Football, hockey, and everything in between!Things are about to heat up on the ice and between the sheets. Each book is a fully fledged,standalone novel about forbidden love.What happens when you get your dream job and temptation is your ex-hockey-star boss?Or when the league’s top wide receiver has his eyes on you and he’s supposed to be just a client?Perhaps you find yourself in enemy territory … in enemy territory because the woman you love is your best friend’s sister?
Offsides by Elise Faber
Job title:
Executive Assistant for CEO of Prestige Media Group
Job description:
(1) Deal with a massive amount of emails.
(2) Schedule conference calls and meetings with top athletes and other hugely important people.
(3) Pick up dry cleaning and food, consult on tie selection, make dinner reservations, and book flights . . . basically act as a wife-on-steroids.
(4) THE IMPORTANT ONE: Do not, under any circumstances, fall in love with Devon Scott–demanding boss, former NHL player, and all-around gorgeous specimen of the male persuasion.
Job performance:
Failing.
Absolutely failing at number four.
Off Guard by Stephanie Fournet
Life couldn’t be better for Charlie Woodruff.
After a year of holding out, she’s finally landed the job she’s always wanted in the city of her dreams. An apartment she can afford and new friends at work make the transition easy.
When she meets a gorgeous stranger who makes her laugh and steals her breath, it seems like the icing on the cake…
Until Charlie discovers he’s a client.
Hutch Barlow — newly drafted wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders — looks like an avenging angel, hangs on her every word, and is completely off-limits. The trouble is he also refuses to take “no” for an answer.
And if she’s being honest, Charlie doesn’t want him to.
But seeing him means she could lose everything — including her heart.
Off Limits by Kristin Vayden
Everything about Ava screams off limits.
To want her is to invite disaster.
To pursue her is to risk my job.
To kiss her might cost me my best friend.
But all those risks seem small in light of the first problem.
She hates me.
To her I’m a sell out, choosing to advance my career rather than protect my biggest client.
Her brother.
And my best friend.
She hasn’t spoken to me in over a year, but that ends now.
Because I’m done with holding back.
To hell with the consequences.
Wish me luck . . .
more
Block & Tackle is a sweet, sexy box set featuring featuring three couples all involved with the Prestige Media Group.
Offsides by Elise Faber is my favorite of the three novellas. It features Devon, CEO of Prestige Media Group (PMG) and Becca, his temporary Executive Assistant. Becca is a tall goddess who rules Devon’s life, but only for one more month until his permanent assistant comes back from maternity leave. Becca is smart and sweet and working 2 jobs to help pay for her mother’s medical bills from a car accident that damaged her spine. There’s a serious attraction on Becca’s side, but she doesn’t realize it’s shared by her hot, ex-hockey player boss until the day he kisses her. From then on it’s just a matter of time before their shared attraction explodes all over their lives. Throw in her psycho, stalker of an ex and you have the makings of a hot relationship filled with drama. Devon is not only hot, he’s so sweet that I can understand how Becca fell so hard.
Off Guard by Stephanie Fournet features Charlie, a new PR exec at PMG, and Hutch, the Oakland Raiders’ newest WR and Charlie’s boss Kurt’s new client. When Charlie and Hutch meet while out running, it’s lust at first sight, but Charlie is so singly focused on her job that she can’t possibly allow him into her life. Especially when she finds out he’s Kurt’s newest client. I love Hutch, he’s adorable and so persistent and sweet with Charlie that I can’t understand how she resisted him as long as she did. Charlie was a little harder for me to connect with, because she had serious issues, but still, can’t fault her for being so devoted and focused on her career.
Off Limits by Kristin Vayden features Markus, an agent at PMG, and Ava, his client, Bryce’s, twin sister. I have to admit I didn’t like Off Limits. It was rushed and I felt as if I were swimming in the dark for most of it. They had an obvious history that wasn’t fleshed out well, and Ava is quite frankly, unlikable as hell. She’s bitchy and unrelenting. Markus is sweet and so is Bryce, but I just never really connected to any of them. Perhaps if Off Limits had been expanded into a full length novel with much, much more detail I might have come to like their story.
I’ve never been a big fan of anthologies. I just usually don’t enjoy short stories. The worst thing in the world is to get so invested in a story just for it to end abruptly. One of my all-time favorite authors asked me to read an anthology last year and I couldn’t turn it down … and it wasn’t bad!! It was awesome! So when I saw that Stephanie Fournet was also doing the anthology thing, I jumped on it. And in no way was I disappointed. Quite the opposite. I found two new authors that I love! I’m just going to touch on each little novella very briefly. I don’t want to ruin any of the magic that you’ll find within these pages.
Offsides by Elise Faber:
O. M. G. (First of all, I’m in my mid-thirties. It takes a lot to use those three letters because I’m pretty sure I’m 20 years too old for them. But it was warranted.) The beginning of this novella … perfection. I just basically fell in love with the entire anthology with just the first few pages of Offsides. The characters, Becca and Devon, couldn’t have been more perfect together and just as characters in general. Elise Faber wrote this in such a way that I got all tingly and had some heart clenching moments. For an author to be able to create those types of feelings within a reader is fantastic and not very common. Sure, you’ll feel happy or sad for something going on within the novel that you’re reading but to bring out something deeper … it just doesn’t happen often. The entire story was like this. It was gripping and sweet and flirty and nothing less than perfect. I figured that this would for sure be the best of the three in this anthology.
Off Guard by Stephanie Fournet:
The first one was the best of the three? Negative. This one was just as good! I love Fournet and I knew that this would be great but I didn’t think that it would be THIS good. I won’t lie, in the beginning, I didn’t think that I would relate to the main character, Charlie. She’s this health nut, squared. She ate something that was like 100 calories and flipped her shit. Dude. I’m excited if I don’t eat more than two fun-sized KitKats a day. I’m an emotional eater and I frequently eat my feelings. You can see the difference between Charlie and I. But you know what? Even with those differences, I really dug Charlie. The story that Fournet created around Charlie and Hutch was sweet and endearing and taboo!! Love the taboo relationships. And geez … was this my favorite of the three? I don’t know at this point. They are both so amazing at this point. But I do want a Hutch. This dude … he’s great at the chase. You know what I’m talking about. You push a guy away because you think that you should but deep down, you really don’t want to and deep down, he knows that. So he doesn’t give up. He’s just one of those characters that make you just melt. Great novella. But I need more Hutch. Way more.
Off Limits by Kristin Vayden:
Those first two were my favorites? Negative. This was gooood. So good. I can’t choose my favorite at this point. I really liked Ava and Markus. Ava is spunky and fiercely protective of her twin brother. Once again, (not in a bad way) we’re thrust into a story of semi-taboo love. It’s especially awesome when one of the two in this no-no love story doesn’t realize that they are actually a part of it. I think that is one of my favorite things about this. Like both of the other two stories, this one moved along at a great clip and I found myself not wanting to put it down because I just had to know what was going to happen next. And the chemistry between these two!! You can’t hope for much more than what Vayden has given us within these pages. Gosh, another new author and I’ll read anything and everything that she puts out, just like the other two.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *