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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

REVIEW -Winning Her (Perfect Stats #1) by Amber Malloy

18+ In the span of a year, Bane Carter acquired a new job, his brother’s four kids, a crappy nanny and, worst of all, his ex-wife. What could possibly go wrong?


REVIEW

I've read one or two... three... anyway very few "sports romance"s. The first reason is that I don't quite understand why it was necessary for such a sub-genre. Goodreads says "Books with some lovin' and some sports. Usually, a main character has something to do with the professional sports business". Some... some??? But hey, let's ignore the definition and see why you should read Amber Malloy's Winning Her.

the sports thing -  both characters are related to sport and the sports business is the world in which they are involved now. Not interested in sports ladies, relax, you don't have to know about football as the actual sports references were avoided given Mrs. Malloy's inspiration to use only what it was necessary to build the background, set, atmosphere... reasons and explanations... solutions...

the romance thing - is a second chance romance type romance. We don't receive too much information about what "she" has done (romantically) after she broke up with "him", but her reasons are pertinent and understandable given the circumstances. For that, she remains among the good guys even if she's the one to break up the first time.

the characters: there are strong and imperfect, but perfectible. Their pride and lack of communication were two of the missing binders from their first relationship. Read the book and we could talk more about it and see if I was right. A LOT of time passed, they are a little bit wiser or at least they are mature enough to see and admit (at some point) what they want and need. To our benefit, they fight (or trying to) against it. For the story benefit and my amusement, hers "too good to be true" aura is tempered by her sassy personality. He's not far behind. 

the plot: is not too heavy, but Mrs. Malloy still challenged her characters both on the individual and couple level. Between cold, neutral and "baking hot" moments, their hurdles race kept me interested in what was to come next.

So, sports lovers or not, romance readers or not, Winning Her could be a pleasant way to spend your day. Game on!

Description:

Release Date: April 21st, 2020

In the span of a year, Bane Carter acquired a new job, his brother’s four kids, a crappy nanny and, worst of all, his ex-wife. What could possibly go wrong?

Rule number one—never help an ingrate! Ignoring that hard-learned lesson put Dahl Baby Hamilton straight in the path of her famous ex. All she has to do is save her cousin’s failing restaurant, First Down, then she can go back to her fabulous life. But the main financier—Bane Carter, her ex—finds out and decides to make her life a living hell. Either she becomes the personal chef for an ailing house manager, one neglectful nanny and his four charges or risk having her reputation ruined. What’s an award-winning chef to do when her sexy ex-husband is blackmailing her?

The only black GM in the league, former football hero Bane Carter has his work cut out for him. It’s bad enough that he has to navigate around a dysfunctional team, but the recent passing of his brother and his wife have given him full guardianship of their kids. On top of all that, the last thing he needs is to bump into the woman who broke his heart at the worst possible time—the beginning of his career.

After two failed marriages, Bane realizes he has always been searching for the one who got away the first time. Of course, he doesn’t expect to find her in the same city, let alone cooking in his restaurant.

Reader advisory: This book contains references to a seriously mentally ill parent requiring a minor to take on a caring role. There are implied references to suicide via gunshot. There are also references to sex work, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape, and scenes involving sexual harassment, violence and burglary.

About the author:
Amber Malloy dreamed of being a double agent but couldn't pass the psyche evaluation. Crushed by despair that she couldn't legally shoot things, Amber pursued her second career choice as pastry chef. When she's not writing or whipping up a mean Snickers Cheesecake, she occasionally spies on her sommelier. Amber is convinced he's faking his French accent. 

Author's Giveaway
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9 comments:

Dale Wilken said...

Sounds really great.

Julie Waldron said...

Congrats on the release, sounds like a good book.

Cali W. said...

Thanks for the giveaway and I like the excerpt. :)

Shelly Peterson said...

Sounds like a good read.

wendy Hutton said...

great cover, this book sounds pretty interesting

Sherry said...

Sounds like a good book.

James Robert said...

Thank you so much for taking time to bring to our attention another great read. I enjoy these tours and finding out about many terrific books.

johnthuku0 said...

This looks like a great novel to go through. Thank you for the giveaway.

Bernie Wallace said...

Which character was your favorite character to write for?