Montgomery Bell craves adventure-the kind that knocks on your door and drags you out by your half-slept-on hair because it can't wait another second.
The problem is, she still lives thirty minutes away from where she grew up, in a college town obsessed with the one thing she hates: football.
It doesn't help that Montgomery wouldn't know the difference between an interception and a fumble if one hit her in the face.
When she meets Baron Richards, it practically does.
Baron is a rising star in the professional football world. Their worlds collide, sending Montgomery on the kind of adventure she never even thought to look for.
Finding love isn't the end of the story. You have to figure out what to do with it once you catch it, and run like hell to make that happen.
Don't worry, Montgomery's running...she just doesn't quite know which direction yet.
Mr. Sportsball is not your typical sports romance. It's a full-length, standalone novel that will have fans and anti-fans cheering for the same team.
Recommended for 18+ due to language and sexual content.
I shake my head. "I'm sorry."
He frowns, but he keeps holding the door open. "What are you sorry about?"
I'm sorry I can't walk through that door. I'm sorry I can't date a football player. I'm sorry I can't seem to get over that detail. "I can't go on a date with you."
"Tonight?" I can tell by the way he asks, he already knows the answer. I see his fingers loosening their grip on the door handle.
"Ever." The word feels like a heavy stone thrown to the bottom of my stomach. The weight is sudden and uncomfortable.
"Because I play football?" He says it like it's a hobby he picks up from time to time, like he knits scarves or paints watercolors of sunsets, as if it's something that can be taken out and then packed away when the hour is up and it’s time to go back to normal life.
But, this is normal life.
People recognize him. He has the power to make or break someone’s day, and all because he plays a sport I would rather pull off my own fingernails than sit down to watch. I look at him, and that stone in my stomach feels even heavier.
"We're just different people."
"Because I play football." He lets go of the door and walks over to a chair underneath the coffee shop awning next door. He's processing what I'm telling him, and I follow him and sit down too.
He's quiet for another moment, and then he turns to look at me. His blue eyes are so crisp, I bet if I looked close enough I could see his thoughts like an airplane spelling words across the sky.
He leans his elbow on the table and rests his chin on his fist. I have to use all my willpower not to stare at his tan forearm, but really, I don't know where to stare that doesn't make me want to throw my defensive stance out the window.
"So, you're telling me that if I had walked over to you and given you my number the other night, and I was a professor or a plumber or a bartender, you'd go out with me. But because I play football for a living, you're turning me down."
"Yes," I say quietly. The word feels hollow. It seems silly, but I know I'm right. Even if it is silly, I can't get past it, and I'm not going to lie and go on a date with him just to say I did.
"Hmm." Baron laughs to himself, like he finally gets the joke. "That's never happened before."
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Review
Mr. Sportsball is a fun sports romance. When Montgomery Bell meets Baron Richards, it was an unexpected thing, sitting in a sports bar waiting for her friend he was drawn to her. Though on his part the connection was intantaneous, Montgomery has no plans to accept his proposal of a date because of who she has discovered he is, but then she does. And so it begins.
Montgomery is fun and sweet, she's not a sports fan, she's got a past with a bad spot in it with another football player and she doesn't want to go there again, but there's just something about Baron she can't stay away from. She wants adventure and fun, and it's delivered ten fold as she falls for the charms of Baron and follows him to another state.
Baron is funny, loyal, smart, and direct. He knows what he wants and makes plans to get it. He finds himself wanting more from Montgomery than he ever expected and he's happy when she decides to give their relationship a chance, even though its new and different.
Mr. Sportsball is full of funny moments but also has more serious things mixed in. Baron's feelings about his career now and his plans for the future give a little bit of insight into the workings of his mind. I love that Montgomery knows what she wants but doesn't think she has what it takes to get there. In a way these two are very opposite, but what they have together just works well.
There's a lot of learning to do when you are dating a huge sports star, and because she's not a sports fan and not used to all of the attention, Montgomery makes a few mistakes, but she and Baron are able to work through them. I loved how Baron recognized the differences in Montgomery from the start and thats what drew him to her, that he recongized she was special.
Mr. Sportsball was similar in some ways to other sports romances, but also had its differences which gave it a bit of freshness, because It didn't read as completely predictable. The characters really made the story, Montgomery and her willingness to chase adventure and put herself out there in discovering who she was and what she wanted from life. Baron and his love and loyalty. The writing was so real and evoked so many emotions that I was hooked and couldn't wait to read more.
K.P. Haigh joined the adult world as a project manager. After spending years in spreadsheets, she put her love of blank notebooks to good use and started spinning words into love stories.
In a perfect world, K.P. would have a never-ending supply of coffee, carbs, and sticky notes. She corners the market on ridiculous facial expressions and is happiest when she's cooking for people or making them laugh.
She’s always up for crispy French fries and can’t wait for self-driving cars to take over the world so she can read on her way to everywhere.
K.P. lives in Seattle with the man who loves her crazy and their son, who inherited half of it.
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