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TITLE – GRIFF MONTGOMERY, QUARTERBACK
SERIES – FIRST & TEN
AUTHOR – JEAN C. JOACHIM
GENRE – Sports Romance (or football romance)
PUBLICATION DATE – 2/11/2015
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) – 238 pages
PUBLISHER – Secret Cravings Publishing
COVER ARTIST – Dawne Dominique

He wants to find a wife. She doesn’t want to marry again –ever. Not exactly a match made in heaven. Ten years ago, Griff Montgomery, star quarterback of the Kings and womanizer, became a stand-in father for his widowed sister’s kids. His happy family life collapsed when she and her new husband moved to California. Griff wants his own family. But where does a “player” go to find his ideal mate?
Having sworn off marriage forever, Lauren Farraday barely kept her life together after her divorce. With her career shaky and depression closing in, the last thing she needed was a courtroom battle with a sexy athlete.
Forced, by a judge, into an uneasy truce, the pair denied their growing chemistry. Wary of Griff’s reputation with women, and hiding a secret, Lauren keeps him at arm’s length. Determined, Griff marches toward his goal. Can the quarterback handle the truth or will he walk away, like he always has in the past?
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“Even better.” Carla licked her lips. “I’ll bet she has no idea you’re having sexual fantasies about her.”
“I’m not. It was an accident,” he hissed.
“Sure, sure. Keep telling yourself that. Wonder what she’d think if she knew?”
“Don’t, Carla. Please don’t. I’m begging you.” Griff reached for her arm, but she shook him off.
Buddy faced the quarterback. “What the hell did you do?”
“You don’t wanna know.”
“Oh no. You didn’t?” His eyebrows rose.
Griff nodded. “Guilty.”
“Whoa, stand back, Tony. There’s gonna be some fireworks in a minute.” Buddy pushed Hastings to the wall.
“You wouldn’t be lying, now, would ya?” Carla asked, directing her stare at Buddy.
“See for yourself.” He gestured to the brunette at the corner table.
“Lauren!” Carla cupped her hands and yelled.
Lauren stood up, turning to face them.
“You Lauren?”
“Please, please, Carla. I’m sorry, so sorry,” Griff whispered. “Don’t do this.”
Griff is a player, in all senses of the term, yet he harbors a deep-seated yearning to fill his life with kids and a family. When his house is up for renovation, he needs a place to stay. And as luck would have it, Lauren has a room to let, she has visitation rights with the Pug, and she desperately needs the income.
Lauren is a victim of bad timing, a bad relationship and an uncertain future with her career. She’s twitchy about relationships and a bit passive-aggressive about how she deals with the new man in her house. It took a long time for me to warm up to her, and even at that it’s still on the lukewarm side.
The story didn’t get rolling until Griff and Lauren became a (reluctant) couple. That’s when the real, underlying conflicts became interesting and I rooted for them to work through all their issues.
This is a fast read with some timeline and continuity issues: about how and when Lauren scores the reno job, about the timing of events (some major disconnects here), and about niggling little details pertaining to football game schedules. I also had some issues about the one note banter in the locker room and elsewhere when Griff and his teammates seem stuck in adolescent male exchanges. The biggest disconnect came at the end when Griff comes to a decision that makes no sense at all and seems to be a game changer after all that has happened between him and Lauren. It made me cringe in irritation, and unfortunately even after a happy resolution it still left me uneasy.
I very much enjoyed this first in the series and despite some unevenness in the story-telling, this road to true love—with its speed bumps and dropped passes—will definitely satisfy most romance readers. I'm looking forward to the next book. Four stars.

Jean Joachim is a best-selling romance fiction author, with books hitting the Amazon Top 100 list since 2012. The Renovated Heart won Best Novel of the Year from Love Romances Café. Lovers & Liars was a RomCon finalist in 2013. And The Marriage List tied for third place as Best Contemporary Romance from the Gulf Coast RWA. She was chosen Author of the Year in 2012 by the New York City chapter of Romance Writers of America.
Married and the mother of two sons, Jean lives in New York City. Early in the morning, you’ll find her at her computer, writing, with a cup of tea, her rescued put, Homer, by her side and a secret stash of black licorice.
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