3.5 stars

I loved the fact that this is a book with a hero who plays football professionally and I really liked Kepler but I could never quite warm up to the heroine.
Very nice debut though and I hope we get to read more from this author. ( )

New author Rebecca Crowley starts off with a winner in this story of a soccer star and his PR manager. Kepler “Killer” de Klerk is a famous soccer player who go a bad reputation after an accident with a teammate that left them both injured. Unfortunately Kepler’s past reputation as a partier worked against him and he ended up playing for a low ranked American team in North Carolina.
The owners of the team have hired Holly Taylor to rehab Kepler’s reputation with the promise of a bigger job opportunity if she is successful. Unfortunately, her first meeting with him does nothing to revise her low opinion of Kepler and she treats him like a recalcitrant child.
Kepler is a good looking guy who has had some hard life lessons handed to him both physically and emotionally. He is attracted to Holly and she returns the feeling but won’t act on it. When she finally gives, the secrets she has about his future with the team make it hard for her to fully get involved in the relationship.
I love sports based romances and this is one of the first soccer ones I have read. The premise is fairly similar as in most of the books with an alpha male who may or may not be a basically nice guy. The great thing is when a reader finds an author who takes the premise and makes it her own and gives us a book we can really enjoy. I liked the insights into the game of soccer and a little hint of how the professional game machine works. Both characters are good people with a facet to their professional personality that isn’t so nice. The storyline does a great job of working through the bad stuff to get to a really nice and fairly spicy romance. After reading this book, I look forward to reading future books by Ms. Crowley. ( )