Game Changers book 1
We start off with a lie on Valentine’s Day.
My blind date isn’t the studious guy I expected: he’s a drop-dead gorgeous player with sinful amber eyes. Somehow we end up at his penthouse. I blame the gin and tonic.
The next day I learn he’s Jack Hawke—bad-boy professional quarterback with a murky past. The NDA he has me sign should be a warning that he isn’t a regular person. Please. I sign it Juliet Capulet, so goodbye, famous football player with abs of steel, and good luck tracking down this small-town librarian.
But Jack keeps showing up in places I least expect him. Just when I’m sure he’s gone, he waltzes into my community theater and wins the part of Romeo to my Juliet. How’s a plain, mostly innocent girl like me supposed to resist a man like him?
Is Jack my real Romeo . . . or will this gorgeous football player only break my heart?
The Revenge Pact was my first Ilsa Madden-Mills book and since I enjoyed River and Anastasia’s story, I wanted to try another. The first chapter was a bit rocky because Elena was kind of extra with a pet pig and her insistence that designers don’t know what real women want so she makes her own clothes. There’s nothing more one-dimensional and boring than a stereotype so the quirky, not-like-other-girls heroine is always a dud. It’s simply not possible to be interested in weak women who base their entire identity on being different just for the sake of being different. It’s a cliché for a reason, because that character sucks. Thank goodness I stuck it out though because Elena ended up being great. It’s a fun story and a damn steamy one. The sex scenes are hot and the characters had more depth than expected.
This kind of sex, it . . . it can’t be normal. Can it? This consuming need and desire, this fire that licks at us, that makes his eyes burn for me, that puts that expression of emotion on his face . . . Does he always look at me like that? As if he’ll never let me go? As if I’m . . . vital to him?
Jack won me over immediately and although it took Elena slightly longer, I liked them both so it was easy to root for this couple. She’s recently had her heart broken and can’t trust anyone, especially not the star quarterback who happens to be a tabloid regular. He’s shy by nature with a rough past and just got burned by the only woman he got close to, so he’s just looking for some casual fun. Nobody wants their feelings involved but these two are drawn to one another in a major way.
Elena is scared to confront her feelings but Jack pushes. He’s just as afraid, but he knows ignoring these feelings would lead to regret so he won’t just let her go. Fate keeps throwing them together and his perseverance makes him impossible to resist. There’s a shady ex for Jack and a family secret Elena carries to add tension but these characters are waging internal battles because they’re the only thing standing in the way of their own HEA. This is a lovely story with fun supporting characters and MC’s with more depth than expected. There are minor plot points here that set up the next book in the series, too. I enjoyed it very much and will continue the series.
