Beauty and the Baller by Ilsa Madden-Mills Series: Strangers in Love #1
Published by Montlake Publication Date: March 29, 2022
Pages: 314
Also in this series: Princess and the Player
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Find on: Goodreads
An NFL quarterback turned small-town coach gets sacked by a Texas beauty queen in this swoony, passionate romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills.
Gorgeous, talented, and brilliant, NFL quarterback Ronan Smith has the world in his hands. But after losing his career and his fiancée in a car accident, he falls into a pit of grief and bad choices. When a mysterious girl shows up to his party, he feels drawn to her and makes her his…for one night.
Former beauty queen Nova Morgan is on a mission. Scantily clad as a princess from a galaxy far, far away, she sneaks into a high-profile party to capture the attention of her favorite quarterback. But her hopes crash after an awful one-night stand.
Fast-forward two years. Broke and desperate, Nova returns home to Blue Belle, Texas, where, by a cosmic twist of fate, her broody neighbor is none other than Ronan, the shiny new football coach everyone adores. But he has no idea who she is.
The booster club keeps shoving women at Ronan to keep him in town. His solution? He proposes fake dating to Nova. But things heat up for real under these Friday-night lights when he realizes she’s the one who slipped away.
Has this jaded beauty found her forever baller, or will his past keep them apart?
This book has been sitting on my kindle for a while. I’m not sure why I didn’t read it as soon as it came out, but here we are 6 weeks later when I finally tapped the book cover on my kindle screen. This was me the past day and a half.
Ilsa Madden-Mills does it again. She creates the perfect mix of wit, laughs, angst and smexy times. Nova and Ronan were perfectly imperfect. From the moment these two met again in Blue Belle I knew this would be a fun ride.
Nova and Ronan have baggage…x-large steamer trunk size luggage. Ronan closes himself off praying that he can keep his heart closed off forever while working towards his new career goals. Nova is back home in Blue Belle to take care of her 15-year-old sister. But the last place she wants to be is back home where the reminders of how her life went wrong are all around her. Fate puts these two in Blue Belle at the perfect time and dared them to fight the chemistry. They fought it…but it was a losing cause.
I loved the two of them together. They seemed to balance each other out (Nova did have a few crazy moments) and help each other learn to trust and love again. Despite what either of them said or thought, Blue Belle reminded them what it meant to have a family and community behind you; supporting you. Given what both of them had been through….they needed that.
I also enjoyed watching them embrace that community. The kids on the football team, the kids in class, their teacher peers and their very nosy neighbors rallied around each other when it was important. These secondary characters were so enjoyable (Skeeter obsessed with meat and Sonia speaking with a British accent 😂 ) they make me want more from this small town.
If you haven’t picked this one up yet…do so. It was hard to put down and left me with a smile when I was done
About Ilsa Madden-Mills
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Ilsa Madden-Mills writes about strong heroines and sexy alpha males that sometimes you just want to slap.
She’s addicted to all things fantasy, including unicorns and sword-wielding heroes in books. Other fascinations include frothy coffee beverages, dark chocolate, Instagram, Ian Somerhalder (seriously hot), astronomy (she’s a Gemini), Sephora make-up, and tattoos.
She has a degree in English and a Master’s in Education.
When she’s not pecking away on her computer, she shops for cool magnets, paints old furniture, and eats her weight in sushi.
Shannon
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