The Boston Tomcats #3
e-ARC provided by authors
Authors: Kayley Loring and Connor Crais
Callum ‘Duke’ Duquette likes things a certain way – his way. And things haven’t been going his way lately. His 11-year-ol daughter suddenly thinks he lives to embarrass her and his lovesick teammates (and his boss!) keep trying their horribly incompetent matchmaking skills on him. He’s the best placekicker in the NFL, dammit, and (according to Mo’s wife no less) the most attractive player. So why don’t people just leave him alone? Oh, but the Universe is out to get him! In the most NoraEphron/NottingHill fresh hell kinda way, he’s thrown in the middle of a rom com fake dating nightmare. Why do you ask? He’s accidentally “but grabbed” (and obviously paparazzied in the process) by none other than British movie star Millie Darden in a bookstore and now he’s suddenly cool again to his kid and his teammates are off his back. Huh?!… Maybe this can work to his advantage…
Millie’s in Boston for a movie shoot and accidentally bumping into this guy and suddenly being tossed into the spotlight as his “date” was the meet-cute she definitely was not expecting. 1) He plays the “wrong kind of football” 2) He’s Dookie Frownser 3) He hates her movies! The nerve! 4)Why is he so handsome, dammit? But her publicist thinks this is the best thing that could happen to her image, so why not give this a try? Plus he had her at how sweet he is to his daughter.
Fake dates, a planned break-up… perfect. Until the actress is no longer acting and the athlete with the nerves of steel is shaking with, oh man, feelings.
There is a special kind of magic that happens for a rom com to work for me. The fine line between having me eyerolling and me grinning like a fool in a puddle of swoon is very thin and they tend to stay on the eyerolling side of things. So what is this sorcery that Kayley/Connor use on me? The superb writing. The right amount of shenanigans to make it funny, the perfect dose of steam to make it hot and the absolutely masterful way to make me SWOON.
Did I laugh? I freaking cackled. But what ALWAYS gets me is their ability to hit me in the feels.
This book was especially my favorite of the Tomcats: single dad catnip, sassy British heroine, a lovable kid, the text convos, the internal monologues… Perfection.
I want Millie to be my best friend and Duke is mine. And thanks, Connor, for, in a roundabout way, admitting which one is the “real football”. It had to be said.
(No acronyms were used in this review and I’m proud of my restraint!)
