Meet Graham Tettersaw, former star quarterback. He blew his first shot at success, but now he has a second chance at playing football . . . and at having a life.Graham’s not about to squander this new opportunity with a rising team. No way. They’re about to make his dreams come true, even If they did just add a weird clause that he’s supposed to pretend some random chick is his girlfriend.
Whatever.
Teams can be weird about stuff. But Graham can play along. After all, it’s all about forward progress.
In football, getting the ball down the field and scoring is goal number one. Life isn’t all that much different. That’s why Graham is hoping to do some scoring of his own off the field. Especially when he finds out the pretend girlfriend the team has picked out for him, Eden Vetterly, is beyond hot.
But it’s not all about sex.
Graham really likes Eden.
And she likes him too—a lot.
Too bad the team just changed all the rules.
Forward Progress is the first book in the new Men of Fall series, where football meets romance.
“I’ve read a lot of fake girlfriend/boyfriend romances, but Forward Progress stood out amongst them all to me.” – Cranky – The Book Curmudgeon
“This was a great start to the series and I cannot wait to see what S.R.Grey has in store for the Men of Fall.” – Erin Lewis
“Sweetness overload with some wonderful swoon and drama to keep you on your toes come together in this sexy football romance!” – Red Hatter Book Blog
Irritated, I grab a water from the mini-fridge, take a swig, and slam the bottle down on the table in the middle of the living room of the hotel suite I’m in.
“You’re fucking crazy, Jock,” I sneer.
“It wasn’t my idea, Graham,” he replies, unfazed by my outburst as he sits quietly on the sofa. “I told you the added stipulation in the new contract the Comets are offering was completely new to me too.”
“It’s fucking loco is what it is,” I grumble.
It’s true. This latest development in contract negotiations is truly nuts. They want me to pretend to have a fake girlfriend.
Are they off their rockers?
“How’s this even supposed to work?” I ask.
“We’re hammering out the details.”
“Great. Do I at least get to meet this mystery woman before I sign?”
“No. There’s no time for that. You will meet her, though, before the season begins.”
“Whatever,” I huff. “I can’t believe I’m supposed to pretend to be dating a girl I’ve never even seen. To top it off, I get to meet her just once, then I’m expected to act as if we’re in a serious relationship.”
“Pretty much,” Jock confirms.
This is bad, but there’s something more I’m struggling with—I’m supposed to also fucking move in with this pretend girlfriend.
Could it get any worse?
HOSTED BY:
3 stars
Graham Tettersaw is a former NFL quaterback who is looking to make a comeback on a new “minor league” team called the Columbus Comets. He’s made some mistakes in his past, which is why no NFL team is interested, so Graham is intent on cleaning up his image and getting back on the gridiron.
The team decides he needs to have a girlfriend, and his agent, Jock, finds him the perfect girl, in Eden Vetterly. She works at a diner in town and takes care of her 15-year old brother, since their father passed away.
Graham and Eden has instant chemistry, and their fake relationship quickly turns real. But the team has them both under contract is pulling all the strings in their relationship, and when Graham’s popularity with the ladies takes off, he’s told to end things with Eden.
This is the biggest issue, to me, with this book. I have a hard time believing that any team, major league or minor, would want that much control over an athlete. If anything, I would think a team would want its athletes happy, and being in a loving relationship made Graham happy. The fact that the team wanted to exploit Graham’s sex appeal, while ruining a relationship, just felt – well – not genuine.
I did like the characters in this story. Eden is a very strong lead. She’s very optimistic, even when life has her down. She was sweet and loving. Her brother, Paul, was a sweet character as well. I did really like Graham as well. He was a caring brother, and excited that he was going to be an uncle.
One other compliant – this is the beginning of a new book series about the Comets and we really didn’t meet any of the other characters who will be introduced. I found that to be a little odd. No locker room smack talk.
Overall, this book was pretty good, and if you’re not a football fan, you can probably get past the things that bugged me.
