Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills returns with an all-new swoon-fest of a novel about what happens when you take a chance on love.Amazon Top 11 Bestseller; #1 SportsWanted: one hot guy with rock-hard abs and a big stick.Broke and desperate, Sugar Ryan has no use for arrogant, bad-boy athletes…until she’s forced to bargain with the cockiest of them all.If only he knew she … with the cockiest of them all.
If only he knew she was alive.
Her mission? Get on this hockey player’s radar any way possible.
Zack Morgan is the king of the ice and the bedroom, but nothing prepares him for the mystery girl who shows up everywhere he does–frat parties, his favorite bar, and finally his front door with an offer he can’t refuse. The only rule in her boyfriend bargain: no falling in love.
But after one (um, two) smoking-hot hookups, he’s done with pretending and vows to make their fake relationship real. Too bad she can’t trust a player with a reputation for breaking hearts.
Will this hockey star score his forever girl, or will this boyfriend bargain end in heartbreak?
“Who can turn down a bad boy hockey star with a big . . . stick? Zack is hot hot hot, and Sugar is the perfect blend of sweet and sassy! Their chemistry sizzles in Boyfriend Bargain!” ~Melanie Harlow, USA Today bestselling author
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Just the perfect type of bargain!
Sometimes two people come together for reasons other than love. But just because there isn’t love in the beginning doesn’t mean that the chemistry doesn’t make it worth the journey!
Sugar Ryan wants more out of life. But unfortunately she isn’t being given the opportunity without making a few changes. She has to play the game with the people that will affect her future.
Zack is on top of his game. People know him, love him, and admire his skill. But we all have a side to us that we hide from the world. Zack is drawn to Sugar and that makes the connection easy (or as easy as it can be between strangers!)
Sugar and Zack bring on a chemistry that allows the two to overcome their inner struggles and become a “COUPLE” that grows.
This story was fun and draws you in. It makes you want them to succeed. It makes you hope that they overcome their issues, and you truly want them to become stronger and better. A great read!
The Boyfriend Bargain
OMG! This book was AMAZING!
This New Adult College sports romance/ fake relationship story had me from the start!
Z (the big guy on campus) and Sugar are hot together.
Love the characters.
Love the story line.
I highly recommend this book.
Isla always pulls me in! As usual her characters are fun, smart, and have an amazing back story! From the moment Sugar and Zack meet their chemistry is explosive. His ‘secret’ is heartbreaking, but makes you love him all the more! No falling in love? Not possible!
This book slayed me in the best possible way!! I’m a sucker for sports romance (especially hockey) add the college element and I’m definitely sold, but this book was special. The characters are ones with depth that you fall in love with. I was routing for this two from start to finish!! It got intense toward the end, but had a great HEA!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RD87KBK?ref=cm_sw_em_r_rw_mw_HaTskvviHItEl
I kinda have mixed feelings about this book. I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but there were just some bits of it that didn’t work for me.
The best thing about this book is by far Z, the hero. The heroine wasn’t too bad either, but Z hit checked all my boxes.
I abhor spoilers in reviews, so I’m gonna spare you all the details about what the parts were I didn’t care for. Plus no two people read the same book, what I didn’t like, you may love. It’s all about perspective.
All in all, I still love Ilsa’s writing and can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
~ 3.75 Stars
Even though new adult, college sports romance is not my go-to trope to read, Ilsa Madden-Mills is definitely on my one-click author list. I really fell in love with her writing when I read The Last Guy that she wrote with Tia Louise. But this book reminds me of her other new adult, college sports romances: I Bet You & I Dare You, which are definitely worth the read.
Zach Morgan (Z) is the big man on campus but he doesn’t really care to be. Even though he is the bad boy, star captain of the hockey team and has women falling over themselves to get a chance with him, all he cares about is graduating so he can start playing for the Nashville Predators. He needs a woman on his arm to keep not only fans but other women (aka jersey chasers) at bay so he can focus on his goal: the Nashville Predators. He can’t seem to find the “right one” because everyone wants a piece of the hockey star, but he thinks he just found her…
After they hookup at a frat party…
And she runs away!
Sugar has had to work hard for everything she has and her main goal is to get into Vanderbilt Law School to prove to her father’s family that she is as good as any of them…
But she has been waitlisted.
Sugar finds out that the admissions dean is a hockey fan and a plan brews in her head. She needs the school’s star hockey player to accompany her to a Vanderbilt formal dinner to help her stick out amongst the other waitlisted recruits and get her into law school. Now, she just needs to get him to actually notice her without looking like a typical jersey chaser…
But she never anticipated hooking up with him at a frat party.
Even though this story is bring shopped around as a new adult, college romance, I felt that it had the soul of a fake relationship romance because these characters needed one another to get to an end goal. While I usually read fake relationship stories that have only one character needing the relationship to fake out an ex or their family, Z need it to keep focused on getting into the NHL and Sugar needs it to get into law school… admirable reasons. I really appreciated the whole plot set up that Ilsa Madden-Mills incorporated into Z and Sugar’s love story. Even though you might think Z will be the typical jock, he is more down-to-earth than people get to see and his fake relationship with Sugar brings out those hidden parts of him. Sugar is a very relatable, hard-working young lady that is trying to prove herself to people (in my opinion: those people are none matters) and I was rooting for her throughout the story. At times, Sugar frustrated me to no end but I still enjoyed reading this journey and watching these characters grow.
** I voluntarily left a honest review after reading an advanced review copy of this book **
Major wins with lots of Southern slang to bless your heart and sass you straight As a Southerner who also happens to be an Appalachian, I have a deep and profound appreciation for the inclusion of our culture in books. There’s a magic to the way we talk deep in the mountains and down South. We love our tea sweet, our snark well-hidden, and our never-ending lists of idioms and down home sayin’s. I loved me some Sugar, sugar! This girl packs a punch with her trailer park tenacity and the way she has risen above her circumstances, but not her raisin’. She does us southern girls proud and I hope we get to see more of her in the future Miss Ilsa had me at “Viking” when it came to Zack “Z” Morgan. I don’t think I’ll ever out grow my deep and abiding love for all things tall, blonde, grey-eyed, and muscly And quite frankly, my dear: I don’t give a darn if I ever do! There were times I wanted to smack Z around a bit to get him to wake up, but that’s pretty typical of IMM heroes: you love them, but you want to slap the snot out of them too
For this new-to-hockey romance reviewer, this pucking awesome tale shoots and scores a solid 4.5/5 stars. I really wanted to slap a 5 star-win on it, but there were parts of the book that lagged a bit for me in addition to some plot pieces I felt like weren’t dealt with enough or were rushed (namely the issues betwixt the 2 Morgan brothers). All-in-all, this was a satisfying morsel of a good time and I really, really, REALLY hope Miss Ilsa chooses to explore more with a few of the characters—specifically Eric, Julia, and Poppy. I really want to dive into the backstory with two of those characters for sure! Miss Ilsa pulled a hat-trick with this one: realistic characters who you love but also get frustrated with at times (like good friends), lots of drama to keep you on your toes, and an epilogue that made my heart explode with love confetti and joy glitter Just little pieces of my heart. Everywhere Like that little piece over there in the corner. And the one next to your shoe :O
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DISCLAIMER: I received an ARC for an honest review 😉 Ilsa Madden-Mills
I always love her books, this one was not a disappointment , loved it!
As far as Sports Romances go this was a good one. It represents Hockey very well, so even if you’re not a fan of the sport you can still understand what’s going on.
And what a Hockey player Z is…. a smoking hot alpha male that has to deal with a very real anxiety problem. Something a lot of people battle every day. And his perfect match is Sugar the sassy, smart, and independent woman. I enjoyed the journey these two took to falling in love.
I just love everything that Ilsa Madden-Mills writes, so it was no surprise that I couldn’t put Boyfriend Bargain down.
I think what I loved most about this sports romance was the rawness of the characters. Issues and behaviors weren’t sugarcoated so that the main characters were perfect or portrayed in only a flattering light. They were real. Messy. Relatable. We saw the impact of Zack’s anxiety on both his own life and those around him. It wasn’t just mentioned and then brushed aside, we got to see how it effected him day to day. And Sugar had her own insecurities, like we all do, and I really appreciated how we saw that different aspects of her life, decisions she made, reactions to others were influenced by these.
Oh and the book is also h.o.t. You know, picture 2 gorgeous college students unable to keep their hands (or anything else) to themselves.
Boyfriend Bargain is a sexy, sports romance that you want to get your hands on!
Boyfriend Bargain is a college sports romance. I tend to veer from anything sports related but since it’s Ilsa I had to read it. I’m so glad I did because it’s one of my favorites of hers to date. I absolutely fell in love with Sugar and Zack. The chemistry/connection/passion between the two of them is unbelievably hot. I devoured this book and didn’t want it to end. Loved it!
My favorite part: “As quiet as a mouse, I open the closet door, and Zack is sitting on top of my mini fridge, munching as quietly as possible on a lone Dorito. One of my silk scarves, a gift from Mara I keep in a box on the top shelf, is looped around his neck. I sigh. A very large and naked man with a dragon tattoo is sitting on top of my mini fridge with a semi, eating chips with a scarf on. Priceless.”
Yowza! You’ll love Boyfriend Bargain! It’s funny, romantic and steamy all rolled into one great book!
She’s a great writer and I’ve loved a few of her books but for me this story didn’t pull me in enough and make me feel drawn to the story or the characters.
Everyone likes different things so others might love this so deffinently give it a read.
Holy crap! What’s not to love about the Boyfriend Bargain! Zack and Sugar had so much chemistry and passion! They had such an extreme pull towards one another. Beautifully written with just the right amount of angst!
Another barn burning page-turner from the one and only Ilsa Madden Mills. She writes NA like nobody else! Sugar and Z are fire.
4.5 Stars!!!
This is a sport romance with an emotional tidal wave in the form of their past. It is a book that had me hooked and I finished this in one sitting!
Z is a hockey star that is looking forward to starting his career in the NHL but his past is starting to hold him back and he his struggling to keep his dreams alive…
I really like Z right away, he has that tall dark and mysterious thing going on but then I saw his brokenness and I fell hard. He is living with an overwhelming sense of guilt surrounds him daily, for some reason though Sugar makes it better…
Sugar is desperate to get into law school and show everyone that is is worth something; when she gets waitlisted, she comes up with a plan to get Z to be her pretend boyfriend to up her chances…
Sugar is a pretty amazing woman so has been dealt hand after hand of crap, and I thought her plan was pretty smart. I really loved how strong she was for not just her but those around her too!
This book was intense, funny, cringe worthy, swoon worthy and a definite must read. Grab your copy today of this standalone and dive right in!
Hockey sport romance that you can’t put down! I just loved it so much, Zach and Sugar are on my top fav couples of 2019. It captured me until the very last word. The chemistry is off the charts, anxiety is a topic a lot of us can relate to and a few books really get it in their characters. A superb read with a fake relationship, a hot guy, a sassy girl and everything you want in a sport romance book. A five but more deserving stars.
This is the first book I have read by Ilsa and I am in love!
Zack and Sugar both need something from the other. Sugar needs hockey star Z to help boost her appearance for law school and Z needs Sugar’s help to ward off the ladies( what a problem).
Zack & Sugar both agree to their crazy arrangement but what happens when lines are crossed & everything becomes blurred?
Hot steamy passion!
I would recommend this book in a heart beat!
Absolutely love this book. Sugar is funny. I love the banter and chemistry between the characters. The emotional rollercoaster ride kept me riveted and I couldn’t put it down. I kind of want more. Like maybe a book on Reece or Eric. Or maybe a book on Poppy or Taylor. I just need more.
A New Adult sports romance that will catch your attention, makes cheeks red and heart beats faster or aches from the very first page. The blurb is only an icing hiding the cake: an emotional story about two souls who need each other’s to heal and conquer fears.
This is my first Ilsa Madden-Mills book and I am in love. Maybe because of my weakness to a college love story with hockey players and strong, sassy heroes. But I really liked Sugar and Zack journey.
Sugar needs Zack help to get into dream law school. She has her private reasons, connected with the past. She is a strong, intelligent and driven girl but broken. Broken because of her parents and ex-boyfriend actions.
Zack has his own demons and reasons to agree with Sugar proposition. He is a college hockey star who’s expected from everyone to be drafted to NHL after graduation. But underlay of a womanizer and popular guy hides a soul tortured by guilt and past.
As soon as they met the sparks flew. The chemistry and psychical attraction between Zack and Sugar were so strong and intense they couldn’t keep hands to themselves (and me from e-reader). I loved how their relationship started to develop, Sugar feisty comments and Zack dirty talks. Although sometimes I wanted to punch Zack for too flirtatious remarks which ruined the mood. But the rest was perfect. Her stubbornness and not taking things easy when the opportunity appeared. For giving Zack hope when he started failing. His journey toward a win, not only on hockey stadium but with his past and Sugar heart.
As it turns out the story runs way deeper with dangerous secrets and lies that may destroy their fragile relationship.
I really recommend Boyfriend Bargain. Sugar and Zack story is funny, hot and emotional. I loved the writing which got me hooked from the very first page. I have to admit I was expecting something different at some point but overall I can’t complain. And I really hope we will get more books ( like friends books) because there is one unfinished story which really got me interested.