Review: The Game of Love – Jeannette Murray

The Game of Love by Jeannette Murray
Series:
Release Date:  August 29, 2011
Publisher:   Carina Press
Page Count:  250
Source: NetGalley

Chris St. James is ready for normal. After walking away from her pro tennis career and a toxic relationship with a star hockey player, she’s starting a new life as a teacher and tennis coach in a small town. Now all she needs is an average guy to share it with. 

Brett Wallace is no average guy. Forced to retire from the NFL after an injury—and suddenly single after being dumped by his status-conscious wife—he’s returned to his hometown to coach the varsity football team. Wary of women interested only in his celebrity, Brett finds Chris’s indifference to his former career refreshing.

The last thing Chris needs is to get involved with another pro athlete, but she can’t deny the sparks that fly between them. So she agrees to a purely physical, no-strings-attached affair. But the rules of the game change when she falls for him…

Can I say, I love never better than a book about a hot football player.  Brett  Wallace is a hottie!!

After one too many concussions, Brett Wallace was forced to retire from playing professionally, but not from the game itself.  He’s now the head coach for the high school in his hometown, where he tries to recover from being married to a woman who was only interested in his money and status as a pro athlete.

Chris St. James has left behind behind professional tennis, her pro hockey player ex-boyfriend and her disapproving parents to make a life for herself in the town where her best friend lives.  As the new high school girls tennis coach and a math teacher, she’s finally hoping to put all the verbal and mental abuse behind her.

When Brett and Chris meet, it’s immediately like mixing oil with water.  She can’t stand her holier than thou attitude (since it brings up bad memories) and he doesn’t like her ballbuster attitude.  While Brett may not like her attitude, his body has other ideas and soon he finds himself fighting off an attraction he hasn’t had for a woman like Chris before.

Chris fights Brett as he pursues her, but soon they’re steaming up the sheets.  Just when things look like Chris and Brett will finally get the happy ending they deserve, Chris’ past shows up intent on having things go back to the way they were before she met Brett.

If you like a really good story with a couple of ex-professional athletes, this one is for you.  My only complaint is making my second favorite professional athlete (hockey players) the bad guy, but I’ll be forgiving for the sake of the story.