Summary:
It's showtime.
After twelve years in the league, all Zach Murphy wants is a Super Bowl ring. He’s been about hard hits not smooth manners, about breaking quarterbacks not making small talk at cocktail parties. But now he’s shattered something else. After dumping a tray of drinks on the team owner’s snooty daughter and accidentally feeling up the Governor’s wife, his tenure with his team looks perilously short. And things are getting worse.
Life is looking up for Kelsie Carrington-Richmond. A onetime beauty pageant star and mean girl, she only recently stopped living out of her car. But those times have passed. Her finishing school for real men has a real shot, and the Seattle Lumberjacks have hired her to polish their roughest player.
Except…it’s Zach. Long ago she broke his heart. He’s just the beast she remembers—gruff, protective—but she’s nothing like the beauty from his past. Yet, getting knocked down happens, and getting back up makes a contender. And they both have the hearts of champions.
After twelve years in the league, all Zach Murphy wants is a Super Bowl ring. He’s been about hard hits not smooth manners, about breaking quarterbacks not making small talk at cocktail parties. But now he’s shattered something else. After dumping a tray of drinks on the team owner’s snooty daughter and accidentally feeling up the Governor’s wife, his tenure with his team looks perilously short. And things are getting worse.
Life is looking up for Kelsie Carrington-Richmond. A onetime beauty pageant star and mean girl, she only recently stopped living out of her car. But those times have passed. Her finishing school for real men has a real shot, and the Seattle Lumberjacks have hired her to polish their roughest player.
Except…it’s Zach. Long ago she broke his heart. He’s just the beast she remembers—gruff, protective—but she’s nothing like the beauty from his past. Yet, getting knocked down happens, and getting back up makes a contender. And they both have the hearts of champions.
Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 200 pages (E-book)
Source: Review Copy
Available Formats: E-book
Publication Date: March 25th 2013 by Boroughs Publishing Group
Earlier this year I signed up the Sports Romance Reading Challenge hosted by the AMAZING Anna over at Herding Cats & Burning Soup and ever since then I've been on the lookout for tours that fit the theme so luckily I got invited to host this one and I'm really glad I decided to join in.
Down By Contact was my first read by Jami Davenport and while it is the third book in the Seattle Lumberjacks series it completely stands on its own and served as a great introduction to the authors writing style. I was a little unsure of how much I would like this romance since contemporary romances aren't usually my genre of choice but this one was done really well.
I liked the characters even when I hated them. Especially Zach. He was such an arrogant pain in the rear for a good part of the book I kept wondering if he'd ever shape up and stop acting like a brat...so it's safe to say that I wasn't impressed by him or his actions at all for the first bit of the book but as he and Kelsie (who I thought had her iffy moments) started developing a relationship and he started mellowing out her really grew on me. Plus there were a couple moments in the book where he was just so incredibly sweet it was hard not to like him after all the changes he was making.
Kelsie was a good character too. While sometimes she would be a little snooty (I blame this on her previous mean girl status) she was really down to earth and kind. I liked that she wasn't a complete pushover and like that she was a woman who put her foot down.
The relationship between Kelsie and Zach was rife with chemistry and I loved how despite everything they just seemed to automatically work together even though in many ways they were opposites and probably should not have worked together. They both took what the other dished out and I was surprised by how "real" their love seemed to be.
I thought the plot was really well done. It's one that I haven't really come across before and I liked the whole idea of a sports star having to go to finishing school under the tutelage of his ex-flame was really good.
Overall, I loved this sports themed contemporary romance and am so glad I had the opportunity to review it for this tour. I'm definitely going to be reading more by Jami Davenport and can't wait to read the first two books in this series. I would recommend this to anyone who loves contemporary romance novels where the frog turns into a prince with a headstrong female lead.
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my free and honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are 100% my own.
Really Liked It!
★★★★
★★★★
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