Sports never looked this good
“It Had To Be You” by Susan Elizabeth Philips
I’m a purist. I admit it. I like my Romance heroes to be Alpha male corporate powerhouses, Scottish Lairds, or Roman Generals…you get the general drift. Positions of power. That’s how I like my men. So I’ve been avoiding La Lola’s (aka my Romance Pimp) recommendations of Susan Elizabeth Philip’s NFL sports starts. Seriously? NFL sports stars? I’m not a beefcake fan, nor am I inclined towards any sport of any kind (certainly not American football where their athletes wear so much padding it is impossible to oogle at any sweaty muscular bodies) so I couldn’t see how I would possibly enjoy it. “But this is La Lola” I told myself. “She has not failed you yet. Never mind that she planted the seed of thought in your head to read Outlander by telling you that it was ranked very highly in some Romance chart. Just…just let it go. I’m sure she didn’t mean it as some sort of cruel April Fool’s joke.”
So during one of my usual pilgrimages to the local bookstore, I asked the pale scary lady at the counter to point me in the direction of Susan Elizabeth Philips (SEP for short, according to her fans), to start off on the first book of her NFL series.
The first book ”It Had To Be You” starts off with Dan Calebow a former legendary NFL quarterback, now head coach of the nowhere near Super Bowl quality Chicago Stars; gruff, hard-bodied, cynical (thanks to his senator ex-wife (whom he is still sleeping with) with a kinky penchant for being dominated in bed), football obsessed man, and Phoebe Somerville, a super sexy, blonde, “boom chicka chicka boom” bombshell who harbors a very painful childhood but who allows herself to be painted as a complete bimbo by the world. The two meet at Phoebe’s cold and unfeeling father’s funeral and the Romance Rules kick in so Phoebe ends up inheriting the Chicago Stars because of her late father’s half-assed brain to “make a woman” out of her and tame her wild ways. Her inheritance however, comes with a condition: if she and the team win a particular match that will result in some sort of big victory match (yeah…as you can see this reviewer kinda skimmed over all the bits un-romance related), the team will be hers until eternity. If not, the team goes to her creepy sleazy half brother who although has grown to be a man, is still pretty much a sleazebag who deserves to be castrated by way of most painful way imaginable. Phoebe rebels against the idea of owning a team full of sweaty men (girlfriend obviously needs to get her head checked) while being simultaneously disturbed/puzzled as to why her famed powers of cool seduction don’t seem to work on Coach Dan.
It doesn’ take a genius to figure out where the plot is going. But what is utterly surprising (in a good way) about this book is the hilarious (and charming) dialogue, minor plot twists and interactions between the characters. Phoebe turns out to be a brilliant strategist who uses her obvious charms, body and “powers” against men to amusing effect, much to the frustration of Coach Dan who is not liking other men desecrating her body with their eyes. It is however rather “tear-your-hair-out” frustrating to read Coach Dan and Phoebe’ Misunderstanding (you realize that almost every romance novel worth reading has one (as masterfully and artfully perpetuated by Ms McNaught)): him although painfully attracted to Phoebe thinks that he should not and cannot be with her because she is nothing more than a sex kitten who is not interested in marriage, kids and the fence thing and Phoebe, thinking that Coach Dan is only interested in her body and not her personality yadda yadda yadda.
It has to be said, that the book also focuses a little on the estranged relationship between Phoebe and her younger step-sister Molly who honestly speaking, is a real annoying brat. I definitely didn’t like her in this book (and thus, wailed loudly to La Lola when she informed me that Molly gets her own book). I wanted the football team to accidentally throw a ball her way and trample her to death or have Pooch (Phoebe’s poodle) suddenly develop homicidal tendencies and kill her. Sad to say, that although having read her book I no longer harbor such vicious (however absolutely justifiable) thoughts against her, she still doesn’t rank very high on my list of Romance heroines I admire.
Without giving the plot away (yes I realize we do that a little too much here at ripmybodice but it’s because we *heart* you dear readers and sometimes we get carried away with our reviews), Coach Dan saves the day, and gets the girl that he’s always wanted (granted however, the whole plot circumstance of how Coach Dan saves Phoebe from certain death is quite sad (and when I say sad, I don’t mean the type where you need to buy Kleenex for)).
Although I must say, ”It Had To Be You” wasn’t a particularly fabulous read on the epic scale of Paradise (note my unbiased benchmark) it’s entertainingly madcap and sweet enough that I had to trot back to my favorite pale scary bookstore woman to get the second book (Heaven, Texas) which hooked me big time. At the end of the day, this book is the start to another fabulous series of hot, sweaty, athletic, good looking men and for that alone, I can forgive its shortcomings. Bring on the men!