On another episode of: Sam plays Review Catch Up–let’s talking about one of my favorite books of the year! I’ve gushed a lot about this book on my social medias, but I thought it was time to bring the love over to the storytellers here on Fictionally Sam. Beauty and the Baller is an explosively romantic sport romance that you definitely need in your life–let me gush to you why!
Genres: Sports RomancePublisher: Montlake
Publication Date: March 29th 2022
Source: ARC
Format: e-book
An NFL quarterback turned small-town coach gets sacked by a Texas beauty queen in this swoony, passionate romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills.
Gorgeous, talented, and brilliant, NFL quarterback Ronan Smith has the world in his hands. But after losing his career and his fiancée in a car accident, he falls into a pit of grief and bad choices. When a mysterious girl shows up to his party, he feels drawn to her and makes her his…for one night.
Former beauty queen Nova Morgan is on a mission. Scantily clad as a princess from a galaxy far, far away, she sneaks into a high-profile party to capture the attention of her favorite quarterback. But her hopes crash after an awful one-night stand.
Fast-forward two years. Broke and desperate, Nova returns home to Blue Belle, Texas, where, by a cosmic twist of fate, her broody neighbor is none other than Ronan, the shiny new football coach everyone adores. But he has no idea who she is.
The booster club keeps shoving women at Ronan to keep him in town. His solution? He proposes fake dating to Nova. But things heat up for real under these Friday-night lights when he realizes she’s the one who slipped away.
Has this jaded beauty found her forever baller, or will his past keep them apart?
“Now, if she’d said ‘bless your heart,’ we might have had a tussle. Everyone knows what that means. It’s pity with a dash of condescension.”
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve read an Ilsa Madden-Mills book, and reading Beauty and the Baller feels like a coming home. A small town romance about moving on, starting over, and giving into love again—Beauty and the Baller tells the story of Nova, a former beauty queen who is forced to move back to her small town after the death of her mother, and Ronan, the former NFL hotshot turned High School Coach who has a past that he has never been fully able to shake. With an awkward as all get out meet-cute, these two take a journey that none of them really bargained for. Honestly, Mills throws it out of the park with this small town romance, to the point where I couldn’t stop thinking about these characters. Nova and Ronan are a pair that you can’t help but root for as they navigate their future together all the while working on coming to peace with their past.
One of the many things I love about Mill’s writing, is how subtle yet explosive her romance is. She brings such a lyrical and enchanting spin to her contemporary romances to the point where the authenticity of the story has a whole is heightened in the most beautiful ways. I absolutely adored this book—from our main characters, the setting (Can I live in Blue Belle?!), all the way to the all too realistic side characters that you can’t help but root for as they too find their HEA.
If you haven’t gotten your hands on this stellar book yet—what are you waiting for?! I promise you–you will swoon, laugh, and swoon some more as Ronan and Nova steal your heart, one darling at a time 😉
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