Review: Only on Gameday

Only on Gameday by Kristen Callihan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Meet August 'Augie' Luck, first draft NFL Quarterback, part of an American Football dynasty, fancy house in LA, sponsorship coming out of his ears (not literally), and stunningly good-looking to boot. So why is he suddenly acting out of character standing on a table and dancing the funky chicken at a black-tie event?

Augie's mother is best friends with Penelope Morrow's mother and the two families have been in and out of each other's houses (possibly in Colorado) their entire lives. Which is why no-one quite understands why Penelope and Augie seem to do everything in their power to avoid each other, even leaving the room when the other enters.

Penny is unhappy, particularly with her mother, because she inherited her grandparents' beautiful home in LA but as a student she can't afford to pay the property taxes and her mother won't lend her the money. To put this into perspective it's a multi-million dollar house on an acre of land in Brentwood designed by Cliff May, so the property taxes are hundreds of thousands of dollars (which is mad for a Brit because in my London borough the maximum council tax anyone would pay on a multi-million pound house is just over £4,000 - I looked it up).

After Penny sobs all this into Augie's mother's shoulder (she is visiting to wish her happy birthday), Augie has a cunning plan. To reassure his agent and the Coach that he has turned over a new, more respectable, leaf he and Penny should get fake engaged and he can pay her taxes, or lend her the money. What neither of them realise is that have each fancied the pants off each other for years - hence the avoidance tactics.

Of course, once they are forced to spend time together they quickly start dating for real.

I feel like a complete hypocrite, I hate manufactured angst and the unrealistic conflict that breaks the couple up before they get back together in romances ... but this felt lacking in conflict. I think maybe I am expecting a Kristen Callihan book to be like a Sarina Bowen book and they are two very different styles.

This feels like each of Augie's siblings (all of whom are named after the month in which they were born *sigh*) will eventually get their own books.

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