Aubrey Cooper has had a thing for back-up quarterback Flynn Foley since he joined the Hawks. But with their strict no dating company policy, she has never been able to make a move since she is the publicist for the team. But when word starts getting around that Flynn might be traded, she decides to take a shot. They end up spending a passionate night together, and the press catches her leaving his house late that night. With photos of the virgin golden boy out, they have no choice but to pretend that they are a real couple in order to protect both of their careers. But Flynn and Aubrey are starting to develop real feelings and soon both are beginning to wonder what the end of the season will mean for their relationship. And what happens when Flynn finds out that the whole fake relationship was actually their boss's idea to begin with and that he was basically blackmailing Aubrey into pretending?
I thought that Aubrey and Flynn were both good characters, but I honestly never connected with them. Flynn was known as the golden boy of the team. His entire life focus until Aubrey had been football. He was a sweet and nice guy virgin, and I was glad that he was different from most of the characters that seem to be the heroes for contemporary romance stories. But to me, he was almost too much of a good guy. While he was likable, he wasn't super sexy or alluring to me. I wanted him to be a bit more cocky. There is just something about a man that knows what he is doing and shows his confidence without being a total jerk, and Flynn just wasn't that guy to me. Aubrey was smart and a bit shy. She had wanted Flynn for awhile but for multiple reasons had never pursued anything with him. I will say that her actions were confusing to me. She liked him and wanted him, and yet she kept putting an end date on things. Aubrey and Flynn were cute together and had some chemistry, but I was just never invested in their relationship and I didn't really care one way or the other about them.
My biggest issue with this story was that I didn't understand the circumstances surrounding the fake/kind of real relationship between Aubrey and Flynn. Why wasn't Aubrey trying to make things real when that is what she had wanted the whole time? Plus the blackmail thing just didn't work for me for the same reason. Why would someone need to blackmail her into a relationship that she already wanted? And why not just tell Flynn what was going on? If she really cared about him and liked him then started to actually fall in love with him, her actions just didn't make sense to me. I also felt like this book just didn't have the steam that I am used to for a Brazen novel as well. I wasn't really feeling the heat between them, and most of this book seemed to be centered on all the drama surrounding their relationship rather than them actually having one. While I did find Flynn's character refreshing, this wasn't my favorite from Karen Erickson.
**ARC Provided by Entangled Publishing**
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Sounds like there was some contriving going on just to blow up some drama instead of letting natural conflict take place. Too bad!
ReplyDeleteI like the gentler more beta heroes once in a while for a change of pace so I might give it a try just for the hero.