Rating: ★★
Audience: Sports Romance
Length: 381 pages
Author: Lauren Rowe
Publisher: Kensington Books
Release Date: July 28th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
Rudy meets Moneyball in a sexy yet warm-hearted, second-chance football romance for fans of Sarah Adams, Tessa Bailey, Monica Murphy, Kristen Callihan, and Lucy Score, as the analytical, math-nerd, type-A daughter of a tough love coach is assigned to babysit the team’s adrenaline junkie pass rusher.
Chelsea Parker, 26, knows football, thanks to growing up with a football coach for a father and two linebackers for brothers. But Chelsea’s true passion has always been crunching numbers to predict statistical outcomes for everything from football to stocks to romance. Chelsea dreams of merging her two passions to become the first female head of analytics for an NFL team. But for now, she’s got to convince the powers-that-be at her father’s new team, the Mastodons, the worst in the NFL, to give her that entry-level position in the front office.
Luca Maguire, 26, a pass rusher and adrenaline junkie with a famous last name, knows this upcoming training camp with his new team, the Mastodons, will likely be his last, if he can’t get out of his own way long enough to make the cut. The dire nature of his circumstances is the only reason Luca didn’t quit on the spot when Coach Parker assigned his daughter, Chelsea, a statistics-loving, spreadsheet-making math nerd, as Luca’s “personal coach” for the duration of camp. More like his babysitter, if you ask Luca.
Well, okay, Luca didn’t quit for that reason and another the thing that happened seven years ago between Luca and Chelsea as strangers, when Luca’s college football team stayed at the same hotel as Chelsea’s mathletes squad. Luca would never admit this to Chelsea, especially not with her being Coach’s daughter and the newly assigned bane of his existence, but the truth is Luca hasn’t stopped thinking about that cute little mathlete who ditched his ass seven years ago, right before their clothes came off, ever since.
Thank you RB Media for the gifted audiobook.
YEAH, NO.
Unfortunately I think this was my first and last book form Lauren Rowe.
I struggled from the beginning. The awkward lust/innuendo + almost one night stand was not for me. But I felt obligated to keep going. And I will say it did get better. It did. I liked different bits and pieces yet nothing every came together well enough for me to give this more than two stars.
Chelsea came across as a nepotism hire. She genuinely didn’t have actual coaching experience yet was frustrated when nobody wanted to give her a chance. I understand that her big thing was stats + numbers, but Chelsea acted as if her word was law in regards to players getting better. I was turned off from this the entire book.
I skipped over the open door scenes, though based upon how cringy I found the innuendo, I think I would have not liked those whatsoever either.
DON’T EVEN get me started on the third act. “You have to set someone free to follow their dreams” NONSENSE. I’m so tired of that third act. COMMUNICATE PLEASE. Then there were odd time jumps before they finally got back together.
Well, the duet narration was great. No complaints about the audiobook production…just about everything else.
Overall audience notes:
- Sports romance
- Language: high
- Romance: 4+ open door; moderate-high innuendo
- Violence: mild
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