus?”
“Since your high school graduation,” August answers woodenly.
March and I are the same age, and we graduated together. Has it been that long? I suddenly feel ashamed that I’ve been neglectful in visiting the Lucks. Well, not all of them, just the males. Then I note the blank stare August is still subjecting me to. There’s a good reason I’ve stayed away from him.
March doesn’t seem to notice our weird tension. He pulls me more securely against him. It’s strange. Once, I might have swooned if he’d done that, but now it feels more nostalgic and comfortable than anything.
“Doesn’t Penny look great?” he asks August.
Okay, now I’m uncomfortable. I resist the urge to pinch March.
August blinks down at me. “She looks nice.”
The compliment sounds like it’s been dragged from him, delivered in such a deadpan, disingenuous manner that I give him an overly bright smile. How’s that for nice, mister?
As if reading my mind, he frowns and tries again. “You have nice teeth.”
Oh my. August has it bad. He basically said “I carried a watermelon”. LOLOLOL
Anyway, August and Penelope end up on the same plane back to LA the next morning and they spend the flight talking and enjoying each other’s company. August has been messing up a bit off-field and needs to reset his image. Penelope has inherited her grandparents house in Brentwood – it’s beautiful and worth a fortune but she can’t afford the property taxes and her mother refused to help her (this gave me the impression Penelope and Anne’s relationship was a bit more fraught than it turned out to be) and August suggests Penelope be his fake fiance for the season to improve his image and in return, he will pay the property taxes on the house. She is less than impressed by his offer.
“You’re fuming.” He sounds concerned. Worried. He should be. I have drawing pens in my bag and I’m not afraid to stick them in painful places.
“I’m not.” I don’t know how I manage to get the words out so calmly. But I’m proud of my aplomb.
“You so are. You sound like a constipated robot.”
Well, then.
“And you sound like a . . . a . . . big penis spew!”
A woman walking past does a double take.
August chokes on a laugh, his stride tripping. “A what?”
He laughs again, all amused insouciance, but I see the tightness around his icy eyes.
“You heard me. Whatever. I’m trying not to curse in public.”
“And penis spew is acceptable?”
Oh, he’s loving this. I want to stomp on his big size thirteens.
“Shut up.” There’s no heat to my demand; I’m too embarrassed to form words with any force.
He bites his lower lip. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sprung it on you like that.”
“You shouldn’t have said it at all. That was mean.”
“Mean?” He stops mid-stride, taking me by the elbow so I have to halt too. Foot traffic breaks and flows around us like we’re rocks in a stream. “No, Penelope. It was an honest proposal.”
What? What?
“What!” Apparently, I’m stuck on the word.
His handsome face twists in a grimace. “Shit. I am so fucking this up.”
“You think?”
He runs a hand through his hair, making the ends stick up wildly. “Look, I’m parked in the lot. Can we talk while I drive you home?”
His expression earnest, and my curiosity is running wild. I wilt.
“Okay, but if you pull any more wack shit, if you haul off and ask me to have your baby, or say you have twenty-four hours to live and need a kidney, I’m going to be very put out.”
“I kind of like angry Penelope.”
“Shut. Up.”
“On it.” He does the zipped-lip gesture, but it doesn’t hide the twinkle in his eyes.
“It’s lucky for you that you’re so cute.”
August’s brows lift high. “Cute, huh?”
“I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” I turn and continue walking, ignoring the wide, delighted grin on his jerk face.
Penelope refuses the money but… eventually she ends up agreeing to the fake relationship and the rest, as they say, is history. The thing is, they both adore each other but neither is aware of it, thinking their feelings are only one-sided. So, when they’re together, they have amazing chemistry and get along great. The fake thing isn’t fake for long but it takes them a while to actually acknowledge it.
In the meantime, shy Penelope is thrust into the spotlight by her famous boyfriend. It’s uncomfortable and some of her interactions as a result are upsetting to say the least. Not as much was made of this as I expected it would be. Some of the incidents didn’t seem to have a lot of work to do in the story. Penelope also meets Monica Reyes, a beautiful Latina actress who is dating August’s teammate, tight end, Trent “Jelly” Gellis. I didn’t need for him to be number 87.
As I was reading the novel, for the most part, I was so caught up in the delightful and sizzling banter between the couple I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to much else. After I finished, I realised there were some things that felt a little underdeveloped or unexplored. Perhaps that is me being a details person or perhaps it was also just that I wanted to spend more time with the characters and/or in the world of the book, but there were some things left hanging for me.
But, the relationship between August and Penelope was all the things. I loved this couple together. So much so, I was metaphorically reading while peeking through fingers covering my eyes, worried about the pending third act break up – the sense of approaching doom was so strong. It just felt like a jenga puzzle which was about to come tumbling down. You know those books? Where you know it’s coming but you just don’t want it to? That.
However, I will say no more here about the last section of the book apart from that I was happy with how things worked out.
I devoured Only On Gameday in only a few nights of reading and I’m definitely on board with books for all of the Luck siblings (and even a prequel book which has Neil and Margo getting together – hint hint) but I admit I’m hanging out the most for Jan’s book. (He’s tortured and sad! He needs a happy ever after, stat.) Reading a new Kristen Callihan book felt like coming home in the best of ways.
“And you’re willing to take that risk with me?”
“Penelope, there is no risk with you.”
Grade: B+
Regards,
Kaetrin
