There is a lot going on in this story.
Ex drama, no cheating on the Hero unless you count the fact she's engaged to another man(!!).

🏉🏈💍 ( )

Wonderful, wonderful book. I absolutely loved it. ( )

I'd like to give this book 4.5, but I can't find anyway to do that. So that's really my rating.

This book starts a little slow for me, but about 1/3 of the way through, I couldn't put it down and finished it quickly.

This is a wonderfully written book with loveable characters and just enough plot twists to stay interesting.

The only reason it doesn't get a 5 is because I felt it needed about one more layer of characterization. There were a few twists that could have been hinted at sooner (such as the hero finding his father) that would have added more depth to the characters.

Regardless, I'd highly recommend this read if you like sexy sports heroes and a good romance. ( )

Two strikes and I'm done. No more Marie Force for me.

I said I wanted the heroine of Love at First Flight to be hit by a bus on page one. My hatred for the heroine of this book is even stronger, and so I guess I'll be wishing a freeway full of them to hit Susannah.

Imagine for a minute that you read a book where the hero gets the heroine pregnant while he's still engaged to another woman. When everyone gets upset, he thinks he's the victim, and everyone supports him instead of the offended parties.
Can you imagine such a book, and can you imagine finishing the book and being on the side of a man like that?
NO WAY!!
But this author doesn't write her men like that. No, her speciality is nasty, selfish female characters.

Susannah and hunky, millionaire American football superstar Ryan - in some bizarre court order that doesn't allow them to get divorced yet (and that includes weird clauses about not being able to get divorced if they sleep under the same roof even once!) - are done. Their marriage is over, and Susannah is engaged to another man. But Ryan waltzes back into the house, also claiming weird legal powers to be able to stop the divorce whenever he wants.

Do these guys have a legal system where they live, or do they just make it up as it suits them?

The whole thing reads like an over-long category romance, and that's exactly how the professional review on Amazon described the book. If you turned Ryan into a billionaire sheikh, then maybe I would have come into this one expecting what I got. Perhaps "The Billionaire Footballer's Two-Timing Society Tramp".

So, Susannah spends nine days having sex with her ex, going on trips away with him, and TRYING TO GET PREGNANT TO HIM!! All the while she's engaged to another man. And, absolutely the best thing to do when you're due in divorce court in a couple of days is to get pregnant to the man you're divorcing. Way to go Susannah!

But it's okay to cheat on the fiancé. See, he wears glasses and has a bowtie. The geek! He's been in love with Susannah since they were kids, but of course he's far too nerdy to be worthy of the heroine of this book.
Susannah gets upset because the fiancé and his family are unhappy about her calling off the wedding.
Gee, you think?! I sure believe they have a right to be furious, and the author's complete lack of empathy for the characters she screwed over makes me furious.

But never fear! Halfway through the book, all the secondary characters go through the Massive Personality Change. Suddenly they're all evil, conspiring, violent people who have spent years trying to break up the poor, rich, gorgeous hero and heroine. It's no longer a bad thing that Susannah cheats on her fiancé, EVENTUALLY calls off the wedding, and ruins his life. No, now he's gone through the MPC and is a dangerous criminal, we don't have to worry about realistic characterisation and conflict resolution. Now that everyone but Susannah and Ryan is evil, it's okay to treat them like crap.

Force's heroines cry. And cry. And cry nonstop. They're almost always in the wrong, and the tears often come after they've done something awful - like cheat on their fiancé. I can't stand characters who cry at the drop of a hat. I can't stand them even when they have a good reason to cry, let alone when they deserve to be shot.

But Susannah's not done yet.

After all of that self-centred cruelty, she went and sealed her fate at a society ball (Harlequin Presents anyone?). She saw her husband talking to another woman, decided that meant they were having an affair, and then got into a fistfight.

In the middle of a ball, with hundreds of people looking on.

The thing that really annoyed me about that particular act of unbelievable stupidity was that the lack of trust she showed in her husband was never dealt with. The book finished without any resolution to the fact she publicly accused him of having an affair. Starting a family doesn't erase the fact you have a crappy relationship. These are two people who should not reproduce.

Obviously the author's definition of cheating is VERY different to mine, as it appears all of her books are about women who think it is morally acceptable for a woman to be with two men at once, and then get upset when the men get upset. But God forbid the men have even a thought about another woman. That's grounds for balls in a vice. Double. Standard.
These heroines make me ashamed for women. If a male character behaved the way these women do they would be the villains of the stories. It is hypocritical in the extreme to allow your women to cheat and lie and walk all over all the men, and I never want to see such an extreme double-standard in romance.

The two selfish morons get their marriage and their baby, and waltz off into the sunset together, convinced every other person in the world is awful and needs to be cut out of their lives.
Hey, maybe the bubonic plague is running through town.
That'll take care of them in a way they deserve. ( )

Wonderful story and a very interesting author. ( )