Beauty and the Baller by Ilsa Madden-MillsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley and the author, all opinions are my own. I'm a long time fan of the author's work, and this one is a knock out! I loved every minute of Nova and Ronan's story.
This follows former NFL quarterback turned high school football coach Ronan, who is still grieving the loss of his fiancée. The people of the small town of Blue Bell, Texas where he is coaching happens to be where our female lead Nova is from. Nova and Ronan have met before, but when she moves home to take care of her sister and deal with her own grief, she finds Ronan is her new neighbor. Not sure he remembers her from their brief but steamy one night encounter, they don't exactly make the best of impressions on one another. Ronan has become the town's golden boy, and the town will do anything to make him stay as the coach. They are willing to do just about anything to get him to settle down and make Blue Bell their coach and they encourage Nova to make nice with her neighbor. The town's antics are kind of ridiculous. Booster organizations can get kind of crazy in real life when you have a competitive team (not sure if they are this crazy though).
Ronan isn't really bought into the antics of the community and the boosters, and he has plans for this future that may or may not involve high school football. He is undecided if his short term lies in Blue Belle. What he does know is that he is attracted to Nova and he is tired of being asked to date and marry every eligible bachelorette in town. He also needs an assistant to help him with his day to day responsibilities as coach. Nova needs a job, so when an opening as a part time teacher and personal assistant to the Head Coach opens up she reluctantly takes it knowing that it might not be a good idea. She has no formal teaching qualifications and she too is attracted to Ronan. Spending time as his assistant might not be the best idea especially because he is always surrounded by an entourage of women trying to garner his attention. They come to an arrangement that helps them both out, but it kind of backfires when their fake dating finds them having feelings for each other.
I love this! I loved the banter between Nova and Ronan. I loved Nova as a big sister to her neuro-diverse sister who is navigating being a teenager, dating, and the loss of their mom. I really love the relationship that Nova and Sabine have with each other. Nova has alot on her plate, but she figures it all out. I really liked the growth we see between Nova and Ronan. They both have to deal with grief and let go of past relationships to move on together. This has great side characters and wonderful humor. This also has some steamy scenes without being over the top. I highly recommend this if you like fake dating, enemies to lovers, and sports romances.
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