Skin in the Game by Jackie Barbosa

Book Description:

Angela Peterson was always the quiet, shy kid growing up in Harper Falls, crushing on the high school quarterback and honing her football strategy skills. Now grown up and coaching the high school team, she’s shocked when that same sexy quarterback returns to Harper Falls asks her back to his hotel room. And then tries to steal her job.

Injured NFL quarterback Cade Reynolds is in Harper Falls to take over as interim head coach, and he never thought the tall, blond bombshell he propositioned would offer up any resistance. Not to a repeat of the amazingly wild night they shared and certainly not to his coaching position.

But the Harper Falls High Eagles are Angie’s team, and even the hometown hero won’t take that away from her, no matter how hot he is. As the two engage in a battle of wits and wills, this is one game neither is prepared to lose.

All I have to say about Cade Reynolds:

And for Angie:


I straight up love when women excel in a "mans" profession! Angie was a kickass football coach who knew her sh*t! She went from high school ugly duckling to hot for teacher and the best football coach her school had! Love it.

Cade Reynolds was the high school quarterback and every teenage (and I'm sure grown woman's) wet dream. He later became an NFL quarterback and was still every woman's wet dream.

Pretty much what we have here is a case of Angie having a secret crush on the popular quarterback who doesn't even remember her name. They re-meet 16 years later when Cade is back home for a few weeks to help his high school coach out while he's on sick leave. After running into each other and Angie realizing he doesn't recognize her, she decides to accept his offer for a date to have a one time fling (for old crush times sake) thinking surely he'll be gone by morning and he'll never find out who she is and she'll never have to see him again. Wrong. When it all comes out that he is actually helping her coach the team, sparks fly. And by sparks I mean angry sparks as well as some serious sexual tension.

This was a pretty good read. While slightly predictable, it was a page turner that I never wanted to put down. The tension between Angie and Cade was great. There was great writing, good supporting characters and a decent plot. I enjoyed how Cade came to realize the there was wiggle room in his life's dreams and he didn't have to give the girl up for football. And Angie, even though she was stubborn for a bit, also realized she could have her dreams and Cade too. (I had a whole having cake and eating it too pun but it just went way wrong... )

anyway... The moral of the review is that I really liked this book and since I was on vacation and had a mild book funk, I'm really glad I came across this one on my kindle since it helped me out of that funk! :-)


ARC courtesy of Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.