Most Valuable Playboy by Lauren Blakely Published by Self-Published on September 1st 2017
Pages: 306
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A brand new sexy and fun sports romance from #1 New York Times Bestselling author Lauren Blakely!
Hands down, my favorite thing in the world is to score. Touchdowns.
Don’t let the fact that I’m the leading pick in the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction fool you. These days, I’m only a player on the field. I’ve kept my pants zipped all season long — and it has been long — because nothing’s more important than leading my team to victory every week. Except maybe escaping from the owner’s handsy-as-hell sister who seems dead set on winning more than a date with me at the auction.
Enter Violet and a well-placed Hail Mary.
She’s my best friend’s sister with a smile as sweet as cherry pie and a mind that runs quicker than the 40-yard-dash. After Violet saves the day with the highest bid, I don’t even give her a two-minute warning before I kiss her in front of the whole crowd and then announce that she’s my girlfriend. Which would be fine except my agent tells me the next day that we’ve got to keep up the act while he’s negotiating my contract.
Violet says she’ll take one for the team and pretend to be mine, but our boyfriend-girlfriend scrimmage quickly turns into a full contact sport. And soon enough, I want this game with her to go into overtime. The problem is — I’ve been riding the bench for years.
How can a guy like me, who finally has a chance to prove his worth on the field, convince the girl she’s most valuable to his heart?
*MOST VALUABLE PLAYBOY is a brand new standalone sports romance written in the guy’s POV!*
Lauren Blakely has become my go-to author when I’m looking for a lighthearted escape. Her romantic comedies are pure joy and 100% addictive. Most Valuable Playboy takes several tropes—sports romance, friends-to-lovers, and best friend’s sister—and manages to combine them successfully.
Cooper is a dedicated NFL quarterback and reformed horndog. Violet is a super cool hair stylist and the sister of Cooper’s best friend. The three of them have been close friends since elementary school. Cooper and Violet go from a mutually beneficial fake boyfriend/girlfriend arrangement to having a legitimate romance, but in a way that feels genuine. I loved the progression of their relationship.
Lauren Blakely has a special knack for convincingly telling stories from an all-male POV, and Most Valuable Playboy is a great example of this. Cooper is such an easygoing guy, and I loved peaking inside his mind as he struggles with conflicting feelings about Violet and their incredible attraction.
Cooper’s camaraderie with his fun-loving teammates is also very enjoyable. Their crazy superstitions and the lengths to which they go to keep their winning streak alive make for some great comedic moments.
Most Valuable Playboy is a delightful story that is low on drama, high on effortless humor, and with between-the-sheets action that is a wonderful blend of sugar and spice. My Lauren Blakely addiction is satisfied for now, but I know I’ll need another fix.
Recommended for fans of:
Football
Friends-to-lovers stories
Superstitions
**ARC received from the author in exchange for an honest review.**
Excerpt
Always a bridesmaid.
No Action Armstrong.
Ball Cap Boy.
Mr. Clean.
The Unused Insurance Plan.
Oh wait. Here’s one more, a personal fave.
Best Butt in the NFL.
Those are just some of the nicknames I’ve been given in the last few years. They don’t bug me. Not one bit. They’ve all been true, especially that last one. You should see my ass. You can bounce a quarter off my cheeks.
Here’s the thing—when you spend the first three years of your career warming the bench for the best player in the league, you can’t get a chip on your shoulder. You have to stay sharp and be ready for that moment when you swap out a ball cap for a helmet and get your pants dirty.
My time has finally come this season, and so far, we’re winning.
But tonight isn’t about what happens between the opening kickoff and the end of the fourth quarter.
Tonight is about the one game I’ve always dominated.
For the last few years, I’ve been the highest ticket item in the players’ annual charity auction, and I can’t help enjoying that. Because the guy I’ve backed up has been called a lot of things—a legend, the greatest ever, a titan of the game—but the one I most enjoy is “second-best-looking quarterback on the Renegades.”
Hey, I didn’t give him that name. The media did, deciding the dude who play second-string—me—had a prettier face. Before this season, I’d seen a grand total of 120 minutes of playing time in my first three years, but I’ve taken home the top honors in the charity auction, where some of the loveliest ladies come to bid on the players they want to take out for a night on the town.
Ah, the memories of those dates have warmed my heart, and other parts, on the sidelines when the games were dull. Evenings in limos, testing the strength of the leather backseat, nights in hotels that lasted way past dawn, mutually and blissfully ignoring the no physical contact between the winner and the player rule.
Yeah, I’ve enjoyed the fuck out of being paraded on stage in front of hundreds of women, their slender arms lifted in the air, raising their bids higher on me than all the other guys. It’s been my one chance to shine, even to stand out.
Those days are behind me, though, now that I’m finally leading the team down the field every single Sunday. I still expect to rake in top dollar for the charity I gladly support, but this time, I won’t be living it up and letting loose after hours. I have a reputation to protect, and a season on the line.
The trouble is, the woman who has her eyes on me at the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction wants my full enchilada, and it’s not on the menu anymore.
Guess that means it’s time to call an audible on the line of scrimmage.
Lauren Blakely Giveaway
Lauren’s Most Valuable Playboy Team Spirit Prize Package Giveaway! This bundle is valued at $450 and includes a Coach Handbag ($300 value) and $150 Stub Hub Gift Card to use for tickets to the game, your favorite concert, or theater performance.
http://laurenblakely.com/valuable-playboy-giveaway/
About Lauren Blakely
A #1 New York Times Bestselling, #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling, and #1 Audible Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that’s sexy, sweet, and witty. She also writes USA Today bestselling LGBTQ romance.
With fourteen New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than 100 times, with more than 55 titles on the USA Today Bestsellers list alone. She’s sold more than 4.5 million books. A Brown University graduate, Lauren likes dogs, cake and show tunes and is the vegetarian at your dinner party.
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