REVIEW: Beauty and the Running Back by Colleen Masters

Beauty and the Running Back by Colleen Masters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

Dean Carter 

No girl is off-limits to Rayburn University’s star running back. Not even the coach’s daughter. 

Hell, I’m about to bring this school an NCAA Championship, the least I’m owed is a piece of that sweet little home-grown ass of hers. 

For the first time in my life, something about this girl has me reeling. I can’t shake the thought of her innocent smile, the smell of her perfume, or the way her hips sway mockingly back and forth as she walks away from me. 

I know she wants me, I know she can barely help herself, I know because of the way her body betrays her every time we touch…but the wrath of her father—my coach—stops her dead in her tracks. Every. Time. 

I’ve lived my entire life one yard at a time, taking what I want, when I want it, and accepting nothing less. There are no consequences when you’re a campus god. 

There’s nothing that can stop me, on or off the field, from getting this girl. 


Jessa Cahill 

Sure, on the surface Dean Carter seems like the stereotypical asshole jock, the sorority-wet-t-shirt-contest-loving frat boy, the womanizing man-slut. 

But I know that deep down, underneath the football pads and layers of tattooed-muscle, there’s a man worth losing everything for. 

My father would kill us both if he found out that I let Dean “know me” that way. 

He’d murder us if he found out my tutoring sessions with Dean involved learning more than just English literature… 

A guy like Dean can be addictive, dangerous, sexually exquisite…but all actions have consequences. 


Beauty and the Running Back is a full-length contemporary sports romance novel. This book involves a lot of hot steamy sex, and a little football. 18+, HEA, no cliff. 

This was just what you’d imagine it would be…jock falls for creative type who happens to be the coach’s daughter…typical…right? In a way, yes. It has what you would typically find…drama with her dad, sneaking around…etc; but at the same time, I found this to be pleasantly surprising!

Yes, it’s firmly stated that Dean doesn’t do relationships and can have any girl he wants. But what I loved was that while you do see him flirt early on, once he met Jessa, she was the only girl he could think of, and he had no problems focusing on just her. And before he knew it, they were in a relationship…and he was ok with that.

I also loved how Dean was clever and used her dad's attitude against him to get permission to be around Jessa...it was just really refreshing to see Dean not be portrayed as the typical "stupid jock". 

Some spoilers may follow, so you’ve been warned…while I had the thought that she might end up pregnant, I totally didn’t expect what actually happened. But I loved the way Dean stepped up and how no matter what, he wanted Jessa. And when he found out some things that Jessa had been keeping from her, yes, he was hurt and angry, but he didn’t hold a grudge and treat her like crap. And that was nice. Because while those types of books do work, it was just nice to see a guy NOT like that in a book.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable book by Colleen Masters.


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