BEAUTY AND THE BALLER

A woman falls in love with the man she had a one-night stand with two years earlier.

Nova Morgan loves her life in New York, but after the death of her mother, she returns home to raise her 15-year-old sister, Sabine. Unfortunately, Nova’s precarious financial state means she has to find a job fast, and there’s a dearth of jobs in Blue Belle, Texas. To add insult to injury, Nova discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Ronan Smith, the NFL player she had a drunken one-night stand with in New York years ago. Ronan has worked hard to overcome his tragic past. He lost his fiancee and his career after a car accident, and the one-night stand with Nova happened in a haze of post-accident drinking and depression. Now the town’s high school football coach, Ronan is hoping to parlay his team's success into bigger opportunities at the college level; however, the people of Blue Belle hope that if they tie him down in a happy relationship, he’ll never want to leave. Ronan convinces Nova that fake dating is the answer to both their situations: He’ll hire her as his personal assistant, which will solve her money problems, while her presence will forestall the aggressive matchmakers. The romance is charming and heartfelt. Ronan is afraid to love again after the heartbreaking losses of his past, while Nova believes that love makes all things possible. The lively cast of secondary characters faces problems that feel modern—why are high school teachers vaping in a closet to relieve stress? Why is social media from the rival team so infuriating?—which keeps the small-town setting interesting and fresh.

A sexy, fun romance from an author who always delivers.