Erin Kern

The first installment in Erin Kern's Champion Valley series, Winner Takes All is a wonderful romance between two protagonists with plenty of emotional baggage.

Blake Carpenter retired from football under a scandal laden cloud then returned to his hometown in Colorado. Recently hired as the high school football coach, he is under intense pressure to get his losing team into this year's playoffs. With his job on the line, Blake is not at all happy when physical therapist Annabelle Turner shows up at practice and begins giving him (in his mind) unwanted advice about his team. She is equally dedicated to the team but the players' health is her first priority so she does not hesitate to voice her opinion about the teenagers in her care. Underlying their somewhat acrimonious conversations is a sizzling hot attraction Annabelle and Blake try to ignore, but with their paths crossing on a fairly regular basis, is it just a matter of time before their passion becomes too powerful to resist?

Annabelle is dedicated and loyal to the people she cares about and she is a selfless caretaker who puts everyone else's needs ahead of her own. In between working long hours at her thriving physical therapy practice, she spends a lot of her free time caring for her aging mom. With a failed marriage behind her, Annabelle has no interest in a casual relationship and she has plenty of walls in place to protect herself from heartache. She likes being in control of any given situation and she never has any problem whatsoever telling people what to do. Annabelle often sees what other people miss and she can be relentless as she tries to help those in need.

Blake is very careful about what he reveals about himself to the people around him. He has kept many of the details surrounding his retirement to himself and he is also struggling with issues related to his last knee surgery. With one shot at keeping his coaching job, Blake is a hard but fair taskmaster as he tries to whip the team into shape. Not everyone is willing to overlook his tarnished reputation so he is fighting an uphill battle trying to hang on to players. While the team has a lot of heart, not all of his students are naturals when it comes to football, so Blake is very protective of his most promising players. He is initially not receptive to Annabelle's participation in practice but they eventually reach a compromise to work together for the good of the team.

Blake and Annabelle's animosity on the field carries over into their personal interactions as well. Blake is a little uncomfortable with her astute observations and Annabelle sometimes pushes a little too hard when she wants to fix something. Once their professional relationship is less contentious, they form an uneasy friendship that is fraught with sexual tension. However, since Blake only indulges in casual flings, Annabelle has no trouble resisting his efforts to seduce her.

Once Annabelle finally convinces Blake to open up about his past, unwanted emotions are stirred up as they get to know each other. Problems arise as Blake tries to concentrate all his attention on getting the team to the playoffs and Annabelle feelings are hurt when she misconstrues one of Blake's comments. The fate of the team and their relationship hangs in the balance as the football season winds down. Will Blake get the team to the playoffs? Will Blake and Annabelle open their hearts to the possibility of a future together?

Winner Takes All is a beautiful novel of healing, redemption and love. With a leisurely paced romance between two emotionally fragile characters, the story is sometimes a little slow paced, but the reader's patience is well rewarded in the end. Erin Kern's delightful Champion Valley series is off to a great start that will leave fans eager to read the next installment.… (mehr)

3.5 stars.

Back in the Game by Erin Kern is a somewhat angsty romance between two protagonists who are both carrying A LOT of baggage. This second installment in the Champion Valley series can be read as a standalone but the failed date between the couple in this outing occurred in the first book in the series.

Respective events from both Stella Davenport and Brandon West's pasts continue to affect them well into adulthood. Stella's childhood with her flighty and inattentive mother and a traumatic event that occurred when she was a teenager have left her with claustrophobia and anxiety. Following a career ending injury and a shocking break up, she moved to Colorado where she has built a thriving business as a ballet instructor. Although it has been a year since Stella's disastrous date with Brandon, her attraction to him burns hotter than ever.

Single dad Brandon is struggling with his son Matt's plans to leave Colorado after graduation to attend college and play football in Texas. He is desperately hoping Matt avoids some of the missteps he made at the same age so Brandon is a little overprotective of his son. With little time, energy or desire to date since his long ago divorce, he finds it impossible to stay away from Stella but will his unresolved issues from his relationship with his ex-wife prevent him from giving a relationship with Stella chance?

Stella and Brandon are interesting characters but readers will have to suspend disbelief to enjoy their romance. They have not spent much time in each other's company yet, with just one glance, Brandon seems to magically "know" about Stella's struggles with anxiety and panic attacks. While their banter is initially amusing, it becomes extremely frustrating since they both use humor and sarcasm to avoid discussing their respective issues which gives their scenes together a superficial feel. Their inner monologues also lack much depth since they mainly focus on their sizzling hot desire for each other. They do not date in the traditional sense because their interactions mainly consist of accidental meetings around town. Overall, Stella and Brandon's romance feels superficial and somewhat rushed due to the reliance on contrived encounters instead of actually dating. It also does not help that the novel takes place over a rather short amount of time.

Although the romance element in Back in the Game is underwhelming, both Stella and Brandon undergo tremendous character growth. Brandon's son Matt is brilliantly developed and he manages to steal every scene he appears in. Erin Kern brings the novel to a heartwarming conclusion that will satisfy old and new fans of the Champion Valley series.
… (mehr)

Blake had big plans. Become famous doing what he loved was just the beginning to what he saw as his long term goals. When an injury derailed his football career and left his good boy rep destroyed, his big dreams imploded and left him on the outside looking in. Winner Takes All is an all too familiar scenario. Life not working out according to plan is a format that every person has faced at one time or another. What Blake has to learn is that upsets help a person discovery their inner strength. Sometimes setting them on the path they were meant to be on instead of where they hoped to be. Winner Takes All wears many hats. Returning home gave Blake the chance to see that he could make a difference in the lives of the home team he coached, helped him reconnect with friends and discover his true purpose. It only took a determined young woman to wake him up to all the possibilities. Hope and faith are the greatest weapons in an individuals inner arsenal, they keep us going in the hardest of times.… (mehr)