Date Published: 3/10/2014
Book Three in the Kemmons Brothers Baseball Series (Can be read as a Stand Alone)
Female professional football quarterback MJ Rooney has her eye on the prize, a record-breaking, championship season. Sure, it would be nice to have family support, but she believes in herself, and she has her teammates. That’s all she needs to win … until a scuffle at a baseball game sends her over the railing and onto the field with a concussion that threatens her season.
Dr. Tag Howard isn’t a baseball player like his brothers, but that doesn’t mean he can’t contribute to the game. He’s poised to become Major League Baseball’s go-to sports medicine doctor if he can rehabilitate Gold Glove Centerfielder Grey Kemmons, who happens to be his estranged brother. It’s a lot to take … until an unorthodox angel crashes into his life with a concussion and a fresh perspective.
MJ doesn’t need a man. She needs a championship ring. Getting messed up with a sexy, doctor and his family baggage isn’t going to get her there. But the attraction is undeniable, and there’s surprising freedom from expectations in each other’s arms … until Tag’s brothers want a reunion that requires him to own up to his ugly past, and MJ’s season teeters amidst the distractions. Would life apart be easier?
Read an excerpt:
M.J. watched as people passed the open door to her exam room. Some looked in and smiled, but she couldn’t manage to muster the strength to smile back. In fact, she was just about to get up and close the door when a handsome man in a white coat passed. They made eye contact for a brief second before he disappeared in the same direction the nurse had.
But then he was back.
“You,” he said, smiling.
It was a wonderful smile, bright and white, balling his cheeks and squinting his eyes, defining his chin with a sexy v-shaped crease.
“Me?” M. J. questioned.
He stepped into the room, wearing the same smile along with a pale blue dress shirt and crisply pressed gray pants visible from the split in his white coat. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
“No.” One word was a better bet than letting her incredulity slip out amid a full sentence. If she’d met a man like that before, she’d certainly never forget him.
“You’re Miss Rooney, aren’t you? I examined you on the field after you fell.”
M. J.’s jaw dropped. “Oh,” she managed, despite the embarrassment heating her face. If she didn’t remember him, God only knew what she’d done or said during their exchange. She wasn’t exactly mealy-mouthed.
“How are you feeling?” He tilted his head and rolled his gaze over her, a hint of that smile lingering in his beautiful hazel eyes.
Physically? “Better.” Mentally? Like a fool, because she was trying to place him, but nothing that happened after she toppled over the railing and before Felicia arrived at the hospital made sense. And now she was gawking at this crazy-attractive man.
“How’d you end up at Fellows’ clinic?”
“Dr. Ridge.” She matched the tilt of his head with her head. “He’s my team physician.”
Dr. Sexy’s eyes widened. “Which team?”
“Clash,” she said without hesitation, maybe even a little too fiercely. She’d just been laughed at too many times to count.
When he chuckled, she wanted to slap him, but he looked so damn good doing it.
“Now it makes sense,” he said. “You told me you belonged on the field when I asked how you got there, and then you asked if you’d been sacked.”
He wasn’t laughing at the fact she played football? Interesting.
“Knock, knock.” Dr. Ridge stood in the doorway. “Go find your own patients,” he directed at Dr. Sexy. “Better yet, go get some pizza before I finish it off.”
Dr. Sexy smiled again as he nodded, exuding a nonchalance that had M. J.’s muscles bunching, bracing against the attraction.
“Miss Rooney,” he said. “It was nice to see you again.”
It was, wasn’t it? Even if she didn’t remember seeing him the first time.
**My thoughts**
This is my first book in the Kemmons Brothers Baseball Series that I have read. I definitely think it can be a stand-alone, but am interested in checking out the first two in the series, as you get a chance to meet the other two brothers.
MJ and Tag have definitely been used and abused by their families. They have not been respected for their proficiencies, instead often being ridiculed for not fitting into a preconceived notion of what they should be doing. Tag got lucky and got out early, but the damage had already been done. MJ is still struggling.
They have the kind of chance encounter that often exists in fantasies and leads to an amazing relationship that helps them to complete each other. It isn't a perfect relationship, by any means. Both of them have been alone, on purpose, for a long time. They both have a ton of healing to do and can easily accidentally hurt each other even more as they work on creating a new sense of self with each other. But it's still a fun ride to read.
I do love that MJ is a professional female football player, who can easily outplay many men. It's a fun change of pace in the lead female character. Tag is a brilliant doctor, but they do make a good match. Enjoy this over a weekend of relaxation.
Elley Arden is a born and bred Pennsylvanian who has lived as far west as Utah and as far north as Wisconsin. She drinks wine like it’s water (a slight exaggeration), prefers a night at the ballpark to a night on the town, and believes almond English toffee is the key to happiness.
Elley writes provocative, emotional, contemporary romances, where Mr. Not-My-Type ends up being Mr. Right.
Website: www.elleyarden.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elley-Arden-Author/540667649278016
Twitter: @elleywrites
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Female professional football quarterback is what intrigues me the most about this book. Entering under the name of Virginia
ReplyDeleteWhat intrigues me the most about this book is the female quarterback. I here stories all the time about the men in professional sports, I like the idea of a female.
ReplyDeleteI like that this book has a female doing something that's not stereotypical female. And that she is doing it because that is what she wants.
ReplyDelete