It’s spring, 1970. The Vietnam War has been raging for years with no end in sight. Janey Martin, a California college student and aspiring journalist is tired of writing puff pieces about her university men’s sports teams. She wants to be taken seriously as a journalist and as a woman. With riots at their doorstep, her wealthy father sends Janey to the Sorbonne in Paris to finish her college … education away from the chaos.
Janey is reluctant to leave the Big Story that is Vietnam, but vows to prove herself. Much to her dismay, her first assignment is to interview the hotshot star forward of a local soccer team. Janey is sure Adrien Rousseau is going to be like every other playboy jock she’s ever dealt with, but quickly learns there is much more to Adrien than meets the eye.
The mysterious, sexy footballer just might be the biggest story of Janey’s life.
First published as part of the Team Player anthology, now with a bonus, extended epilogue.
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Everytime I read an Emma Scott book, I get to be a better person. It’s feeding my heart and soul with her awesome story, life changing and emotional plots and wonderful charismatic characters. She will make every reader FEEL.
Diese novella transcends beyond any novella I have ever read. It’s such a real wonder how Emma Scott can put a real big touching story in a short novella. It was smooth and easy read, you can right away get the pictures in your head, like watching a big film. The romance between Janet and Adrien had me giddy good feel all over. Later as the story progressed, it would be more than just a love romance. They would share a deeper love. Not only as soul mates but for their shared passion for the good humanitarian cause. They are the perfect combination of a love team.
This is no ordinary love story. It’s a compact epic in a small pack. A 100% must read indeed.
One Good Man was part of the Team Anthology and is now released as a novella. It was my first read from this author and it won’t be my last one 🙂
A story that is set in the ’70s. Janey is a student reporter and when she comes to close to putting herself in danger, her father sends her to France. There she meets Adrian who is a big football player but has secrets he keeps on the down low. When Janey needs to interview him for a paper, his secrets will come out and she’ll find a story that will change both of their lives forever…
When I got The Player book on my kindle, I immediately go to Emma’s and didn’t regret it.
I love the story so much. I definitely didn’t expect this story so much. I wish Emma would make full length novel about Adrian and Janey
Wow!! I love Emma’s writing but this is very different from what I thought it was going to be, and so much more than I thought also. Set in the 1970’s in Paris with all the air and ambiance that goes with that setting, beautifully written and very vivid with its descriptions, I really enjoyed this!!
Janey want to be a professional journalist and is looking for that big story, which currently revolves around Vietnam. But she gets in trouble and her father sends her to Paris in the hope of it being quieter and keeping her safe.
She ends up being asked to interview the local football star, Adrien, as their team is hoping to be promoted and get into the professional league. Adrien is a medical student and comes across as a playboy, cocky and arrogant, but there is far more to him than would seem, and Janey sets about getting her story, not knowing just how hard she will end up falling for Adrien.
Beautifully compelling writing, full of emotions for such a short story, its really all packed in there!! I would’ve loved for it to be longer though, but hey ho!! I loved it all the same!! Such a talent Emma has, you never know what you’re going to get with her books, she can write just about anything and have me riveted within seconds.
This was first published as part of the Team Player Anthology, but is now a complete standalone with a bonus extended epilogue.
I was definitely surprised that this novella One Good Man took place in France in the 1970’s but it only made me more intrigued with the story and its direction. The atmosphere and ambiance was depicted in such a way that I felt I was in Paris myself.
Janey and Adrien’s journey towards their true dreams led them towards one another. She wanted to capture and write important stories for newspapers and Adrien wanted to help people, to be a doctor instead of a soccer player. Janey’s first story, the story of a soccer player and his team, wasn’t what she wanted but Adrian turned out to be so much more than a story.
I loved their first meeting at the restaurant La Cloche and also Janey meeting his strong sister Sophie. Adrien had so many layers and I enjoyed how Janey and her lovely personality slowly stripped him of them. They both brought out the best in each other and slowly a beautiful love too.
This novella only made me appreciate Emma Scott more as an author cause I’ll never know what to expect from her and her stories. One Good Man was different and beautiful. Her characters definitely made this story shine. Merci!
5 BadAssDirtyStoryOfMyLifeStars
One Good Man takes you back in time, to a place where the world was torn. Vietnam was coming to an end; soldiers were coming home but not welcomed.
Janey is wanting to be a journalist and craves the big story. But her decisions take her somewhere, that she thought she would never be. There she meets Adrien a football player or as they say in America Soccer. But the little story she is required to take becomes something so much more significant.
Scott has a way of writing, that is so beautiful. I felt like I was thrown back in time. I loved this Novella, and of course, I wish that this story was much longer. The beauty of her words guides you through the pages. One Good Man is a beautifully written love story, that will take hold of you and not let you go.
Overall, Five Boundless Stars
Janey and Adrian are going through a timewarp and they are stirring France into a fever pitch. Janey is chomping at the bit to report on something of merit. With Vietnam’s effects raging around her she knows her talents are being wasted on puff pieces. When her parents send her Paris to escape rising tensions of anti-war sentiment in America she decides she won’t let that stop her from reporting on what matters. In Europe though big stories apparently equate to Soccer, or Football, and lucky for her the profile piece is hers. She expected to be met with just another cocky jock with more brawn than brains, but Adrian is a surprise. Pre-med, handsome, funny, athletic, and caring – Adrian appears to be ever layered. Adrian has been trying his best to keep his family’s head above water. He wants to be a doctor but footballing plays the bills so his dream may take a backseat. When he meets Janey he wishes for the first time his life was as easy as it appears from the outside. Janey wants him to follow his dreams but he has responsibilities to uphold – what’s a baller to do?
As with all Emma’s writing there is a depth to the story that goes beyond the surface issues, how she manages to do this even in a novella I do not know. This is not just a story about a playboy soccer star and a future journalist, its about perception, duty, family bonds.
Set in the 70’s in France with its very own soundtrack, and references to the ongoing effects of the Vietnam war. Janey looks at the man beyond the football star, beyond the façade Adrien has created and finds the real story. I loved it, but I can always do with more when it comes to a novella and would love to see more of their story in the future.
A historical romance novella that packs a big punch. I read this latest from the pen of the gifted storyteller Emma Scott in one sitting. As it’s a novella it’s shorter but no less gratifying. You easily connect with the main characters and feel their connection to each other immediately. Scott’s writing fluidly takes you through their journey of meeting and challenging each other to be the best they can be and to follow their dreams. I could read more about them indeed however feel so satisfied in the time I spent with this story. One Good Man will leave you in awe of it’s rich story and deep romance. You’ll be wanting more of Emma Scott’s great writing.
This is only my second read story from this author and let me tell you that this 6 star story had me hooked from the very first page to the last one.
Set in the 1970’s, Janey is trying to make it as a journalist in a man’s profession. She is sent to France to finish her schooling. She has promised herself to never interview another athlete that is until her boss sends her to write a story on Adrien a soccer player. She wants to hate him so much but she can’t seem to stay away. He has a lot of skeletons in his closet that he wants to keep there but with Janey it’s different.
I was by far blown away by this intense and raw story. The level of written is amazing for being set in that era. This author knew her material about the France and the 70’s. I like it when an author writes in French without getting the translation in English. Which she does very well. It’s mostly a personal reason because I’m French and I feel like I’m reading a story twice.
There were some great surprises until the very end. The plot just got thicker and thicker until it shifted and left me speechless. Kept me intrigued until the very end.
A standalone novella told in a dual POV with an HEA. I strongly recommend this story.
Short but satisfying novella. I have read every Emma Scott novel and have never been disappointed.
Once again…. the brilliance of Emma Scott!
I absolutely loved these characters, and their story.
Adrien is so dreamy – and made even better because he’s not just some Neanderthal. He has real substance to his story.
Janey is stunningly intelligent, which just adds to her internal and external beauty.
I can never write a full review for a novella because I get scared I’ll accidentally post a spoiler –
Lol.
What I will say though, is that this book should never have been a novella! I wanted more Adrien and Janey!!
Another notch on the Emma Scott bedpost!
* I voluntarily reviewed and ARC for Reading Tigress *
‘Find a big story within a smaller one…’
‘Find one {a story} that looks like nothing on the outside {puff pieces if you will}, but once you crack it, something incredible comes out.’
Janey Martin doesn’t doubt that these ideas are sage advice, but for an aspiring journalist – one who views the Vietnam War as the ULTIMATE BIG STORY, it’s difficult for her to take a step back and acknowledge that, oftentimes, it’s the less significant events or situations that have the most depth, that have the biggest impact on people because they’re relatable and because they matter in heartfelt ways…not to say that war and all that comes with it isn’t significant because it is, but the frontline – the one at home…the one that changes the dynamics of lives each and every day is where the focus is and while there is definitely a link to those bigger stories,
Janey is the perfect heroine because her imperfections, her passion, her snark, and her heart are all what makes her the best kind of reporter, and while she hates the fact that her father sent her away from what she thought was a story that would help launch her career, the real story…the one that not only changes readers’ opinions and casts things into a much different light is actually way more personal…way more important…and way more self-defining than any story she could have written about the Vietnam War or any other worldwide concern.
At first glance, Adrien Rousseau is just another rich and arrogant athlete – one whose cocky attitude and asshole antics make him personify every stereotype that Janey has ever felt about sports stars, but because the article she needs to write about Adrien is a means to an end, her arduous task becomes even more than the burden it already has, but not quite in the way Janey expected.
I love heroes who are perceived to be one way, but because readers are privy to their perspectives, they understand that these males created a persona to hide behind for one reason or another, and that is exactly what Adrien has done, and it’s why Janey begins to understand that he is nothing like she expected and that he is one mass of contradictions.
But the reason behind Adrien’s mask is not easily understood, so as Adrien and Janey’s story continues, Emma Scott allows her readers to do some investigating of their own as they are presented with Adrien’s conflicted internal thoughts and Janey’s astute observations and drive to uncover everything that Adrien works hard to hide.
One Good Man is an incredible story – one that illustrates the true measure of a man when it comes to not letting people down and accepting a set of circumstances that may not be what he would have chosen for himself. I loved how Emma Scott characterized Janey in a way that forced the heroine to look beyond Adrien’s mask because Janey’s inquisitiveness and her ability to read a situation pull her towards Adrien’s truth regardless of her initial reaction to him.
I’m so glad that I found Emma Scott when I did; I adore her storytelling because it’s obvious that she writes from her heart and that she listens to her characters’ voices and then shapes them accordingly because each one is incredibly dynamic, and that allows readers to understand all facets of who the characters are and why they do what they do…even when other characters may not understand.
Janey and Adrien’s story is not one I will soon forget because it truly showed just how fragile life is and why sometimes the best stories are the ones we write about ourselves just by living our lives.
5 Poison Apples
What Emma Scott has done within just a few pages of writing is quite remarkable. This story spoke to me on a level I wasn’t expecting. Set in the early 1970’s, Janey Martin is an aspiring photo-journalist caught up in the turmoil that is Vietnam. Getting arrested for being hauled in as part of a protest of the war when she was only trying to capture the event on film, she is promptly uprooted to France where her rich father deems her to be safer. Always striving to grab that big story in a male-dominated profession to make herself known, little does Janey know that her best friend Helen’s advice that ‘sometimes it’s the smaller stories that have the greatest impact’ would prove itself true in the most surprising of ways.
I felt as if I was right there with Janey as she fights her loneliness at Le Cloche in the heart of Paris and stumbles upon a fledgling soccer…sorry, football team whose star striker captures her attention and ultimately her heart. The sights and sounds the author relays as each chapter is titled with a song made popular during that time period swept me away into a world I had long forgotten. And once Adrien Rousseau is the center of Janey’s debut article to be published at the Sorbonne, her reticence at only being good enough to cover sports events quickly turns to gratitude as she discovers that this man is not only a great football player but he is truly that one good man we all dream about.
There is a glorious plethora of feels with each turn of the page. The characters are well thought out and endearing. The warmth that Janey and Adrien bring to one another is only superseded by the incredible selflessness the young Frenchman displays with those he deems to be family, whether his teammates or his parents and sister. To say I fell head over heels right along with Janey is an understatement. Adrien is magnifique!
Yes this is a lengthy review but you need to realize that One Good Man is exceptional and everyone needs to know it. And read it. My heart is full at having been able to devour this gem from Emma Scott. 5+ stars!
I went into this novella totally blind, not having read the blurb first and I was pleasantly surprised. I was a little leery at first when I found out the book took place in 1970’s California and then France during the end of the Vietnam war but it only made me more curious about the story and what direction it would go in. This novella was definitely different than anything else I’ve read by the author but I actually ended up enjoying it for the most part.
Janey and Adrien’s pursuit of their dreams led them directly towards one another. She wanted to capture and write the biggest and most important stories as a journalist and he wanted to be so much more than just a football (soccer) player. Janey’s first story for her college newspaper wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but she soon finds out that even the smallest stories can turn into big and important ones.
I loved their first meeting and later when Janey meets his family, especially his sister Sophie. Adrien had so many layers to him and I loved how Janey slowly and surely peeled away each one till she saw the real Adrien. He always wore a facade for everyone else but he let Janey see the real him behind the cocky, playboy football player that he was to everyone else. They really brought out the best in one another and were just the perfect couple. While I loved this book, it did seem to go too fast at times. I would have liked to see more of a build-up and connection between Janey and Adrien, but I still loved and enjoyed them nonetheless.
One Good Man was different and beautiful and definitely what I usually expect from the author. She definitely surprised me and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us next.